Subject
Re: Updike and Nabokov: A Question of Translation (fwd)
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From: Icrywolf@aol.com
Updike's questions here are the product of a
life-long writer who has learned to be careful with his own language. It
is an admirable quality in a writer to treat his words gingerly on the
umpteenth review, to carefully analyze each image for sense and
sensibility, as it were; however, one of the beauties of translation,
particularly when the original author is translating, is that
unintentional slip beyond the rules of a language. Nabokov, who stretched
metaphors to a fine, taut line in any case, probably did go too far in
some of his translations, from a strictly sensical standpoint. But how is
a language to evolve without an occasional growing pain? I would certainly
rather see the phrase containing "linotype swing" from time to time than
bear another cliched metaphor. It might actually be the duty of
multi-lingual writers upon this planet to bastardize a non-native tongue
every once in a while, if only to produce a universe of connotations as
broad as the multivarious lepi! doptera on earth. Then again, I'm biased.
Chris J. Magyar
The Business Word
Denver, Colorado
Updike's questions here are the product of a
life-long writer who has learned to be careful with his own language. It
is an admirable quality in a writer to treat his words gingerly on the
umpteenth review, to carefully analyze each image for sense and
sensibility, as it were; however, one of the beauties of translation,
particularly when the original author is translating, is that
unintentional slip beyond the rules of a language. Nabokov, who stretched
metaphors to a fine, taut line in any case, probably did go too far in
some of his translations, from a strictly sensical standpoint. But how is
a language to evolve without an occasional growing pain? I would certainly
rather see the phrase containing "linotype swing" from time to time than
bear another cliched metaphor. It might actually be the duty of
multi-lingual writers upon this planet to bastardize a non-native tongue
every once in a while, if only to produce a universe of connotations as
broad as the multivarious lepi! doptera on earth. Then again, I'm biased.
Chris J. Magyar
The Business Word
Denver, Colorado