Standalone thread on the latter, for yr reference: Michael Hofmann: poet, translator, critic
― Bobby Ono Bland (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 11 October 2014 17:07 (nine years ago) link
http://www.asymptotejournal.com/article.php?cat=Special_Feature&id=158&curr_index=29&curPage=current
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 9 January 2015 12:03 (nine years ago) link
Really enjoyed that, thanks!
― .robin., Friday, 9 January 2015 14:17 (nine years ago) link
Funnily enough I came across an old bilingual anthology of modern Russian poetry later in the day while I was browsing at Notting Hill book exchange - checked the contents and there was no Shamalov.
Didn't get it but I'm counting the days to get hold of this one. I assume this will have poets from the Perestroika-era and also some Lermontov.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 10 January 2015 11:16 (nine years ago) link
Thanks for that link.
― Zings of Oblivion (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 January 2015 11:39 (nine years ago) link
This is a talk on the book.
http://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/events/2015/3/russian-twentieth-century-poetry
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 16 February 2015 13:15 (nine years ago) link
Booked that - quite excited. I rarely go to literary talks or poetry readings.
This is a good piece on Platonov, and it has a further translation of Chevengur. I hope to read the full thing one day.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 19 February 2015 09:26 (nine years ago) link
On Sir Thomas Orquart: http://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2015/03/12/the-cromartian/#more-5691
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 20 March 2015 10:48 (nine years ago) link
Ur-
Richard Zenith Interview: http://www.asymptotejournal.com/interview/an-interview-with-richard-zenith/
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 15 October 2015 15:15 (eight years ago) link
No idea how accurate they are, but really enjoyed David Magarshack's trans The Idiot, Ann Goldstein's version of the Neapolitan Novels, Natasha Wimmer's take on 2666, and Norman Thomas Di Giovanni's work with Borges. Borges does seem as close to translator-proof as possible, but NTDG mixes rule.
― dow, Thursday, 15 October 2015 18:03 (eight years ago) link
His widow-executrix does not agree, on either count.
― dow, Thursday, 15 October 2015 18:07 (eight years ago) link
Yet another link from Asymptote (its like translator porn) but I love this review. The book is interesting and its written by one of Krasznahorkai's translators, writing about a key-looking piece of the modernist puzzle.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 18 October 2015 20:10 (eight years ago) link
http://www.wsj.com/articles/6-esteemed-literary-translators-in-their-own-words-1458748414
So cool to see Hofmann is working on Berlin Alexanderplatz.
Castle Gripsholm and Death Sentence are such fantastic books in their own ways. Real gifts to the world.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 25 March 2016 12:13 (eight years ago) link
Was Alexanderplatz even translated into English before?
― Woke Up Scully (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 25 March 2016 13:11 (eight years ago) link
only know of the the early jolas trans.
― no lime tangier, Friday, 25 March 2016 13:12 (eight years ago) link
...which is the one i have, complete with photo section from the fassbinder film. dunno if the penguin i see around is a different translation or not.
― no lime tangier, Friday, 25 March 2016 13:14 (eight years ago) link
...or tv series if you prefer (scored a copy for 15 pounds recently!)
― no lime tangier, Friday, 25 March 2016 13:16 (eight years ago) link
I vaguely remember seeing that translation but thinking it was cheesy for some reason.
― Woke Up Scully (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 25 March 2016 13:17 (eight years ago) link
no lime re: TV adap, you are in for a treat!
Was Alexanderplatz even translated into English before?― Woke Up Scully (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 25 March 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Woke Up Scully (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 25 March 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Oh yes its been in circulation for a long time. Read it about ten years ago. Not Penguin, can't remember it had a red cover.
I would say its the only Ulysses type novel I am interested in revisiting (including Ulysses in the not bothered).
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 25 March 2016 16:51 (eight years ago) link
I think the Jolas translation is the only one in print; it's nice to have a version by one of Döblin's contemporaries, but I'm glad to hear that it'll have a supplement. I think NYRB is finally coming out with an English collection of Döblin's stories this year, too.
