The Library of Interlinear Texts

Welcome to Interlinear Texts Library!

To contribute with our mission to bring literature to language learning through Interlinear Books, we seek to spread the use of Interlinear texts more generally.

DeclaraçãoDeclaration
UniversalUniversal
dosof
Direitos HumanosHuman Rights

United Nations

Universal Declaration of Human Rights - perhaps the single most famous document released by the United Nations, translated from Portuguese to English in Interlinear.
世界ShìjièThe World
人权rénquánhuman rights
宣言xuānyándeclaration

United Nations

Universal Declaration of Human Rights - perhaps the single most famous document released by the United Nations, translated from Chinese (one of the original UN languages) to English in Interlinear.
SilentiumSilentium

Ф. И. Тютчев

The poem Silentium - one of the most well-known poems in the Russian language. It is written in older Russian orthography, and lets you enjoy some authentic Russian from the XIXth century.
EnA
buddhistiskBuddhist
fantasifantasy

Karin Boye

Can you understand Swedish poetry? Try it out by reading this Swedish poem 'A Buddhist Fantasy' ("En buddhistisk fantasi'), by one of the most famous Swedish poets Karin Boye. The poem evokes feelings of mystery and ambiguity, and it strongly narrates first person experience.
LaThe
barcaboat
milagrosawonderful

Delmira Agustini

Read riveting poetry in Spanish! The Uruguayan Modernist poet Delmira Agustini translated from Spanish to English in Interlinear.
AnilloRing

Delmira Agustini

Read in Spanish this interesting, bizarre, captivating modernist poem by the Uruguayan female poet Delmira Agustini.
AutopsicografiaAutopsychography

Fernando Pessoa

Read in Portuguese the short poem by a famous author Fernando Pessoa and his poem Autopsychography, which features, in a style pertinent to the poet, a play with words and meanings.
Уже(It is) already
второйtwo (o'clock)

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Read in Russian with English translation the poetry of one of the most famous Russian poets of all times: Маяковский, Владимир Владимирович. A fragment of his larger poem. In Interlinear.
SousUnder
lethe
pontbridge
MirabeauMirabeau
couleflows
la SeineSeine

Guillaume Apollinaire

Read a famous poem by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in French with an Interlinear translation. This poem is also interesting because it uses a technique called sound symbolism, when the word's sound reinforces the meaning of the words. Glad to bring this fine example of French poetry for the first time in the bilingual Interlinear format.
JeI
t'adoreadore you
à l'égal deequally to
lathe
voûtevault
nocturnenocturnal

Charles Baudelaire

Try reading the most famous French poetry - in this case, a poem by Charles Baudelaire in the Interlinear format. This not only allows you to enjoy the original, but also to look up the translation of each word or expression you do not understand. This continues our mission to bring more bilingual poetry.
Franz
Kafka
about
books

Franz Kafka

This is a quotation by Franz Kafka over what kind of books he thinks people should read. Have a look to see if you agree.
DenThe
lilleLittle
PigeGirl
medwith
Svovlstikkerne(the) Matches

Hans Christian Andersen

Here you can read for free the Interlinear translation of the original story The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, translated from Danish to English.
IaThe
novanew
vestersclothes
iosof the
Cesaremperor

Hans Christian Andersen

Sambahsa is an interesting constructed language, and here you can read an Interlinear translation from Sambahsa to English of a famous Danish story. Give it a go!
DieThe
WichtelmännerElves

The Brothers Grimm

A Christmas story about a group of Elves performing magic deeds. A nice bilingual read in German.
LeThe
champignonmushroom
etand
lethe
glandacorn

Folk tale

We revived a centuries-old translation from French of a very text. Have a look at our transcribed and edited version: it includes the original story with the original word order, and a modified and updated translation.
IlThe
PescatoreFisher
eand
ilthe
piccololittle
pescefish

Folk tale

We revived a centuries-old translation from Italian of an old text. Very few known copies of this translation had remained - yet we managed to find one in an obscure place and we are presenting it to you.
10 Great Quotations by Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

What did Tolstoy think about immigration? Or about the death penalty? In this post, we want to share with you some great quotations by Leo Tolstoy, which were kindly hand-picked by Walt from @TolstoySays on Twitter. We have made Interlinear translations, so as to allow you to read them in Tolstoy's powerful original Russian language. Check out @Tolstoysays for more quotes, and also, if you're interested in reading Tolstoy in Russian, see our book 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' by Leo Tolstoy translated in Interlinear.
JactatorThe Boaster

Aesop

We revived a centuries-old translation from Latin of a milenia-old text. Have a look at our transcribed and edited version!
דאָס
dos
The
גאָלדענע
goldenegolden
פֿישעלע
fishelefish

Folk tale

This is a bilingual text of a Yiddish folk tale. It is entirely in Yiddish, and translated to English through the Interlinear method. Follow the adventures of a man with a golden fish - and learn Yiddish along the way!
ТриThree
вопросаquestions

Leo Tolstoy

Written in the form of a fairy tale, this simple parable discusses some important questions of ones life. Leo Tolstoy is a master of Russian literature, and we have his full Interlinear Russian book of Tolstoy on our website. Have a look at this story.
PūgaBlizzard
kalnuosein the mountains

