tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post8462753374180711231..comments2023-11-22T09:11:01.567+00:00Comments on George Szirtes: The Grey Sweater / About Time Poems by Sonata PaliulyteGeorge Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-17084591796450201662014-10-18T00:41:32.974+01:002014-10-18T00:41:32.974+01:00I think I know which book, Gwilym.I think I know which book, Gwilym.George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-69616880664996863812014-10-17T20:27:39.709+01:002014-10-17T20:27:39.709+01:00Thank you Nick. I sense you may well be right,Thank you Nick. I sense you may well be right,Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-14319607186394415812014-10-17T20:21:26.365+01:002014-10-17T20:21:26.365+01:00Gwil. I think you've written your review. Any ...Gwil. I think you've written your review. Any review with the line "I'm halfway through. And now I sense the review will probably be middling or OK." says it all. Unless, of course, the book has a startling climax..Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09960219936255581944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-34429076319915603292014-10-17T20:15:25.873+01:002014-10-17T20:15:25.873+01:00Hello George,
Thomas Bernhard famously said; Ther...Hello George, <br />Thomas Bernhard famously said; There is no such thing as a translation.<br />I've been asked to review a book of holocaust poems written by Hungarian poets and translated into English. <br />I hope the originals are superior to translations. Doubtless they are in this case. I'm halfway through. And now I sense the review will probably be middling or OK. <br />The problem is that the poems are not memorable. They deserve better. Someone like Dylan Thomas would take them and make them speak. <br />Translation is not translation. Bernhard is right. First must come the translator. And then the poet.<br />The result may bear no similarity to the Hungarian but is that important in poetics? Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-43724853917374242532014-10-17T14:33:53.013+01:002014-10-17T14:33:53.013+01:00I think that's right, Nick, and have written a...I think that's right, Nick, and have written a fair amount about this before. It is about the gaps in communication, the gaps that in some way define communication. We hear the gaps as well as the words. And yes, a translator is both reader and writer. But maybe that is just a specialised form of being listener and speaker which we all are.<br />George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-68739678874551874542014-10-17T12:54:50.513+01:002014-10-17T12:54:50.513+01:00It seems to me as though the act of translation sa...It seems to me as though the act of translation says something profound about the act of communication itself. The translator must fully embrace both roles, that of the writer and the reader. If only I had sufficient mastery of another language, it's work I believe I would love. My respect to you.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09960219936255581944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-81527184780178077052014-10-17T12:46:13.709+01:002014-10-17T12:46:13.709+01:00No, I can't, Nick - and that is the point of t...No, I can't, Nick - and that is the point of trusting. I have to be persuaded to trust a translation. That trust has to be earned. <br /><br />But what is it a trust 'in'? That is a deeper question that needs more expolration but it may be something like this. The trust involves the reader believing that the original poem had the form of life and the complexity of emotion as that produced in him/her by the translation <br /><br />We can never know quite what that complexity is, but then neither would the readers of the original have a comopletely clear idea. The fact reamins we all agree to trust something. <br /><br />There is much more to be said about this some time and I hope to say it.<br />George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-14078711087247812932014-10-17T11:55:48.476+01:002014-10-17T11:55:48.476+01:00Can you read Lithuanian (in which I assume the ori...Can you read Lithuanian (in which I assume the original was written) or does the trust you refer to extend to the assumption that the original is as good as the poems presented here? Or, looked at another way, if I dislike a poem in translation, how do I know where the fault lies?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09960219936255581944noreply@blogger.com