translations

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	I share something of David's uneasiness with translations: 
	at least when the direction of the translation is *from* - 
	as against *into* -English.  Like him, I can hardly imagine 
	how the tone of a `stylish' writer can ever be conveyed into 
	another tongue.

	French is the one language other than my own that I can 
	read with moderate ease.  And I've had much pleasure not 
	only from translations of great stylists like Flaubert or Camus 
	but also, in schooldays, the straight stuff from Daudet, 
	Maupassant & so on.  But, in honesty, I haven't the faintest 
	idea how these writers really `feel' to a native speaker. 

	When it comes to Salinger, although I've no idea of his standing 
	in France, I can imagine the windy, Zen posturings would go down 
	a treat in the Deux Magots where any philosophical fad can depend 
	on at least a transient welcome.  But I doubt Holden's voice is 
	really audible in the same setting.

	Indeed, despite my affection for him, I'm sure I miss many of his 
	nuances too.  So much depends on a shared culture as well as 
	a shared language.  When I see how subtly `wrong' Americans or 
	English, for example, get the Dublin of James Joyce or Brendan 
	Behan, I despair of us ever really understanding each other.

	Scottie B.

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