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13 April 2006
Not bad work for a head in a jar
...c'est peut-être déjà fait, ils m'ont peut-être déjà dit, ils m'ont peut-être porté jusqu'au seuil de mon histoire, devant la porte qui s'ouvre sur mon histoire, ça m'étonnerait, si elle s'ouvre, ça va être moi, ça va être le silence, là où je suis, je ne sais pas, je ne le saurai jamais, dans le silence on ne sait pas, il faut continuer, je ne peux pas continuer, je vais continuer.
-- L'innomable (1949)
One hundred years old today. His happiest birthday yet, I'll go bail. Many happy returns.
Posted by Mrs Tilton at 03:52 AM | Permalink
Comments
Lemme guess: "It's maybe already done; they've maybe already said it of me; they've maybe carried me to the threshold of my history, before the door that opens upon it, that surprises and shakes me, if it opens: that's going to be me; that's going to be silence; there where I am, I don't know, I will never know it; in the silence one does not know; it is necessary to continue: I can't continue: I'm going to continue.
Posted by: john c. halasz at 21 Apr 2006 05:27:42
That's pretty good, though I might have used a subjunctive in one place where you haven't. The canonical translation ends with '... I can't go on, I'll go on', but yours is more literal.
Posted by: Mrs Tilton at 22 Apr 2006 19:24:16
My ancient high school French is rusty. I need to translate these things to understand them, with or without a dictionary. Where did I miss the subjunctive: "m'etonnerait" or "saurait"? And, yes, "go on" is right,- (I take it the canonical translation comes straight from the horse's mouth),- but oddly it "rhymes" with the "going" version of the future tense. Still, it's a wonderful passage, though I don't think it looks back on or forward to the "name" day: he was beyond that even then. It's all about being stuck in the middle.
Posted by: john c. halasz at 23 Apr 2006 04:13:54
Sorry, Mrs. T., but whilst I might, with a little Scotch courage, face the horrors of eight-legged hairy things mating (see above), Beckett the Bore, Beckett the Incomprehensible, Beckett the Bluffer who first said that you'll never go broke under-estimating the French intelligentsia (he used the wood loosely, I'm sure, and if by some mischance he didn't say it, he jolly well should have), is more than I can face. I know you Irish have a delightful sense of humour sharpened by years of practice on us English, but surely you could be satisfied with one joke per century, and James Joyce was quite enough, thank you all the same!
Posted by: David Duff at 24 Apr 2006 16:18:09