― one way street, Friday, 25 March 2016 18:59 (eight years ago) link
Yes - really looking forward to that, and there is this too, from their Calligrams series
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 25 March 2016 19:14 (eight years ago) link
https://theuntranslated.wordpress.com/2016/03/25/interview-with-miguel-part-1-on-literature-in-portuguese-translated-and-untranslated-2/
Don't know where else to put it - but this interview with a very cranky blogger - is terrific and there are a good dozen books that I'd love to see translated.
Great on Portuguese from Portugal and Brazil, and also on Guimaraes Rosa's novel - which is one of those I know about and love to see translated.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 26 March 2016 23:26 (eight years ago) link
Just finished Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah, which I picked up on a whim - very interesting read, the descriptions of Tanzania 100 years ago felt vivid enough that I got that feeling of being a child again reading a book where you don't know what's going to happen next because you literally don't know what the possibilities are. Something I also get from Amin Maalouf.
Next up is Two Lives, my first William Trevor.
― .robin., Sunday, 27 March 2016 04:16 (eight years ago) link
William Trevor is great, but I found Two Lives one of his least interesting books, despite all the praise. Go with a volumeof his hort stories, they're brilliant.
― like Uber, but for underpants (James Morrison), Sunday, 27 March 2016 10:14 (eight years ago) link
this thread is gonna make me buy more books that I'll look at and go "hope I get to that one before I die" about. I'm a Margaret Jull Costa fan, she sure does keep busy. on the other side of the coin, I don't speak German so I'm not sure, but Tobias Shnettler, who translated my book into German, asked such great and intelligent and thorough questions during the process that I would be surprised if he isn't an ace translator
― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 27 March 2016 12:04 (eight years ago) link
Funnily enough I have a Margaret Jull Costa translation ready to go - picked up Juan Jose Saer's The Witness from the library just yesterday.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 27 March 2016 12:06 (eight years ago) link
Looked up Tobias Schnettler, and he seems to have translated you, David Cronenberg and Lena Dunham. An odd mix.
― like Uber, but for underpants (James Morrison), Sunday, 27 March 2016 22:30 (eight years ago) link
― like Uber, but for underpants (James Morrison), Sunday, March 27, 2016 11:14 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Thanks! Quite enjoyed Reading Turgenev regardless, but I'll definitely look out for the short stories.
― .robin., Monday, 28 March 2016 14:42 (eight years ago) link
strictly millionaires
(kidding hard, actually, they wanted me to do a reading/q&a tour over there but blanched at providing any budget at all for it)
― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 28 March 2016 22:19 (eight years ago) link
Tim Parks does not trust William Weaver:
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/28/primo-levi-minefield-an-exchange/
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 08:52 (seven years ago) link
All the recent Italo Calvino translations were done by either Weaver or Parks--"Perhaps when I find time and energy I will put together an article on Weaver’s work and reputation. It is long overdue." This should be interesting!
― like Uber, but for underpants (James Morrison), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 22:47 (seven years ago) link
(I am pleased to report that I have had some e-mail contact with Margaret Jull Costa as part of my Book of Disquiet project (as mentioned on the Pessoa thread) and she gives every indication of being delightful.)
― Tim, Friday, 15 April 2016 09:08 (seven years ago) link
I missed this post but am so starstruck, she is amazing
― though she denies it to the press, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Tuesday, 6 December 2016 19:27 (seven years ago) link
The Robin Buss translation of Count of Monte Cristo, which I read this summer, was so delightful that I planned to write him a fan letter as soon as I finished it. Was then peeved to find out he died in 2006.
