|
|
Sunday, November 15th, 2020
I notice as I'm reading Schnee's translation of Texas that she skips over a clause here and there. For example, "dio muchos detalles y contó otros, hasta dijo que si Nepomuceno era el que había interceptado el correo, le colgó el bandidaje de los robines y quién sabe cuánto más." (p. 21) is translated as "He gave lots of details and made up others, even saying that it was Nepomuceno who had robbed the mail." (p. 7) Schnee even skips whole paragraphs. In the original, after the section which ends "Agua fuerte saca el puñal." comes
(Dos que anotar cuando el sol refulge en la hoja de metal del puñal de Agua Fuerte: al astro se le ve mejor y al acero parece no pesarle el astro. Parecería que el abrumado firmamento no puede con el peso del coloso; se diría que allá en lo alto está por resquebrajarse el azul, que la bóveda necesita compartir la carga con el velo del polvo terrestre y que el puñal pulido lleva al astro con ligereza.) (p. 25)
[(Two things to make note of, while the sun is shining off the metal sheet of Strong Water's blade: the star appears larger and the steel does not seem weighed down by the star. It would seem the firmament is overwhelmed, that it cannot bear the gargantuan weight; one could say there is a crack in the blue up there, that the vault of the heavens has to share its burden with the earthly cloud of dust and that the polished blade carries the star with ease.)] This word-for-word rendering is poor but gives an approximate sense The translation skips directly to the next section, beginning "Inside the Smiths' home, lovely Moonbeam gets back to work." (p. 9) It doesn't seem like the missing content is incorporated anywhere else... Not sure what to make of this. Possibly Schnee was working from a different edition than what I'm reading?
posted morning of November 15th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Texas
|  |
|
I get the impression that Schnee is usually leaving vaquero untranslated when it is referring to a Mexican cowboy, rendering it as cowboy when it is referring to a gringo. This seems right to me, even though it introduces a distinction that's not present in the original text. It jumped out at me during Lázaro's speech at the end of part 1, when he said "one of King's cowboys" had insulted him and then later said "the era of the vaquero is over." The translation brings out a shift in meaning of the word between "un vaquero de King" and "el tiempo del vaquero".
posted morning of November 15th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Carmen Boullosa
|  |
Thursday, November 5th, 2020
Raya el mediodía en Bruneville. El cielo sin nubes, la luz vertical, el velo de polvo espejeante, el calor que fatiga la vista. En la Plaza del Mercado, frente al Café Ronsard, el sheriff Shears escupe a don Nepomuceno cuatro palabras:--Ya cállate, grasiento pelado. Las dice en inglés, menos la última, Shut up, greaser pelado. --Texas, by Carmen Boullosa
It's high noon in Bruneville. Not a cloud in the sky. The sun beats down, piercing the veil of shimmering dust. Eyes droop from the heat.
In the Market Square, in front of Café Ronsard, Sheriff Shears spits five words at Don Nepomuceno:
“Shut up, you dirty greaser.”
He says the words in English.
--Texas: The Great Theft, by Carmen Boullosa tr. Samantha Schnee
The tension between Cortina and the Brownsville authorities broke into violence on 13 July 1859. Brownsville town marshal Robert Shears was brutalizing Cortina's 60-year-old former ranch hand. Cortina happened to pass by, and asked Shears to let him handle the situation; Shears is said to have yelled at him in reply, "What is it to you, you damned Mexican?"
--Wikpedia entry for Juan Nepomuceno Cortina An interesting thing to keep in mind when reading Texas in either the original or the translation is, the characters (of whichever nationality) are switching code much more frequently than is shown in the book. In the original, Shears speaks in English with a word of Spanish; Frank/Pancho relays the insult to Sharp in English (presumably verbatim, though Boullosa only paraphrases him as saying "tal y tal") and Sharp tells it to Alitas in (unquoted) Spanish, and when Alitas repeats it he is using Boullosa's original phrasing, "¡Cállate grasiento pelado!" (p.18)The chisme spreads from mouth to mouth, in the book the dialogue is rendered in Spanish but the attentive reader will be able to guess what language is being spoken at each juncture. By the time it gets down to the Matasánchez ferry, William Boyle repeats it in a phrasing close to the historical record preserved at Wikipedia: "None of your business, you damned Mexican!" Also finding Schnee's translation choice interesting. When Boullosa quotes Shears as speaking in English with a word of Spanish, it seems like it ought to be preserved in translation. I think the code-switching the characters do is a key part of the story -- Boullosa preserves enough of it in dialogue to give a sense that the characters are living in both languages. Will keep track of how Schnee is rendering this.
posted afternoon of November 5th, 2020: 1 response
➳ More posts about Readings
|  |
Saturday, October 10th, 2020
“Art is how we decorate space;
Music is how we decorate time.”
-- Jean Michel Basquiat
---> POETRY IS HOW WE DECORATE CONSCIOUSNESS
posted afternoon of October 10th, 2020: Respond
| |
Sunday, September 13th, 2020
The READIN blog may have come to an end. The host will be upgrading PHP from 5.6 to 7.3 (or rather, has done so at some point in the past and will soon be disabling 5.6.) I'm pretty sure the current script will not run in 7.3; I could probably figure out how to upgrade the script but not sure I will take the initiative any time soon.
 Ok, it is working now (by and large) as of October 1 -- will seek out and fix broken features in the coming days and weeks.
posted morning of September 13th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about The site
| |
Thursday, August 6th, 2020
For a long time I've been wanting to get a jam going with the tin-can cello and my Stroh fiddle. The problem is, I can't play them both at the same time.... Multiple tracks to the rescue!
Here is the method I've hit on: I compose a rhythm section in Noteflight, then jam against that with fiddle and cello, recording the instrument I'm playing while the rhythm section is playing in headphones. I use Audacity to mix the instruments and vocals with the rhythm section, so I can hear the cello while playing fiddle or vice versa.
Below the fold, a take on "Jagged Sixpence": pretty good although it falls apart a bit near the end. Needs another take of the cello part for the instrumental break at the end. Should see if some better singer than I would be interested in singing this one (and playing guitar). Maybe Malcolm.
posted afternoon of August 6th, 2020: 2 responses
➳ More posts about Songwriting
| |
Tuesday, June 16th, 2020
posted afternoon of June 16th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about M.C. Escher
|  |
Friday, May 22nd, 2020
Here is how the two-piece neck is shaped --
Next step is cutting the mortise in the upper neck and finalizing the length!
posted afternoon of May 22nd, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about viola d'ottone
| |
Thursday, May 21st, 2020
Today I did a first rough fit of the tailpiece and neck into the viola d'ottone. I'm overjoyed to see everything lining up straight, I was quite convinced there would be a misalignment that I'd have to correct for.
posted evening of May 21st, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Luthery
|  |
Wednesday, May 20th, 2020
busy being born, and busy
dying. Busy
with decisions and revisions
which a minute will reverse. Busy
busy busy
believing foma
and doubting
the strength to force the moment
to its crisis.
posted morning of May 20th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Poetry
| Previous posts
Archives  | |
|
Drop me a line! or, sign my Guestbook.
•
Check out Ellen's writing at Patch.com.
| |
