News

Content News:

I have now added a new translation of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass to the site, and George Theodoridis’ new translation of Menander’s Dyskolos or The Grouch. I have added a new collection of my own poetry entitled Another Nature, as well as a key poem, Blake, to the Borges’ translations, and I am now translating (Book IX) Lucan’s Pharsalia, his great work on the Civil War, which saw Julius Caesar’s victory over Pompey. The task of translation will occupy much of 2014.

Technical News:

I have previously added both EPUB (.epub) and Mobi (.mobi) download format options, for all texts, and as of March 1st have refreshed the Mobi files to correct some minor formatting errors. Both are of course free of DRM (Rights Management). Mobi is the format of choice for Kindle, and Nexus/Android e-book readers; EPUB is the format for iPad/iPhone. Most devices will also handle PDF files. Please note that all my downloads are zipped files, and need unzipping on your target device, or on a PC before transferring to your device via USB port etc. Basic Kindles for example may not support zipped files directly, though the Kindle Fire does. You can check out what your device supports via Internet search.

If you want to download rather than browse online, then use/install a suitable reader/viewer for your device, preferably one that follows internal hyperlinks in the text correctly, and allows you to backtrack to the last page you came from. For example, if you are using a Nexus 7 (Android-based system) tablet as I am, then I  can recommend the File Manager App for folder and file manipulation, and the FBReader App for e-book reading. The latter is a robust and functional product, handles .mobi files well, and can switch to white on black text for non-disruptive night-time reading! For PDF files try the Adobe Reader App or the built-in PDF reader. Continuous prose files like Chateaubriand’s Memoirs or Dante’s Divine Comedy look fine, however please note that poetry formatting sometimes results in verses being broken across screen pages, depending on reader mechanism and font size.

To create the .mobi files downloadable here, I use the free and fast Auto Kindle Converter on .html files. For EPUB I use the free Calibre software on .html files, and then edit the resulting .epub files with the free editor Sigil. The outputs may need tailoring to your specific e-book reader or device, so Sigil is very helpful (you could split files, for example if you have size limits). You can edit my .epub files, or start from scratch using my html etc. You can also use Calibre to convert between .mobi and .epub and back, allowing use of Sigil as an editor for the .mobi format. You might also wish to try the free online converter at the  Online-Convert site which has been reported to me as effective for large files.

Fonts across the site have been standardised, and are tested for readability across latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari. Please note that for best reading results you should always set your personal browser preferences for default font sizes, and zoom settings, where the browser preference options allow you to do so. If you are still not happy with font sizes on any of the site pages then use Control and + and Control and - keys to adjust font size, or use the page zoom feature on your browser. It is well worth exploring all the font size preferences and options on your browser and setting them to suit the devices you are using.

Self-extracting Zip files have been provided as an option for all downloads, by popular request. These are .exe files which when run unzip the file to the directory you choose. These .exe file downloads may be blocked by some systems for security reasons, but if your system allows them they mean you don’t need unzip software to handle the download.

My main Poetry In Translation site is www.poetryintranslation.com. All previous links directed at my old main domain www.tonykline.co.uk are now automatically mapped on to the new domain www.poetryintranslation.com (i.e. links to the old site scattered around the the Net will still continue to work correctly, and map to the exact corresponding page on the new site).