Jonas Biliūnas

Biliūnas had a short and difficult life, dying at the age of 28. Having lost both his parents at the age of 14, he soon lost material support from his relatives because he refused to study theology. He was expelled from university because of his anti-tsarist pro-Lithuanian activities, and eventually contracted phthisis, but, instead of giving up, started studying what he really loved - literature. See one of his stories here.
Лукоморье
Lukomorye

Alexander Pushkin

Pushkin's Lukomorye forms a prologue to his larger work ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’, and it tells a story about a fantastic place of miracles and magical animals. This story is very well known by Russians, and it represents the other part of Pushkin’s writings: magical and miraculous. This stands very well next to his historical/biographical and love poetry, which we have revealed in the first two posts. Have a look.
Памятник
Monument
Exegi Monumentum

Alexander Pushkin

This is an Interlinear translation of the poem Monument, commonly understood as Pushkin’s poetic testament. This is what Professor Catriona Kelly (New College; Oxford University) said about it in her book on Russian literature:
In only five stanzas and twenty lines, the poem raises seven themes of universal resonance in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian culture. These are: memorials to the famous as expressions of state power and cultural authority; a writer’s ‘monument’ in the sense of his posthumous reputation; other writers as a writer’s ideal readers; a writer’s role as teacher to his nation; the writer as a member of polite society; the part played by literature in colonizing, or civilizing, barbarian nations; the relationship between writing and religious experience.
TheDie
ThreeDrei
BearsBären

Robert Southey

This is our first ever Interlinear translation made TO German, in contrast to our previous translations that were made to TO English. A fun and interesting fairy tale by Robert Southey in the original English language, translated to German.
Soldier's Dreams Haiku

Matsuo Bashô

This haiku is one of the most famous haikus from Oku no Hosomichi (おくのほそ道, or the Narrow Road to the Interior) – a major text in classical Japanese literature. It was written at the site of a destroyed capital. It is also the place where Bashô’s favourite hero was killed. The haiku has an almost eerie feeling to it, and reminds one of the temporary nature of all achievement and the vanity of war. The trickiest word comes last: ato can mean ‘a sign’, ‘remnant’, or ‘trace’.
Autumn Road Haiku

Matsuo Bashô

This haiku is about the loneliness that one can feel when traveling on a road alone in the autumn. These emotions are familiar to many people reading the haiku today, but they were written more than three hunded years ago. This particular haiku is also a bit more tricky to understand until you learn that Japanese puts its propositions in the end rather than the beginning: thus the second line could also be translated as ‘without a person going (on it)‘. Also notice the common pattern Bashô uses in his haiku: the first and third lines are alike in all three of them here.
Frog Haiku

Matsuo Bashô

This haiku is thought to be the most famous Japanese haiku of all time. It was composed by Matsuo Bashô in around 1681-1686. The haiku has dozens of different translations. It has also been subject to many literary arguments, e.g., over whether there is a single frog or multiple ones (the Japanese language does not distinguish the two, but Bashô’s own illustrations allegedly indicated just one). The haiku is rather striking for its simplicity, and its ability to very succintly convey feeling.
Я
I
вас любил:
loved you:
любовь
the love
еще
still
быть может
may be

Alexander Pushkin

A poem written in 1829 by Alexander Pushkin (Александр Сергеевич Пушкин): is the father of Russian literature and the greatest Russian poet. Read it entirely in a bilingual book Interlinear format.
Я
I
помню
remember
чудное
the magical
мгновенье
moment

Alexander Pushkin

Most Russians would say that Alexander Pushkin (Александр Сергеевич Пушкин) is the father of Russian literature and the greatest Russian poet. Pushkin partially reached his position because of his masterful use of the Russian language – he conclusively showed that Russian was suitable not only for everyday conversation, but also for complicated literary expression. But can you understand it?To allow you to do this, we have made an Interlinear translation – a unit by unit translation from Russian to English.
AnnenSecond
verdenskrigWorld War

Norwegian Wikipedia

Read the first Interlinear translation of non-fiction: an interesting article about the Second World War.
CendrillonCinderella

Charles Perrault

Cinderella has become one of the most famous fairy tales of all times. But can you read a famous original version of the story Cendrillon written by Charles Perrault in 1697 in French? This Interlinear translation includes its text in two languages and attempts to allow you do to so, so you can experience the story about the persecuted heroine, from which the ideas of a pumpkin, the fairy godmother and the glass slippers arose and took over. By reading it, you can also find some controversial parts of the story, and learn surprising facts.
МарьяMarya
МоревнаMorevna

Russian folk tale

The famous folk tale Marya Morevna (also known in English speaking countries as ‘The Death of Koschei the Deathless’) entirely in its original Russian language and with Interlinear translations. This provides not only good Russian practice, but also an excellent introduction into Russian folk tales (where things happen thrice, and magic accompanies scenes of violence, depictions of family life and Russian values).
RumpelstilzchenRumpelstiltskin

The Brothers Grimm

The famous fairytale Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm entirely in German.
KeiserensEmperor's
nyenew
klæderclothes

Hans Christian Andersen

Here you can read for free the Interlinear translation of the famous story by Hans Christian Andersen Emperor’s New Clothes from Danish to English.