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Comment by plouffy | Hacker News Reader

It's a shame because of the topic seems fascinating but I couldn't read past the first paragraph. Maybe it's because I'm on my phone and somewhat distracted but the article seems very badly written.

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I wouldn't say badly written, but it's sort of an older style of prose. With longer, more complex sentences, and a different use of punctuation.

If you read books from mid 20th century and before you find that sort of style which requires more focus than we are accustomed today on the internet.

I'm not convinced.

> In the past, the severed heads of these Berber bandits covered the ground of the palace at Sijilmasa; there were highwaymen, then, who stopped you across the Sahara en route to the Land of the Blacks.

I don't know what's trying to be said here.

What's confusing you?

It is a confusing sentence. Semicolons are stupid and shouldn't be used anymore. It has a random "then" thrown in there for no reason.

A bit poetic maybe, but it sounds fine to me. Maybe because English is not my first language.

I find the sentence very confusing, but I don't think it has anything to do with semicolons. It just seems like unclear writing to me.

Try reading it out loud. Keep in mind that the original is in French and this is a translation of that French text so you are probably more at war with the translator than with the writer. Even so, to me - also a non-native English speaker - there wasn't a sentence in the article that I could not understand, sometimes it just takes a bit more effort.

I am not a native speaker and always eager to improve. I understood the "then" as "at that time (in the past)". Is that wrong?

That is correct.

Is english your native language? This seems like a pretty straightforward sentence.

why does every article have someone like you commenting on it? what value does this add to the conversation about this topic? is this your idea of an issue submission? do you think the author will rewrite the article now? do you think your reading aesthetic is generic enough that this is a useful warning to others? do you think that difficult texts shouldn't be read?

like literally I don't know the answer to any of these questions and I am struck by them every single time I open the comments to almost any non-tech post (of course the tech posts have their own flavor of perennial criticisms).

what compels someone to complain about free content. I will never understand.

Why the knee jerk reaction? It is not that easy to read, maybe only to non-native speakers like me or OP. I still read it, beautiful window to the past we can't ever experience, but it required focus and re-reading some sentences. Is it hard to understand that world is full of people that are different in every possible way to you?

Definitely not for usual glancing through

I immediately got the impression that this was written by a non-native speaker. Looking at the guy's name and re-reading the text, it is clear that they are French

EDIT: "For if they are not your guides and your guards, they will rob you."

I'm guessing that this weird sentence comes from "car si ils ne sont pas vos guides et gardes, ils vous deroberont"- which is quite natural in french

Makes sense, since as a native French speaker I had no difficulties reading this article.

The only thing which I find slightly odd with that sentence is beginning it with a conjunction. Removing this could improve the sentence. Otherwise, I think it's perfectly fine.

Yeah me too.

It's a translated excerpt from a book written in French: "Excerpted from The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages by François-Xavier Fauvelle, translated by Troy Tice, and illustrated by Roland Sárkány. Originally titled Le rhinocéros d’or."

At the end it says it is translated from French. It seems like the translator went for fidelity to the original over readability in English.

I have to agree. There’s something about the way this is written, maybe the 2nd person voice, that makes it feel confusing and disjointed.

I thought it was just fine and quite interesting.

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