Metaglossia: The Translation World

HERBERT KRETZMER: As I sat in my Knightsbridge flat all those years ago, agonising over whether the line about ‘but the tigers come at night’ would work or not, I never dreamed of what Les Miserables would become.

Mary Jo Bang's new translation of Dante's...

Stopped mid-motion in the middle
Of what we call our life, I looked up and saw no sky --
Only a dense cage of leaf, tree, and twig. I was lost.

So begins Dante's arduous decent into the depths of Hell with Virgil in a new translation of the classic epic by award-winning poet Mary Jo Bang.

Bang worked on the project for six years after being inspired by Caroline Bergvall's poem, "Via (48 Dante Variations)," which is composed entirely of those first three lines from 47 different translations.

"How might the lines sound if I were to put them into colloquial English? What if I were to go further and add elements of my own poetic style?" Bang writes in her note on the translation. "Would it sound like a cover song, the words of the original unmistakably there, but made unfamiliar by the fact that someone else's voice has its own characteristics? Could it be, like covers sometimes are, a tribute that pays homage to the original, while at the same time radically departing from it?"

The translation is true to the moral and emotional intensity of the original, but Bang infuses the text with her own voice and modern allusions to Stephen Colbert and "South Park." The text is accompanied by drawings by Henrik Drescher, which adds to the modern but still haunting tone.

We first profiled Bang on the NewsHour in 2008 for her book "Elegy," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the author of six books of poetry and teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

MONTREAL – A lot of people thought the epic novel “Life of Pi” could never be made into a movie. It was too complex, too surreal. And then there’s the whole idea of sticking an actor in a boat with a man-eating tiger for a good chunk of the film.

Yann Martel, however, says he thinks director Ang Lee did a pretty good job of pulling it off.

“It’s very faithful to the book, it’s visually absolutely stunning and it’s a whole trip,” the Canadian author said in an interview as people lined up to see the film version of his novel at Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinema over the weekend. The movie will open across Canada next month.

“Life of Pi,” which has sold millions of copies worldwide since it was published in 2001, counts U.S. President Barack Obama among its fans. In a letter to Martel two years ago, Obama described the 2002 winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize as “a lovely book — an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling.”

Just a few hours ago, Barnes & Noble’s Nook app for iOS has also received a significant update.

Amazon’s Kindle app and Kobo’s namesake app for iOS were both updated last month. And if you’ve been wondering when the other popular third-party iOS app would be updated, wonder no more. Just a few hours ago, Barnes & Noble’s Nook app for iOS has also received a significant update.

Much like Kobo, Nook for iOS now supports sideloading of ePubs and PDFs. Presumably, ePubs and PDFs may only be sideloaded onto the app if they’re either DRM-free or protected with Adobe DRM.

In addition, Nook for iOS now supports PagePerfect on iPhone 4/4S and iPad. PagePerfect, in case you don’t know, is just Barnes & Noble’s fancy way of referring to its enhanced e-book, magazine-like format.

The latest update to the app also brings improved font and margin sizes to further facilitate convenient reading. And to enable easier word lookup, the app now comes with a full dictionary, powered by the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

Tyler Hamilton will launch his explosive book The Secret Race and give his account of Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping during his first three Tour de France wins on nationwide TV in the United States on Wednesday morning, but for legal...

Published on Monday 3 September 2012 09:00

A one-day poetry workshop will take place in The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton on Saturday, September 15, from 10am to 6pm.

The workshop, which is suitable for both beginner and more experienced writers, will be led by poet and AWA trained writing group leader Monica Corish.

The day will start with inspiration – a diverse collection of writing prompts, chosen to get the poetry juices flowing. From these first drafts participants will each choose one piece of writing, and spend the afternoon re-writing, editing, refining, distilling, turning the rose-water of first drafts into concentrated perfume; or, to change the metaphor, transforming rough beer into smooth whiskey.

