09 Thursday Jun 2022
Posted in Books, History, Lostintranslation
Tags
Adelbert von Chamisso, German language, Karl Stählin, research, Sir Francis Walsingham, studying languages
Do you speak German, o Readers?
Now, Italian is my native language – and I find it beautiful. Also, as you can probably guess, I love English very much. I also like French and Spanish.
German… not so much. Continue reading
28 Thursday Oct 2021
Posted in Lostintranslation
My favourite way of learning languages is by reading – and no, you are not surprised.
And of course it may take some time before one is proficient enough to really read – but I find that, once I have the hang of basic grammar, one great way to reach that level of proficiency is what I like to call the Rosetta Method: reading the same text in a language I know, and then in the language I’m learning. I love the way it makes me see the language in action, while at the same time forcing me to work out the different cogs-and-wheels of different languages… Continue reading
10 Thursday Sep 2020
Posted in Lostintranslation, Theatre
Back in May, when we were still locked down, and RAI, the Italian television, was making an effort, I happened to see a long interview with playwright/director Alessandro Serra about his Macbettu – a translation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Sardinian dialect. Continue reading
20 Thursday Aug 2020
Posted in Lostintranslation, Scribbling, Stories
Yes, yes – in the end I found it.
We talked about that quote of Bernard Malamud, didn’t we? The one about stories, stories, stories, the one I was sure I’d jotted down and never found again – not in old notebooks, not in the Web… That one.
Well, as was bound to happen, I found it in the end. Continue reading
29 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted in Lostintranslation
Tags
It has occurred to me that there is another thing that I do all the time – beside narrating and/or staging things in my head.
I translate.
Well, maybe not so much in everyday conversation – although I’ve been known to do that as well – but books, films, television, lectures… I seem to possess a special squad of neurons in my brain, on constant translating alert. Continue reading
22 Thursday Jun 2017
Posted in Lostintranslation, Theatre
I have, o Readers, a riddle for you: How is maize like an Ottoman Sultan?
Let me tell you a story. Do you remember Ugo Foscolo and his Salamini/Little Sausages? Do you remember as both I and my friend Dave in the comments wondered how on earth could he have made such a tragedy-killing blunder?
Well, it may be that I know just how… Continue reading
30 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in Lostintranslation, Poetry
Tags
colour perception, Homer, Iliad, Mark Bradley, Odyssey, oinops pontos, sea, Synaesthesia, Vincenzo Monti, William Gladstone, wine
I remember once being given a writing assignment in which I had to list seven meaningful colours, and write about them… How very fun, was my first reaction – only to find myself hopelessly bogged down as soon as I tried.
I could attach no particular meaning to any one colour – say orange or blue – let alone seven… Continue reading
02 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in Lostintranslation
I can’t remember right now whether it is in a letter or in one of the novels (Villette, maybe?) – but at some point Charlotte Brontë, either directly or through one of her French-studying heroines, bemoans the fact that English has no exact correspondence for the French word éffleurer… Continue reading
12 Thursday May 2016
Posted in Lostintranslation, Theatre
Tags
blank verse, Elizabethan English, English to Italian, period language, the wise peasant girl, theatre, Translation
I’m working on a translation project.
Not an extremely huge one – but one I’ve been dreaming about for some time, and of a sort that makes me quake a little. I know I’ve claimed again and again to have no faith in literary translation, but this… well, this is different.
Theatre. Elizabethan. Complicated… Continue reading
02 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted in Lostintranslation, Scribbling
This one I’m pilfering straight from Karavansara – where my friend Dave posted a link to Sasha A. Palmer’s article about Five benefits of writing in your second language.
Well, I write in my second language and Joseph Conrad is one of my literary heroes, and whenever I approach a new language, I can’t wait to play games with it, to use it, to tell stories: the article just beckoned – and thank you, D.
Did I find it interesting? Very. Do I agree with Palmer’s view of the matter? Not entirely. Or perhaps, not that much, considering that I can subscribe to two and a half out of her five points… Continue reading
Scribblings 