Nonetheless - think I'll pick up some of his other translations.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 6 December 2016 22:34 (seven years ago) link
Good interview with Lucy North, whose translations I've not read although managing to definitely given me an IN to the female Japanese writers she talks about.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 August 2017 19:01 (six years ago) link
Ooh, nice one
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 17 August 2017 00:06 (six years ago) link
I just read a Kawakami translated by someone else, and liked it a lot (10p dream sequence aside)
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 17 August 2017 00:07 (six years ago) link
Isabel Fargo Cole is just incredible:
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/translating-the-landscape-of-wolfgang-hilbig-an-interview-with-isabel-fargo-cole/
I love Sleep of the Righteous and At the Burning Abyss sounds amazing. Might have to actually shell out hard cash and buy myself a xmas present this week.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:43 (six years ago) link
i just translated a book http://www.oupress.com/ECommerce/Book/Detail/2295/record%20of%20regret
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Friday, 8 December 2017 14:34 (six years ago) link
Amazing!
Dylannn - I'm translating a family memoir (just so my non-French-speaking family can read it - it's not for publication). Do you have any recs for translation tools? I've been using Scrivener, with a split screen for English/French.
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 8 December 2017 14:57 (six years ago) link
i'm sorry, just plain old word processing software.
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Friday, 8 December 2017 15:26 (six years ago) link
good on you dylan
all of my literary translations have been borgesian in that theyre all very 'unreliable' ('too interpretive'), which is super frowned upon in the translation field
is yr translated book being distributed to libraries as well?
― infinity (∞), Friday, 8 December 2017 16:51 (six years ago) link
Congrats on that Dylan, that looks great.
I'm translating an essay from English to a Dutch dialect right now and just have two Word windows on split screen.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 8 December 2017 17:38 (six years ago) link
Dutch dialect to English I mean
thanksxpincredibly reliable translations by academics have ruined most books translated from chinese. translations of contemporary poetry are one place where there is still a lot of playfulness, and maybe youtube fansubs. especially with languages further from english, there's the chance to push the boundaries but it's fairly rare.
yeah should be, the other books in the series are in libraries.
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Friday, 8 December 2017 17:48 (six years ago) link
cool man
― infinity (∞), Friday, 8 December 2017 18:07 (six years ago) link
Dylann, you are excellent
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 8 December 2017 23:17 (six years ago) link
Kudos to Dylan!
― Anne Git Yorgun (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 8 December 2017 23:42 (six years ago) link
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-korean-translation-20170922-story,amp.html
an interesting thing about translators you don't trust
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Saturday, 9 December 2017 21:16 (six years ago) link
Should I trust Emily Wilson - there was a nice interview with her re: her trans of The Odyssey (the first by a female translator).
I love Anne Carson's Sappho and she has also done a job on Euripides.
http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-bakkhai-by-euripides-and-anne-carson
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 11 December 2017 14:00 (six years ago) link
P&V’s literalness generally makes then clunky and unreadable.
P’s solo translation of Three Musketeers is atrocious.
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 12 January 2020 23:44 (four years ago) link
Idk I’m reading P+V’s Brothers Karamazov right now (my first exposure) and the literalness makes it defamiliarized and engaging to me!
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Monday, 27 January 2020 04:21 (four years ago) link
Still got to finish Anniversaries but Damion Searls isn't waiting for me.
“The Other Name” — the first two volumes of Jon Fosse’s 1250-pg “Septology” — will be published in April by @transitbks. Fosse is a genius. Hoping to write something on this. pic.twitter.com/7RancGdC5s— Dustin Illingworth (@ddillingworth) February 18, 2020
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 18 February 2020 22:04 (four years ago) link
i'm a p&v skeptic, but the maude has been great as i work through w&p. i love some garnett translations though.
throwing these into the mix: charlotte mandell and adrian nathan west have built up some good will for me. nathanaël's work on hilda hilst makes me really curious about her other stuff. philip boehm did two of my favorite translations of last year (malina and the fox & dr. shimamura, both nd).
do yall have a favorite proust? i tried both moncrieff and davis this year and went through davis, but should i switch back to moncrieff for later volumes?
