So any English literature which does not have a "Modern English" translation is elitist? Or is it just Shakespeare? (who was within his time decidely non-elitist. His plays were very much written for the "common" people.)
So where does this Modern English even begin? 50 years ago? 100? Who gets to make this decision? Do we have to rewrite all literature every few decades or so to keep it non-elitist? Do we have to take a survey to make sure that everyone can understand it just right first? Because if we exlude someone they might just consider the rewrite elitist.
And are you really familiar enough with foreign translations of Shakespeare to make the claim that they are all relatively modern? AFAIK most of the commonly used foreign translations were themselves done at least a couple hundred years ago. Hardly modern.
And I have no idea where you get this notion that "people who speak other languages enjoy Shakespeare much more" to begin with. This is news to me. I've been to tons of jam-packed performances of Shakespeare filled with American audiences who appeared to be enjoying it just fine. And as far as I saw none of them were saying "Pip Pip", smoking a pipe, wearing a monocle, and filling in the London Times Sunday crossword puzzle in the space of 15 minutes.
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So any English literature which does not have a "Modern English" translation is elitist? Or is it just Shakespeare? (who was within his time decidely non-elitist. His plays were very much written for the "common" people.) So where does this Modern English even begin? 50 years ago? 100? Who gets to make this decision? Do we have to rewrite all literature every few decades or so to keep it non-elitist? Do we have to take a survey to make sure that everyone can understand it just right first? Because if we exlude someone they might just consider the rewrite elitist. And are you really familiar enough with foreign translations of Shakespeare to make the claim that they are all relatively modern? AFAIK most of the commonly used foreign translations were themselves done at least a couple hundred years ago. Hardly modern. And I have no idea where you get this notion that "people who speak other languages enjoy Shakespeare much more" to begin with. This is news to me. I've been to tons of jam-packed performances of Shakespeare filled with American audiences who appeared to be enjoying it just fine. And as far as I saw none of them were saying "Pip Pip", smoking a pipe, wearing a monocle, and filling in the London Times Sunday crossword puzzle in the space of 15 minutes.