This passage has two issues. The first I don’t think I can convey without mucking up the English text with too much unnecessary explanation. The second one I can convey in several different ways, but none seems ideal. The passage is associated with the viewpoint of a man who used to be a Jesuit, then… Continue reading Marking Time through Cultural Expressions
Author: russellv
Switching Senses for Sense
E, vidiš te kakva si! This phrase appears in a conversation between a poor couple, one of whom works as a janitor, the other as a washerwoman at a hospital. The man is telling his wife not to look at the bed linen she washes because it makes her sad. She can tell when someone… Continue reading Switching Senses for Sense
Paragraph contours, paragraph tone
There is such a thing as tonal movement in a paragraph, and Jergovic’s are, I believe, distinctive. I cannot take a lot of time out of translating now because my deadline is looming, but here is a paragraph, actually three but the first two are a single sentence each, as an example of what I… Continue reading Paragraph contours, paragraph tone
Oh my, ALTA!
What a fantastic ALTA conference that was over the weekend in Minneapolis, the fortieth anniversary of the association, with Lydia Davis and Tim Parks as perfectly matched yin and yang speakers on the passions and the torments of literary translation, and what wondrously talented and poised ALTA fellows I got to coach in their Friday… Continue reading Oh my, ALTA!
Definition of Dostoyevskian
According to Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary: Dostoyevskian, n. 1. Person who sees her or his interests supported by principles and laws that are in fact harmful to her or his interests; 2. by extension, person blinded by anger, spite, or other passion such that she or he is no longer capable of seeing… Continue reading Definition of Dostoyevskian
Forgetting First Ladies’ Names
The bus ride was long from Zagreb. The route took us through Istria and seemed to include a stop at every little picturesque village, only there’s something about bus stops in picturesque Istrian villages—they become the ugliest parts of town when they put the bus station there. Even in Rovinj, which doesn’t have any ugly… Continue reading Forgetting First Ladies’ Names
Description of a Description of a Place
Imagine translating several Balzac novels with all their intricate Parisian detail but never having been to Paris, or a couple of Aleksandr Tišma novels without ever having set foot in Novi Sad. These are of course possible things to accomplish. The words are the words, and today more than ever before we have maps and… Continue reading Description of a Description of a Place
On the Origin of the Expression “Italian Tears”
How to create the appearance of an accent can be to some extent language specific, especially where a word in one language might use different consonants and vowels than an equivalent word in a different language. But as long as the general characteristics of accented speech are recognizable, this should not pose too big a… Continue reading On the Origin of the Expression “Italian Tears”
Another Lost Giant
This is from “The Bee Journal,” which could be its own short book—an internally coherent novella of a little over 170 pages—and is one of the final three parts of Kin I am translating, along with “Parker 51” and “Sarajevo Dogs.” While some appraised Plague and Exodus as an outrageous casserole, “the product of a… Continue reading Another Lost Giant
Internal Rhyme for the Kicker
I’m moving so fast now that it’s likely I’ll forget even more of this process than elsewhere, so I’m creating a quick post as a memory marker. This is towards the end of “The Match Juggler,” an extraordinary story that actually has a slightly longer title: “The Match Juggler—Furtwängler.” The eponymous juggler is introduced early… Continue reading Internal Rhyme for the Kicker
Russell Scott Valentino 