conundrm

[Robert Chandler]

Thank you, Mary, for the kind word about the Platonov translations by me and my wife and Olga Meerson.  

I hope you won't mind my disagreeing with you here.  I don't see anything wrong with repeating a word if the repetitions serves a purpose.  So I'd be entirely happy with "They built a confectionery factory and a pasta factory."  Another possibility is "They built two factories: one for confectionery and one for pasta."

But I do share your feeling that people have been making heavy weather of what I would not myself call a conundrum!

All the best,

Robert

On 3 May 2012, at 17:04, Mary Delle LeBeau wrote:

> I have been baffled following the conversation over the translation efforts of this phrase.  Sometimes we get so involved in making the translation express the other language accurately and forget about good English.  Some of the proposed translations have made me shake my head.  For a translation to work it has to be seamless English, unless, as in the case of Robert Chandler's Platonov translations, where the language asks for less than seamless.
> 
> For these reasons I think this version works the best.  "They built a confectionery factory and a pasta one." The particle 'a' doesn't disturb English speakers. It usually means one. And a repetition of factory is overkill.
> 
> Yours,
> Mary Delle LeBeau
> Independent Scholar
> 
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Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD

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