Hello to both Jill and Rebecca,
I lost track of all these posts, they are inexorably piling up, will see
what I can read, before it gets full again,
thank you and a wonderful week-end, possibly far away from the pc!
Till soon, anny
From: "Rebecca Seiferle" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 4:49 AM
Subject: Re: Book of Nature
Dear Anny,
Thank you!
Like Jill, whose post I've read, I love that saying about the fox loses its
hair but not its vice.
And that's an excellent line too "if poets are criticized, translators are
ravaged."
I think what your story reveals is the way in which publishers often do not
carry through on their promises to the author or the translator and so in a
way this is a denial of one's labor and love. A sad and discouraging
experience.
But not a reason to lose one's hair!
Take care,
Rebecca
Rebecca Seiferle
www.thedrunkenboat.com
-------Original Message-------
From: Anny Ballardini <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 04/23/03 10:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Book of Nature
>
> Hi Dear Rebecca,
I am quoting from your writing:
"Translation is a necessary art
Every translator is, in a sense, a critic of all the other translators who
have wrestled with the same text. One translates to rescue, to redeem, to
illuminate what has been lost in the available translations
...
As usual with Vallejo, Iā?Tm not certain that Iā?Tm finished with this
translation."
The problem is that the more you know a poet, the more nuances you will
find in his poetry. By reading and re-reading his/her poems, more and more
thoughts develop, and they give you /me/ the illusion of starting to embrace
the fullness of the perception of the author. I can understand all the
problems you had to face by working on an author you estimate/love who
-moreover- is not here with us, and on previous translations of his work by
other
translators.
You have the advantage of coming later, if this is an advantage, at least
in terms of having to recognize the mistakes of the others. If poets are
criticized, translators are ravaged.
I translated a book under a pseudonym for a publishing house which had to
shut down, by a Chinese contemporary author, from the English translation
to Italian. Quoted were a couple of stanzas taken from a poem by Lorca,
which I did not like too much. I had to travel to the central library forty
miles away to find the original (the internet did not exist at the time, and
I
was young and full of faith in my wish and desire to be perfect), and as I
suspected the translation was slack, so I gave back the quoted passage
directly from the original.
Well the publisher received my translation and printed the book, promised
me copies which I never received, and then finally when I met him he still
remembered that the translation of that Poem by Lorca was miserable, to
which I had my moment of glory when I told him the background of it all.
But still, they say in Italian, the fox loses its hair but not its vice.
And besides all the downs and lack of recognition here and there and again
and again, I still translate, and paint and write, maybe that Italian say is
just right.
Take care, with affection, an excellent work, Rebecca!
Anny
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