DN : 1. Neither I nor my father ever referred to the work
in question as "Original Laura." ; 2. What "damage," may I ask, has been
done?
JM:When the
present issue happened to be mentioned by our newspapers the
novel's title appeared as "The Original Laura". I wondered
about such a misprint - if there had been an initial title ( besides
"Dying is Fun") which was altered later
on.
Excerpts: But wait, Dmitri Vladimirovich –
before you dash our hopes for Laura by publishing her, consider a proposal that
would both adhere to the letter of your father’s request, and give his readers a
taste of the last moments of his creativity....[...] a translation comes later than the original, and since the
important works of world literature never find their chosen translators at the
time of their origin, their translation marks their stage of
continued life. Which returns me to my plea: If it has been so painful to
give Laura life, why not go straight for an afterlife? Lose the text in
translation. Or rather, let us find it there. After all, as Boyd informs
us,
a provisional title for the novel was The Original of Laura: Dying is Fun.[...]
But in compensation for a daunting translator’s task, this rendition will never
be compared to an original. To relieve the burden of responsibility, why not
commission two translations, or three, or seventy-two? Once this is done, Dmitri
Vladimirovich, burn Laura in good faith. Or tell us you
did.