― vivian dark, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 03:13 (three years ago) link
I read this, as a total noob---most sustained enjoyment found in Lydia Davis's Swann's Way (the perfecy gateway, of course) and she explained her approach (with kudos and some marvel re prev translations)--:
In Search of Lost Time (General Editor: Christopher Prendergast), translated by Lydia Davis, Mark Treharne, James Grieve, John Sturrock, Carol Clark, Peter Collier, & Ian Patterson. London: Allen Lane, 2002 (6 vols). Based on the French "La Pléiade" edition (1987–89), except The Fugitive, which is based on the 1954 definitive French edition. The first four volumes have been published in New York by Viking, 2003–04. And I think I've got the whole thing in Penguin Deluxe now? Anyway, got and read all those versions.
― dow, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 04:52 (three years ago) link
― dow, Thursday, October 15, 2015 1:03 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― dow, Thursday, October 15, 2015
― dow, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 04:54 (three years ago) link
i tried both moncrieff and davis this year and went through davis, but should i switch back to moncrieff for later volumes?
― vivian dark, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 bookmarkflaglink
That's what you see ppl say now and then, it seems there is a consensus on this but I love the multi-translator project although I think that's more to do with Davis. Her translation was just a fuel for me to read volume after volume till the last sentence.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 08:19 (three years ago) link
"throwing these into the mix: charlotte mandell and adrian nathan west have built up some good will for me."
Both are very good on twitter. Mandell's twitter is: 1) transcription of Robert Kelly's just composed poems, 2) love the way she goes through picking sentences from a book (she did so many from Broch's Death of Virgil last year) she is slow-reading through 3) pictures and videos of nature.
Really looking forward to her translation of Genet's essays. And she is doing a version of Monsieur Teste!
West got me to read Juan Benet who I think is one of the great discoveries of the last couple of years.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 7 April 2020 08:28 (three years ago) link
Isn't Borges' widow's problem with the NTDG translations the fact that she got fuck-all money from them, whereas the newer, inferior translations get her royalties?
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Saturday, 11 April 2020 02:00 (three years ago) link
Seems plausible---anyway, good thread: Borges translation?
― dow, Saturday, 11 April 2020 17:29 (three years ago) link
Even self-translators à la Sam Beckett are not to be trusted. Traduttore, traditore, etc.
― coviderunt omnes (pomenitul), Saturday, 11 April 2020 17:36 (three years ago) link
RIP Edith Grossman
― The Thin, Wild Mercury Rising (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 5 September 2023 12:11 (six months ago) link
I loved her Mutis translations.
I have big plans to read through Scott Moncrieff's Proust once I'm finished my current French reading (almost done, phew). I'd like to complete all of the major English versions eventually, if I live long enough.
― jmm, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 14:39 (six months ago) link
RIP, there’s a funny bit in her why translation matters book where she’s complaining about how little most reviewers care about translators & points out the tell that (if they mention it at all) they’ll just write “ably translated by”
― Boris Yitsbin (wins), Saturday, 9 September 2023 22:37 (six months ago) link
Yup, most journalistic reviews lazily sign-off the quality of translation without knowing both source and target language, instead of trying to evaluate the music of the prose (whether translated or not).
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 9 September 2023 23:32 (six months ago) link
Surely they know the target language?
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Sunday, 10 September 2023 10:41 (six months ago) link
something quasi ironic about retreading the prose of A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. Looking at all the angles covered in the retelling etc?
― Stevo, Sunday, 10 September 2023 11:00 (six months ago) link
I just love the book, and I think it rewards the attention. If you take a couple years to read it, then enough time will have passed since the first volume that you can pretty much start again right away. The translations give you more to explore.
― jmm, Sunday, 10 September 2023 14:20 (six months ago) link
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Sunday, 10 September 2023 bookmarkflaglink
Maybe 🤣
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 10 September 2023 18:49 (six months ago) link