translating
William Hochman (wh14@is9.nyu.edu)
Sat, 16 Oct 1999 10:05:49 -0400 (EDT)
I wanted to ask the tranlasting thinkers here if they could explain
Salinger's success with being translated into Japanese and German?
I like Robert Bly's _8 Stages of Translation_ because he thinks
translating is art-making and suggests poets do the translating work by
being poets first and language mavens next.
In some ways, I want to lay down an imaginary trump card here and suggest
all literature is translation...the non-language of emotion to language,
from experience to language, from language to language, we are always
translating...
I've read too many poets (including our dear Rilke) in translation and
love their work (Bly's translation of Neruda and Vallejo opened the door
for me to love Machado, Jiminez, Parra, Lorca and others) too much to keep
the door closed. I do agree that preference fcr versions or techniques of
translating make some better than others, I'm just trying to sit on the
sidelines and root for translation in general.
will