At the end of the day each participant will have brought at least one poem one step closer to completion. “But be warned”, says Monica, “this is still only a beginning. With some poems you may spend many more days, weeks or months, even years, re-writing until your poem has arrived at a place where you know that the smallest further alteration would damage it, and you are satisfied.”

Avec la bénédiction du Catholicos de Tous les Arméniens Karekin II la maison de publication du Saint-Siège d’ Etchmiadzin a réédité la traduction moderne du « Livre des lamentations » de Grégoire Narkatsi.

« Le Livre des lamentations » a eu quelques traductions modernes. Une des meilleures traductions a été faite par le poète Mkrtich Kheranyan. La traduction a été publiée en 1960. Mais quelques parties du chef-d’oeuvre de Narekatsi avaient été enlevé en raison de l’idéologie qui prévalait en Arménie soviétique en ce temps-là.

La nouvelle édition inclut ces parties aussi et elles ont été traduites par Arshak Madoyan.

TEHRAN -- Iranian scholar Abolfazl Horri is busy translating the book “Coherence in the Quran”, written by Pakistani scholar Mustansir Mir, from English into Persian.

The book, to be released by Hekmat Publications after the translation is complete, reviews the coherence of the Quran, giving a response to those who believe the Holy Quran lacks coherence.

“Some Orientalists claim the Quran is void of any coherence since it took 23 years to be sent down to the Prophet Muhammad (S). Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle tried to say that 23 years is a long time for a book to preserve the coherence in its verses,” Horri told the Persian service of MNA on Saturday.

The first chapter follows the opinions of ulema and interpreters of early Islam about the issue of coherence, and the second chapter covers the idea of order, Horri said.

Chapters three and four studies the methods and interpretations by eminent world scholars such as Amin Ahsan Islahi (1904–1997), the Pakistani Muslim scholar, famous for his Urdu exegeses of Quran.

WRIGHT WAY: A screenplay Bible translation? - The Associated Press reported on a new Bible translation that turns the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into an American English screenplay. No joke. There is now a version of the Bible in screenplay fo...

The Associated Press reported on a new Bible translation that turns the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into an American English screenplay. No joke. There is now a version of the Bible in screenplay format.

The AP provided a quote from this latest Bible in which God confronts Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit:

“Adam (pointing at the woman): It was she! The woman You gave me as a companion put the fruit in my hands, and I ate it.

“God (to the woman): What have you done?

“Eve: It was the serpent! He tricked me, and I ate.”

Later, Eve bears her first son, Cain.

“Eve (excited): Look, I have created a new human, a male child, with the help of the Eternal.”

Read more: Cleveland Daily Banner - WRIGHT WAY A screenplay Bible translation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A new Bible translation tackles the challenge of turning ancient Greek and Hebrew texts into modern American English and then adds a twist: It's written like a screenplay.

Take the passage from Genesis in which God gets angry at Adam for eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil:

"Adam (pointing at the woman): It was she! The woman You gave me as a companion put the fruit in my hands, and I ate it.

"God (to the woman): What have you done?

"Eve: It was the serpent! He tricked me, and I ate."

Later, Eve bears her first son, Cain.

"Eve (excited): Look, I have created a new human, a male child, with the help of the Eternal."

Even people who have never read the Bible could probably guess that other translations don't say Adam pointed his finger at Eve when he blamed her for his disobedience. Neither do other Bibles describe Eve as "excited" about her newborn son.

Translation and Rewriting (in Arabic)
Author/Editor: Ali, Kadhim

Year of publication: 2012

Keywords: Rewriting, Lefevere

Place of Publication & Publisher: http://www.iraqiwi.com/news.php?action=view&id=16596

Publisher URL: Iraqi Writers Association

ISBN/ISSN: N/A

Price and ordering information:
Free online

Publication blurb:
Summary in Arabic of Jeremy Munday's discussion of Andre Lefevere's theory of rewriting.
Download resource (PDF file):

http://www.translationstudiesportal.org/uploads/Kadhim Rewriting Theory(1).pdf

A new Bible translation tackles the challenge of turning ancient Greek and Hebrew texts into modern American English and then adds a twist: It's written like a screenplay.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A new Bible translation tackles the challenge of turning ancient Greek and Hebrew texts into modern American English and then adds a twist: It's written like a screenplay.

