The P&V translations (Russian to English) of both Crime and Punishment and Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Both these books have made me fall in love with Dostoevsky’s writing. I also liked the Hapgood translation (French to English) of Le Miserables by Victor Hugo.

The accursed kings by Maurice Druon, translated by Humphrey Hare Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward FitzGerald In a Dark Wood Wandering by Hella S. Haasse, translated by Lewis C. Kaplan Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney …among others

All in English because I’m an Anglo moron who only speaks one language.

Crime and Punishment (Ready translation)

The Stranger (Ward translation)

Ficciones

Literally anything by Hermann Hesse (maybe my favorite author)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera was published in French and then English before being published in its original Czech.

The Lunar Trilogy by Jerzy Zulawski. And it’s a terrible translation (as far as I can tell without being able to read the original Polish). It’s very rough, sloppy english, and filled with trivial errors. However, the original story still shines through, and it seems like the translator mostly stuck with the original phrasing, resulting in awkward english, but an interesting view of the original. So… fine. (It’s the basis for my favorite movie, and it was a long wait to get any translation at all.)

I’ve read the Vietnamese classic Tale of Kieu in two translations, one trying to stick to the original language closer than the other, and it’s an interesting comparison.

Other favorites:

The Obscene Bird of Night, The Baron in The Trees, Collected stories of Bruno Schulz, Collected stories of Daniil Kharms