Hi Alison,
No, no offence, that 'never' 'never' was just goofing.
But in thinking about this later, I think the difference between reader's head and
translator's head is the plasticity of the text. In other words, in reading, the text
is given; however much suspension or circumvention of expectation there may
be, and I don't significantly disagree with your description of the activity of
reading, the text is there. As a reader, I anyway give myself to it. But in
'translator's head' the text itself has alternatives, the very present alternatives of
the other translations also there, and the body of the original which may or may
not be known or known in partial degrees, and which may exist no more than as
a shimmering phantom which arises from the gaps between various given texts.
So the activity in "translator's head" is akin to being reader and writer
simultaneously but without being settled in either, the text has a sort of
plasticity. I don't know, but for me, it was most instructive to have to translate
for hire works that I ordinarily might not have. In other words, generally as a
poet who translates, I've translated works that I've been drawn to, caught in the
forcefield of, wanted to spend a lot of time with. But it's much different to be
given a text and asked to translate it, particularly if the work might not be
congenial or might not attract one's own sensibilities and so there's a much
greater sense of becoming a void. You asked how one communicates with a
void, but I'd guess the real answer is that the communication is the resulting
translation. Not sure if that makes any sense. And on the other hand, I have the
temptation to start singing (fortunately the web is inaudible for the most part)
that song, probably about 68, and surely given the knowledge existant among
listmembers someone will know whoever sang it, "yes, we have no bananas,"
best,
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca
Cool bananas. No offence taken, and none meant.
Best
A
Alison Croggon
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