A. Bouazza: the
Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (better known as mathematician and astronomer in his
lifetime) were published anonymously in 1859 and FitzGerald was revealed
as their translator only in 1875...It would be fair
to say that FitzGerald's version, which he revised five times, was
inspired by or based on
rather than rendered from. Perhaps a
Victorian reincarnation of sorts?
Jansy Mello
to AB and Carolyn: My first contact with Fitzgerald's Khayyam
came through Schultze's cartoon strips,voiced by
little erudite Linus. I've never read a Spanish translation
of Khayyam ( there must be many good ones, obviously), but even before
Fitzgerald I was acquainted with OK through various translations of
the Rubayat into Portuguese - also read while I was still young...(
and callow? )
Many of Khayyam's
poetic images landscape well in Portuguese ( shorter words, for example
"palpebra" instead of "eye-lid", help to emphasize "night as the eyelid of the
day" in a fluent natural way).
I had not idea that
it was Russia, not France, that I inhaled when reading Ségur's "Les
Malheurs de Sophie" (and her other books), but the changed setting didn't take
away my pleasure. What a pity that VN let Fitzgerald's inspiredly independent creation be
spoilt by A.Burgess, as A.Bouazza reminded us."Anthony
Burgess in Encounter has suddenly and conclusively abolished my sentimental
fondness for FitzGerald by showing how he falsified the 'witty metaphysical
tent-maker's' *actual metaphors..."
"Reply to My Critics," Strong Opinions p.
246.
I had not idea that Sir Richard Burton had plundered
John Payne's translation of 1000 Nights and One...AB's informations are always
very extensive and fascinating.
Since Ezra Pound merits an "ugh" from CHW
(and many others) and his poetic "versions" were profanatory
(CHW), this suggests that Pound's "ABC of
Reading" was trashed before the link he made bt.
"dichtung=condensation" could be examined. A. Bouazza informed that "dichtung has two meanings: 1. condensation 2. poeticize. But the
root of the first meaning "dicht" is not related to the second one "dicht". The
equation is based on a misunderstanding.." but
I still suggest that this other "condensation" (the link bt these
two different roots of "dichtung" creating only one figure) may still
become acceptable, here, when we want to describe one kind
of reduction of words into images, as they occur in a dream and
often, in poetry and in
VN.
Jansy