One of the things my author does is list. He lists and lists, stringing objects and observations in long catalogues that are sometimes paratactic (without connecting words), and sometimes filled with and’s and but’s and gradations of these (such as the word “a,” which can suggest and, but, though, and a variety of other linking… Continue reading Catalogues, lists, parataxis, and pig spleens
Category: translation
Parks on Translators, Royalties, and Glory
Tim Parks’ NYR Daily essay “The Translation Paradox” of March 15, 2016 continues his enlightening series of reviews and commentary on the publication of The Complete Works of Primo Levi. As with his other posts on this topic, Parks demonstrates his thorough familiarity with the works of Levi, the world of contemporary literature, and the… Continue reading Parks on Translators, Royalties, and Glory
Making a Long Book Move
One of the techniques Jergović uses happens at the level of the paragraph and amounts to a kind of clever closure, often of a longish sentence, sometimes more than one, that serves to slow down the pace but also gather up energy as the narrative moves on. It works, I think, a little like a… Continue reading Making a Long Book Move
That Wondrous Paragraph
And, oh my, Miljenko, you have some lovely paragraphs, which I knew already of course, but when I get to write them again in English, I feel them in a way that makes me new: In the winter of 1945, while Vjekoslav Luburić was cooking people alive in the basement of a Skenderija villa, and… Continue reading That Wondrous Paragraph
That familiar ache
Teaching an extra graduate course for a colleague hoping to come up for tenure ate up more of my time in the fall than I thought possible, leaving me far behind my self-imposed December benchmark for translating Kin (not to mention absenting me from this weblog). Then, out of the blue, I got asked to… Continue reading That familiar ache
Paper and Book
Very pleased to learn that my Woman in the Window will be released in paperback this spring. I try to feel good about that, but this perhaps American illness I have in spades, along with the deadline to finish Kin, has me looking ahead, and here I may have found the heart, or one of… Continue reading Paper and Book
Perfection and completeness
Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian are not the only language in which a single word covers both the categories in my title. It is a common Slavic root, and I’ve encountered it in many forms. Tolstoy’s Kitty Oblonsky, for instance, has a long and fascinating rumination in Anna Karenina on the idea of “sovershenstvo” (“completeness” and/or… Continue reading Perfection and completeness
Otata and Omama
Miljenko Jergovic uses the words “otata” and “omama,” which it took me a little bit of research to figure out are actual regionalisms for “Great-grandpa” and “Great-grandma.” They are used especially by Croats of German background, I assume as a kind of pidgin that takes the “o” of the German “Opa” (grandpa) and “Oma” (grandma)… Continue reading Otata and Omama
An Unfortunate Episode in the Rhetoric of Re-translation
Or, to be clear, it would be that thing in my title, if the book had been re-translated, but this is not really a re-translation, so mostly this is about editing. Unfortunately, the editor in this case, Mark Thompson, has chosen to position his work along the lines that are often reserved for the rhetoric… Continue reading An Unfortunate Episode in the Rhetoric of Re-translation
Human Rights, Translation, PEN
Fifteen thousand words into translating Jergović’s monumental Rod (sticking with the title Kin for now), I’m taking a short break to mention the PEN Awards festivities just completed in NYC last week. I was able to attend for the first time, thanks to an invitation from my friend Esther, who knew I was going to… Continue reading Human Rights, Translation, PEN
Russell Scott Valentino 