conundrm
Olga Meerson
meersono at GEORGETOWN.EDU
Thu May 3 17:52:25 UTC 2012
Re: Mary Delle LeBeau's "...unless the translation calls for
less than seamless--as in the case of Robert Chandler's
translation of Platonov". It is more than seamless, not less,
that Platonov calls for. Also, I agree with you about your
praise of Robert Chandler's excellent work on Platonov. I
would, however, note, that when the translation called for
more than seamless--in fact, for some seams deliberately
flaunted at us--my contribution to his translations was big.
When, on the other hand, the English demanded some
Englishness, i.e., when the seams, although shown, had also to
be masked as ALMOST normal, his wife Liz's contribution was
absolutely invaluable. My task opposed Liz's but I think,
without either, even Robert's brilliance would have been
defied by Platonov's idiom. Although humble and polite, it is
not merely out of politeness or humility that Robert keeps
insisting on sharing his laurels with us. Ignoring Liz's role
and mine only makes Robert feel awkward. Secondary as we are
to Robert, we are about as necessary as an orchestra is to any
conductor to incarnate his/ her musical genius on stage.
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