Subject: (urth) BookImaginaryBeings

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.geis.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 22:12:00 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Reply:  Item #2870989 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#

Xury,

FWIW & IMHO, all of THE BOOK OF IMAGINARY BEINGS is essential reading
for those more than superficially interested in TBOTNS.  Period, end
of report.

=mantis=

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: Pedro Jorge Romero <bempjr at redkbs.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 23:11:37 +0000

> for those more than superficially interested in TBOTNS.  Period, end

I have read TBOIB in Spanish but the Spanish translator of TBOTNS, that
I read in English and then checked in Spanish, obviously didn't because
he got a few things wrong.

Best

Pedro Jorge

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From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 21:15:54 +0000

>he got a few things wrong.

Oh, don't pick on the poor guy. Just imagine his horror after he had
started the translation in earnest and truly realized the magnitude of the
task he had taken on for the first time.

William Ansley

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.geis.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 01:47:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #8579609 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#

Pedro Jorge,

I have never read TBOIB in Spanish (that is to say, ELDLSI, "El libro
de los seres imaginarios"), but I have seen incredible differences in
a few English language editions.  I don't know which English language
edition would be considered the best--I only know first hand how much
some of them differ.  (Borges was fluent in English, at least
conversationally, if I remember correctly?  Wolfe wrote a poem and an
essay talking about how frustrated he felt for Borges who was visiting
the US and had to deal with Americans practicing their high school
Spanish upon him when he [Borges] was speaking to them in English.)

For example, my 1987 edition (Penguin paperback "Revised, enlarged and
translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the
author (1969)"; reprinted with revisions 1974; reprinted 1980, 1984,
1987) has some charm, it also has some hideous typos that seem to have
come from primitive optical scanning output which was never proof read
by human eyes.

Like this case, from the entry under "The Monster Acheron":

"!n [sic] the tenth book of the _Odyssey_ . . . "

It is difficult for me to imagine a copy editor who would mistake "!"
for "I" . . .

Some editions gloss the ancient authors in modern English; others
maintain (or fabricate?) an ancient patina, like this gem regarding
the Crocotta:

"Pliny writes (VIII, 21) that the Crocotta is an animal `ingendred
betwixt a dog and a Wolfe [sic]'"

Well, no--Pliny was writing in Latin, wasn't he?  So this citation,
this gem, would seem to be from a medieval English translation.
>From Latin to medieval English to modern Spanish, then back to
medieval English again?!

Then again, all this textual variation seems so very "Borgesian" in
itself!

=mantis=

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From: Pedro Jorge Romero <bempjr at redkbs.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 06:19:23 +0000

> task he had taken on for the first time.

Well, I am a translator too, and I can realize that perfectly well (when
you make a mistake it is there, printed in a book, for everybody to
see).

Best

Pedro Jorge

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From: Pedro Jorge Romero <bempjr at redkbs.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 06:24:04 +0000

> Spanish upon him when he [Borges] was speaking to them in English.)

There should be an edition co-translated by Borges and Norman Thomas
Di'Giovanni (I am not sure of this name). That was considered the
canonical English language edition.

> come from primitive optical scanning output which was never proof read

That one. The Spanish original is full of tipos too.

> Then again, all this textual variation seems so very "Borgesian" in

Most of those things with translations are supposed to be done on
purpose. And I know that in the translation they went back to the
sources it that was in English.

Best

Pedro Jorge