What are you reading

[Ya Sam]

That is why I prefer to read in the original and will keep trying to get the 
reading knowledge of as many languages as possible. A bad translator can 
butcher the text and disfigure it beyond recognition. LD is a very dense 
text, rich in vocabulary and cerainly requires an expert translator. There 
is a good article on translation by Norfolk himself in which he says the 
following:

"A writer-in-translation is as isolated as a general in his bunker trying 
simultaneously to direct a war on twenty or more fronts. The dispatches come 
through (or fail to) but, reduced as they are to their bare essentials, it 
is hard to know how the conflict as a whole is going."

http://www.barcelonareview.com/20/e_ln.htm




>From: Otto <ottosell at googlemail.com>
>To: "Ya Sam" <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: What are you reading
>Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:34:27 +0200
>
>Critical review about the flawed (?) German translation of Norfolk's book:
>
>Stetige Bumser im Rücken
>Die Qualität einer Übersetzung läßt sich durchaus beurteilen
>Von Dieter E. Zimmer (Nabokov specialist)
>DIE ZEIT/Feuilleton,
>Nr.6, 5.Februar 1993, S.56
>http://tinyurl.com/ynaywt
>
>Eleven literary translators had written an open letter to the
>publisher. Their demand was to the destroy the books and that there
>should be a new translation. The publisher answered by threatening to
>sue them.
>
>"At the mention of pork the place erupts."
>"Bei der Nennung des Schweins explodiert der Platz."
>
>-- but you simply cannot say that in German, and "center of gravity"
>isn't "Mittelpunkt des Schwergewichtes".
>
>Nevertheless, there's a 60-pages "Journal of the Translator" at the
>end of the book which is quite helpful for the historical background
>of the novel.
>
>Otto
>
>2006/10/10, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>:
>> >"Barbarus hic ego sum
>> >
>>
>>Exactly what I feel while reading this book. Norfolk did his homework 
>>well.
>>Very informative as well, i.e. I didn't know that the Romans had the 
>>goddess
>>of sewers.
>>
>

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