Sarajevo Marlboro

[David Powelstock]

Wayles, thank you so much! One especially puzzling bit was the final
question mark, which made no sense. One of my students (jokingly?) suggested
that the translator or editor had put the question mark to come back to
later, but then somehow missed. Now that I see the correct translation and
the original, it seems highly plausible!

I thank you, and my students thank you!

Best,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wayles Browne
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 5:25 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Sarajevo Marlboro
Importance: High

I looked at the original and I can see that the punctuation has gone astray
in the translation, as have a few significant content-words.
It should say:

"Every day when I drag the water up the hill I remember Christ and Calvary.
I wonder if it is possible that Calvary was uphill all the way, or if it was
uphill a bit and downhill a bit," said my mother to a Muslim woman--giving
her that additional burden to worry about.

(- Svaki dan kada vuc^em vodu gore sjetim se Krista i Kalvarije. 
Mislim je li moguc'e da je Kalvarija stalno uzbrdo, ili ima malo uzbrdo,
malo nizbrdo - govorila je moja majka jednoj Muslimanki, natovarivs^i joj i
tu brigu na vrat.)

From: Miljenko Jergovic', Sarajevski Marlboro. (series: Biblioteka Jutarnjeg
lista XX. STOLJEC'E, 17.) Zagreb: Jutarnji list 2004 (page 30).

At 4:52 PM -0500 11/13/07, David Powelstock wrote:
>Dear colleagues,
>
>I am teaching Miljenko Jergovic's Sarajevo Marlboro and have 
>encountered a sentence I cannot decipher in the translation. It occurs 
>at the end of the story "Mr. Ivo." I simply can't parse it. I wonder 
>whether it is an editing or translation hiccup. If anyone either can 
>help me understand the English or provide a retranslation from the 
>original, I would be very grateful. Here is the final paragraph in 
>full:
>
>"Every day when I drag the water up the hill I remember Christ on his 
>way to Calvary. I wonder if Calvary was uphill all the way, or if it 
>was perhaps uphill only here and there, with flat or even downhill 
>stretches in between, the way my mother used to say it was about a 
>Muslim woman--giving her something else to worry about?"
>
>I assure you that this is exactly how it appears (minus the quotation 
>marks) in my edition of the English. I'm losing sleep over this! Any 
>help would be much appreciated.
>
>Best,
>David
>
>David Powelstock
>Asst. Prof. of Russian & East European Literatures Undergraduate 
>Advising Head, Russian Language and Literature Chair, Program in 
>Russian & East European Studies Brandeis University GREA, MS 024 
>Waltham, MA  02454-9110
>781.736.3347 (Office)
>
>
>
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-- 

Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics Department of Linguistics Morrill
Hall 220, Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

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