|
|
|
You are at
Home — Forum — books — Praising the syntax of a translated author?
|
Guides
To get the printed Guides or download the files, click here.
Specials
60% discount! A complete Dalkey Archive translated collection: 70 books for $400.
Modern Classics 50 of Peter Owen's finest books for $500.
30% discount! A set of nine printed Babel Guides
News
Enter your email address and we'll send you updates on what we are doing.
Sponsors
 Check out Boulevard's
Literary, Jewish, and Hungarian books here.
|
|
|
By
day
Wed Dec 18th, 2002 at 14:13:31 GMT
|
|
Praising the syntax of a translated author?
|
There's an interesting paragraph in The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists (paperback 1982 edition, p.37) It's giving advice regarding the development of good syntax, and lists several well-known writers. One of those listed is Gabriel García Márquez! Wouldn't Gregory Rabassa or another of Márques' translators be the more appropriate recipent of a good syntax reward?
|
| You might say, "The credit is going to the author's Spanish syntax". But Márquez is grouped with ten English-language writers -- including Nabokov, who self-translates.
Considering that the guide seems to be focused on editing English, how would Spanish syntax skills be relevant? Is there any correlation among the syntax skills of a multilingual writer?
Is this an instance of judging an author when it's the translator's words that are set on paper? |
|
|
|
