Using AltaVista, I translated English > French > German > English, and then,
using T-Text, English > Portuguese > English, and then fiddled around with
the output, completely ignoring Mairead's original. Having recently
discovered Stefan Thermerson's practice of "semantic translation", I
couldn't get it out of my head when trying this, though I've completely
missed the dispassionate austerity which he goes for and gets, hence the
expanded prosiness. Reveals the benefits of brevity in the original.
Not frost:
but snow,
vapour set
in crystals falling
light white flakes.
Not that,
but say: a setback,
retardation,
hindering of the flame.
It is: an always going off,
a long goodbye,
a making for itself an exit,
(no 'he' or 'she' that 'it',
that 'life' no 'thing')
yet these its pleasures,
joys,
delights,
the pastimes of its choice:
stimulation to,
and past, excess,
then torpor
and quiescence.
Neither have we here
a bad way,
a sorry state,
a parlous condition:
but force that is not full of the spirit:
malfeasance,
tantrums,
waste.
Nor union, unison,
jointure, juncture,
approximation
or approach,
but unequivocal divorce.
It isn't any thing,
but is a part,
a fragment.
It is not feared,
but is reality,
truth absolute
unaltered.
Not that!
not sleep,
but death.
Not surviving
to be examined
at another time;
suffering
no scrutiny
more violent
than this.
----------
>From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Translation Project
>Date: Fri, Jun 13, 2003, 8:02 pm
>
> At 12:29 AM +0000 13/6/03, Árni Ibsen wrote:
>>Dette er ikke frost: dette er sne
>>Dette er ikke udskud: dette er bösseskud
>>Dette er ikke sjovt: dette er alkoholism
>>Dette er ikke vrede: dette er vold
>>Dette er ikke snedigt: dette er misbrug
>>Dette er ikke ćgteskab: dette er skilsmisse
>>Dette er ikke ingenting: dette er udvćkst
>>Dette er ikke skrćmmelse: dette er virkeligheden
>>Dette er ikke sovn: dette er döden
>>Dette er ikke ses: dette er slut
>
>
> Here's mine (with apologies to Mairead and Árni for the mangling! I
> couldn't resist)
>
> That's her other frost: that's her snow
> That's her other udder: that's her boss
> That's her other soldier: that's her alcoholism
> That's her other red: that's her void
> That's her other snowdigger: that's her mister bug
> That's her other regret: that's her schoolmiss
> That's her other intention: that's her undervest
> That's her other scrammel: that's her green lightness
> That's her other son: that's her daughter
> That's her other sister: that's her slut
>
> Best
>
> A
> --
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Editor, Masthead
> http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
>
> Home page
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
>
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