A Little Latin, Less Greek

[Reiner Haehnle]

Ron Churgin and LOT64 asked me about the experience of reading Pynchon
in German translation:

: >I can't imagine what it must be like to read a translation of GR.  Its use of
: >language is so specific.  Now that you are reading it in English I would be
: >very interested in your reactions to the two different texts.  Any of your
: >impressions on the translated version would be quite interesting.

I already mentioned that I read the German translation of GR (GGR)
before the original. I should add that this was the very first work by
Pynchon I read. The German translation had just appeared and I
happened to read a review of it somewhere (this was about ten years
ago and I hadn't even heard about TP then). I am the kind of Pynchon
reader who was fascinated by his work from the first page on. But
although I soon realized that here is a work than can match almost
anything with respect to its richness of ideas, to the complexity of
its characters and the narration, I had the impression to stand in
front of a veiled masterpiece. The veil was translucent enough for
letting me perceive GR as a potentially great book, but...

: >Let us know what the biggest differences are, and also which
: >elements come through and which are totally lost.
: >
: >
: >Ron Churgin

... considerable detail was lost:

First I have to say that the translators (there are two) made a
substantial effort, but the translation struck me as uneven, perhaps,
because two persons were involved. What I do not understand is why
they didn't highlight the passages that are German in the
original. This leads to a quite unnecessary conflation and loss of
information, particularly with a text such as GR.

Three issues I found very problematic in the translation regardless of
the efforts of the translators: (i) the metaphors, (ii) the puns,
(iii) the songs. A fourth item which is, however, more problematic in
'Vineland' would be the cultural background. 

One thing I came to appreciate very much in GR (and in the other works
by Pynchon) and only after having read the original is the precise and
economical way in which he uses language ('Caress the details!', VN)
and the poetic power [can you say this? sounds strange - in German I
would say 'poetische Kraft'] of some of his metaphors. In addition,
many of the slapstick scenes give the impression that they were
written in the equivalent of 'slow motion' in GGR. It is not only that
many puns are hard or impossible to translate, but e.g. participial
constructions often translate awkwardly into German and destroy the
rhythm of a passage. Other problems include the 'speaking names' of
the characters which become meaningless when not translated and
ridiculous when they are (in GGR they went for the first option).

My general impression is that many of the qualities shared by good
poems are essential as well for Pynchon's texts. Now, the problems of
translating poems are well-known, and I tend to agree with Nabokov
that it is virtually impossible -- the translators of GGR are
certainly not to be envied. At least they succeeded to got me
interested enough to read the original, but only with the German
translation at hand I could not be sure if TP is one of the GA20
(Great Authors of the 20th century). On the other hand, there are
works that IMO are even more impossible to translate than GR, for
example, 'LETTERS' by John Barth (it hasn't been tried yet).

I am sure to miss a lot of details even when reading GR in English and
I envy you native speakers for the experience it must be to read TP in
your native tongue (on the other hand, of course, I can savour 'Der
Mann ohne Eigenschaften', 'Der Prozess', and 'Der Zauberberg' in the
orginal...).

BTW, I had considerably more difficulties to get the grasp of
'Vineland' than of GR, because of the heavy and idiomatic use of
popular US-culture of the 60s and 80s which I am simply not familiar
with. I even fear that I passed out on too many occasions in
'Vineland' to be able to be fond of the book (and translation would
only make things worse, of course).

LOT64 wrote:
: Me too, Reiner. I'd love to hear your description of how GR "feels" in
: German! I'm betting the use of science as metaphor might help thematically,

I am not sure what you exactly mean by this. Do you mean it that helps
me, as a German, to better understand GR?

: but it must be some trip to savor the work in two languages! One of the the
: recondite symbols of the rocket for me is the repetitive deliverance of the
: underlying germanic linguistic roots to the english isles, that is to say,
: the seeding of what will become the very language Pynchon uses.

It is an interesting thought, but have you considered that the
influence of the Romans' Latin must be at least as deep not to forget
the French?

	Reiner


-- 
( Reiner H"ahnle                    Phone/Fax:   +49-721-608-4329 )
) Institute for Logic, Complexity      e-mail: haehnle at ira.uka.de (
( and Deduction Systems             `Nichts,                      )
) Department of Computer Science            Niemand,              (
( University of Karlsruhe                           Nirgends,     )
) 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany                                   Nie' (
( http://i12www.ira.uka.de/~reiner/               -- Arno Schmidt )