Take the passage from Genesis in which God gets angry at Adam for eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil:

"Adam (pointing at the woman): It was she! The woman You gave me as a companion put the fruit in my hands, and I ate it.

"God (to the woman): What have you done?

"Eve: It was the serpent! He tricked me, and I ate."

Later, Eve bears her first son, Cain.

"Eve (excited): Look, I have created a new human, a male child, with the help of the Eternal."

Even people who have never read the Bible could probably guess that other translations don't say Adam pointed his finger at Eve when he blamed her for his disobedience. Neither do other Bibles describe Eve as "excited" about her newborn son.

Nashville, Tenn - Una nueva traducción de la Biblia aborda el reto de convertir los antiguos textos griegos y hebreos en un inglés moderno y luego darle...

Ok, so I need about 10 articles rewritten.The articles to be rewritten are around 2000 words each The rewritten articles need to be as different as possible...

Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.
(Ernest Hemingway, "The Art of Fiction," The Paris Review Interview, 1956)

“The Liar,” now onstage at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey in Madison, is an effervescent comedy based on a 1643 play by the French dramatist Pierre Corneille.

A previous article ("Recent trends in the revision of European patent translations") referred to four Supreme Court judgments which dealt with the possibility of revising European patent translations originally applied for ...

GVSU professor Diane Rayor has written a new translation of the play, which will receive its world premiere this week in a production by Heritage Theatre Group.

Well-known economist Bibek Debroy is addressing a growing need among youngsters bred on English as their staple tongue: He is translating the Indian epic Mahabharata in 11 volumes into contemporary...

When I was asked to write the programme notes for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production an African Julius Caesar at Stratford-upon-Avon, I tried to imagine what it would be like. My first image was of African actors struggling to be like Romans speaking quaint 16th century English. It would be admirable but unconvincing. Black skins beneath white masks I had thought. An African Caesar would be almost as awkward as a European Othello.

I could not have been more wrong. It was as if the play was written for those actors. Every gesture and intonation is African. So are the political themes: noble ideals leading good men to bloody murder, the coup against a tyrant followed by the falling out of the conspirators, petty jealousies, sly duplicity and secret plotting. All these themes have haunted African politics for half a century. Here are Idi Amin, Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Laurent Kabila and Colonel Gaddafi. Ashanti togas and wrap-around lappas make it even more authentically African as if the play was about a recent coup in Africa. An all European cast could only to the play as a re-enactment of ancient history. This African production is a news story.

In an interview in The Paris Review in 1958 Ernest Hemingway made an admission that has inspired frustrated novelists ever since: The final words of “A Farewell to Arms,” his wartime masterpiece, were rewritten “39 times before I was satisfied.”

The books were even reworked two years ago to give them more appeal to modern children, with changes including replacing the word “tinker” with “traveller” and making the text more gender-neutral (Anne loves teddies rather than dolls).

There's always an another way to say.
Here's synonyms for some verbs and adjectives.

11 Authors Who Hated the Movie Versions of Their Books

Some of the most beloved movies were based on books. But just because we loved them doesn’t mean the original author did.

“Every time my computer has ever crashed in the middle of writing an unsaved scene, and I had to rewrite it all from word one, it’s turned out better. There’s a lesson in that, and I think it’s this: I don’t need a muse; I need a less dependable computer.” –James V. Smith, Jr. from The Writer’s Little Helper.

The very first writing book I ever purchased was The Writer’s Little Helper by James V. Smith, Jr. When I came across the quote I started this post off with, it stuck with me. I thought it was an interesting observation, although I secretly hoped it was one I’d never have to make myself. Over the years I did a lot of writing and editing and even some rewriting, and as I tried to rewrite sections of my WIP, I would occasionally think back to that quote and silently thank my computer for not crashing on me so I had something to reference while I was rewriting.