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Tag Archives: Back Translations
Three Howlers
English As She Is Spoke: Selections from The New Guide of the Conversation, in Portuguese and English, in Two Parts, José Da Fonseca & Pedro Carolino, edited by Paul Collines (McSweeney’s Books, 2002) [Originally published in Paris in 1855] [Carolino] … Continue reading
Bivalve Lingualism
The sybil of unreadability outrun by f(r)iction… From Picture Theory by Nicole Brossard La fiction déjoue alors l’illysybilité, dans le sens où elle insinue toujours quelque chose de plus qui te force à imaginer, à dédoubler. A y revenir. Translation … Continue reading
Pulse and Poetry
I came across a list of ingredients with names in French. Black eyed peas was given as haricots oeil de perdrix which in back translation gives partridge eye beans. Thanks to Dixon Long in Markets of Provence for the compilation. … Continue reading
Fern Hair
It occurs in a translation of a poem by Jacques Brault by Fred Cogswell in One Hundred Poems of Modern Quebec (Fiddlehead, 1970). The text reads “headchess” [which auto-correct wants to render “headaches”] for “headdress” [?]. One can see how … Continue reading
Wrapper
Drinking coffee, I found an interesting rendering for the cuff that supports the cup and protects the hand from the heat. In English it is called an “insulating sleeve”. In the French one reads about “cette gaine isolante” which back … Continue reading
Bridges
In Mobility of Light: The Poetry of Nicole Brossard we find the French: la poussière. On la disait de Pékin de Palmyre ou de Pompéi nous la paratagions à plien poumon on parlait de physiquement posséder la poésie Which Robert … Continue reading
Articles
Georges Hugnet and Virgil Thomson find a fine way to translate a line from the portrait of Bernard Fay by Gertrude Stein. An article is a and an and the. is rendered Un article est un et une et le. … Continue reading
Foreign Eloquences
Perplexed by a passage in the Douglas Ainslie translation of Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly I look at the French Du Dandyism Il resta, il est vrai, incorrect et Anglais dans notre langue, comme toutes ces bouches accoutumées à mâcher le caillou … Continue reading
Displacements
Lines gleaned from Paul Monette’s 1987 introduction to Love Alone, a collection of elegies in honour of his lover Roger Horowitz if only a fragment remained in the future, to fade in the sulfurous rain, it would say how much … Continue reading
Current Views
Gianni Vattimo gave a talk in Toronto recently (Jan 30). His theme was the myth of Unity. He spoke at some length about Foucault’s phrase “ontologie de l’actualité” which he connected in some fashion to Heidegger. Englishing the phrase one … Continue reading