tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post8209496783117682012..comments2023-06-21T18:53:11.897+10:00Comments on Pykk: their yearnings unsungUmbagollahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-47487725999509920482019-02-01T03:10:31.404+11:002019-02-01T03:10:31.404+11:00A complete Davis Proust would have been terrific t...A complete Davis Proust would have been terrific to read next to Moncrieff. You could put them next to one another and tell everybody to be amazed by the ventriloquism. Two voices, one mouth: watch that spectacle.<br /><br />I look forward to being recycled. Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-65150532725534119262019-01-26T03:58:39.370+11:002019-01-26T03:58:39.370+11:00It's a real pity she only translated one volum...It's a real pity she only translated one volume.<br /><br />"knocked years off his age" is good; I will probably steal that when I write my novel about a translator in a couple of years. I apologize in advance because I will believe, when I use that line, that it is my own invention (in this context of translation).scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-50678932610419727882019-01-26T01:54:11.833+11:002019-01-26T01:54:11.833+11:00"Coolest" as in "calm, has a low te..."Coolest" as in "calm, has a low temperature," not as in "fashionable."Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-82353579185754093492019-01-26T01:53:18.715+11:002019-01-26T01:53:18.715+11:00And yet her Proust is the coolest Proust of all th...And yet her Proust is the coolest Proust of all the English Prousts. He's the first one who sounds like a modernist. Davis knocked years off his age. Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-74451524565564234572019-01-15T08:09:21.772+11:002019-01-15T08:09:21.772+11:00This made me think of Lydia Davis translating Prou...This made me think of Lydia Davis translating Proust. Davis writes those countless aphoristic pieces, most of which trade heavily with clever wordplay. I think she must've been sorely tempted during the Proust project to be clever, to try her hand at turning phrases if she thought she could enliven passages that seemed too flat. "Why not?" she'd ask herself, giving her cat a scratch behind the ear. "Who's to say Proust wouldn't approve of the improvement?"<br /><br />I have done very little translation, but enough to claim that one feels a triumph at finding the English mot juste, sometimes even if it's at odds with the spirit of the original work. <i>Look what I've done. That's fine, yes.</i>scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.com