COLGR49: "ha, ha"

[Michel Ryckx]

Doug Millison wrote:

> Is it conceiveable that P read Jarry in French prior to its English translation?

It could be.  It is a well known fact that mr. Pynchon has been helping out the French translators
of Mason & Dixon; in French.  This is from an interview with one of them, Christophe Claro: (the
book came out in February of this year and is a huge success)

Q.Pynchon est-il intervenu dans la traduction?

 R.Nous avons eu une chance extraordinaire. Pour la première fois, il s'est intéressé aux
traductions. Il a d'abord demandé une centaine de feuillets avant d'accepter que le travail se
fasse. Et puis ensuite il a accepté qu'on communique par fax. Est-ce qu'il lit parfaitement le
français, est-ce qu'il y a des gens autour de lui qui le lisent parfaitement? C'est difficile à
savoir mais je pense qu'il lit le français, qu'il a utilisé dans plusieurs livres. Peut-être a-t-il
vécu en France et on ne le saura jamais. Nous lui posions seulement des questions très techniques
—pas sur le fonctionnement des phrases parce que c'était à nous de résoudre cela. Il nous a toujours
répondu en nous donnant dix lignes minimum pour être sûr qu'on comprenne bien, en nous donnant la
définition du dictionnaire, en reconnaissant des erreurs, des faiblesses, peut-être là mon image
est-elle trop tarabiscotée ou bien je me suis trompé dans l'attribution de tel dialogue à tel
personnage. Ce n'est pas du tout un auteur vaniteux, insupportable.

Though a bit tired tonight, here we go:

Q.Has mr. Pynchon intervened during the translation.

A. "We had an extraordinary opprtunity.  For the first time, he was interested in a translation.  He
requested about a hundred pages before agreeing in that the work could be done.  And further, he
accepted we communicate by fax.  Does he read French perfectly, does he have people around him who
read it perfectly?  That is not easy to know but I think he reads French, for he has used it in
different books.  Perhaps he had been living in France --we will never know.  We only asked him very
technical questions -- not on the functioning of the sentences; it was up to us te resolve that.  He
has always given us answers of at least 10 lines in order to be sure we would understand well,
giving us the meaning in the dictionary, acknowledging errors, weaknesses, perhaps the images I had
got tumbling around in my head, or I made a mistake in attributing (is that right?) some dialogue to
such a character.  He is no vain, author, difficult to work with."

May I, by the way, add that the first translation of one of mr. Pynchon's works was a 1967 (this is
1967) edition of V. (with one of the ugliest covers ever) by the Plon publishing house.

Off to bed now,
Good night.
Michel.