paracelsus, italian translation of BOTNS

maa32 · 12 Feb 2002, 18:32 · from urth-v0202.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) paracelsus, italian translation of BOTNS
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 11:32:37 -0700
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Since Paracelsus came up, and the elixer applied to swords that can heal or=20
harm, I was reminded of the scene in Castleview which talks about the heali=
ng=20
property of scabards and of the book I am in the middle of right now:
Umberto Eco's "Island of the Day Before".  I have been reminded of Wolfe th=
e=20
whole time I've been reading it, and Paracelsus' sword and other alchemical=20
tidbits are important to the work, which is science fiction as it might hav=
e=20
been written in the 17th century (crossing the date line [to restore a slai=
n=20
friend to life] and discovering longitude with accuracy seems similar to=20
discovering faster than light travel or something).
There are several parallels between Severian's narrative and the Island of =
the=20
Day Before (we should remember that the book of the new sun is popular in=20
Italy).  There is a wounded dog that is kept wounded so that the time may b=
e=20
accurately known (the blade used to wound the dog is exposed to irritants a=
t=20
noon in Europe, while the dog is taken on the journey and his wound constan=
tly=20
flayed with salt so that it will not heal - the alchemical sympathy between=20
the blade and the wound allow the men on the ship to know the time and=20
determine where they are based on the stars or something).  It really remin=
ded=20
me of Triskele.  The hero falls down the stairs in a ship like Severian fal=
ls=20
when he is discorporated, cutting himself with a weapon that seems to be ba=
sed=20
off of Paracelsus, with the ability to heal or destroy.  It has gotten awfu=
l=20
reviews on amazon.com, but I like it tons more than "Foucalt's Pendulum",=20
which I felt deep down was a waste of my time.

ALSO, since I have some experience reading Italian (but wouldn't consider=20
myself fluent by any means), I actually have the Italian translation of Boo=
k=20
of the New Sun (mainly to see how the words were translated).  If we accept=20
that a translation can accurately approximate the "spirit" of the original=20
work, there are some interesting things that happen.  The rhyme that Severi=
an=20
uses to hide his little coin is COMPLETELY different than the rhyme he spea=
ks=20
when he picks it up at the end of Citadel of the Autarch in the Italian=20
version.  Scarcely two words are the same.  It is fascinating how much word=
s=20
can change in just a simple poem like that -> That really made me wonder ab=
out=20
the possibility of translating an author like Wolfe, where the devil is rea=
lly=20
in the details.  I wonder if some of my favorite foreign authors should rea=
lly=20
be attributed to good translators ... but then again, the Book of the New S=
un=20
claims to be a translation anyway.
Marc Aramini

--=20

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