Enrique Bird (ebird@gmgroup.com)
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 11:03:37 -0400
Etienne, other friends,
I find curious the comment about "downtown". Though I can
understand what it means and have visited such in several
U.S. cities, it is a hard term to translate into Spanish.
Yesterday I needed to do just that in explaining something to
someone who does not understand English and could not find a
simple way to do it!
Enrique F. Bird PicR>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Etienne Borgers [SMTP:freeweb@rocketmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 6:24
AM
> To: rara-avis@icomm.ca
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Umberto Eco on
Spillane
>
>
> --- James Rogers <jetan@ionet.net>
wrote:
> > I pass this on as a curiosity:
> >
> > ''When I translated a book, especially
hard-boiled
> > detective novels, like
> > those by Mickey Spillane, from English into
Italian,
> > I often had to do a
> > parody of Italian detective novels to get the
right
> > tone.
> > "I could not do a literal translation of slang
like
> > 'Mr. Big,' or have the
> > detective say to a cab driver, 'Take me
downtown.'
> > Italian readers would
> > think that the American city was built
like
> > Florence, partly on a hill,
> > with an upper and lower town. - Umberto
Eco
>
> Well, Umberto must be joking!
> Maybe that was all said with tongue in
cheek?
> And could be detected by the context (?) of
this
> declaration.
>
> First, I cannot believe UE will only translate
the
> english text by a *literal* equivalent for each
word:
> downtown? could be easily translated by a word
meaning
> central town, commercial district..etc
>
> I know that some English translation of some of
his
> essays did not satisfy him and he started to
translate
> them later by himself, with the help of a
> specialist... and he discovered that he wrote
finally
> something different in meaning in the second
language,
> and continued to develop it directly in English
-
> finally he translated this one back to Italian as
it
> was a totally different work, and now with
another
> title!
>
> As you know, UE is not only a literary critic but
also
> a specialist in semiotics, applied to
aesthetics
> and... language.
> So, I guess the declaration was tinted with
some
> humor.
>
> Anyway, the Italian language is the best to
express
> shortly what translation is all about:
> "Traduttore, traditore!" (translator,
traitor!)
>
> Especially true for lit and even more so for pop
lit!
>
>
> Finally: Happy Birthday, list!
> And a very good Season's Holiday to all of
you.
>
> Y2K seems to promise to be really HB thanks to a
bunch
> of old computer neirds, now mostly retreated
as
> multimillionaires, and whom never gave a damn for
the
> consequences of their past behavior.
>
> So, stay tuned... and be prepared to take a peek
on
> globalisation of chaos during the coming
months.
>
> E.Borgers
> Hard-Boiled Mysteries
> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
>
>
>
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