Bluma Bezbroda
Basic
- Jan 25, 2016
My English edition of "The Decameron" claims to be the first one translated faithfully from Italian, without omission of any "saucy" details. From the introduction, written by the translator himself, G. H. McWilliam, I learned of the lenghts that previous scholars would go into to "shield" readers from inapropriate content. Except the most obvious removal of the offending paragraphs a common method was to translate them into French, or simply leave them in original Italian (usually with a charming footnote "My translating skills are too poor to do justice to this fragment").
Indeed, as recently as 1980, my beloved John Boswell in "Christianity, social tolerance and homosexuality" complains on the inadequacy of information common reader and scholar alike may encounter: latin word irrumo being translated in dictionaries (!) as "to treat in a foul or shameful manner, to abuse, decieve", when in fact it means something quite different.
I used to laugh at these silly prudences of times-long-past, not knowing that soon the joke will be on me.
When treasure-hunting at the local flea market I was lucky to find, among other things, an album titled "Chinese Erotic Art". There are two things I take into consideration before making a purchase like this. Firstly, the authors. I would like some real scientists behind a work of this nature, not just someone chasing a cheap sensation. Checked. Then when it was published- call me silly, but I've grown to think that they don't write non-fiction like they used to nowadays. It's from the 60ties, very good. After skimming through the content I found that the book contains not only illustrations (of course) and commentary but also translations of medieval Chinese love poems and erotic novels. Pictures you can find on the internet but that, that is really rare.
Perfectly satisfied I payed 18E and took the book home. I read the introduction, very good, much intellectual value. Then come the love poems- yes, yes. Finally, the erotic novels and another introduction. I read it with great interest and prepare myself for the Asian equivalent of Casanova's diaries. Finally, the main text-the hero dresses himself in his most expensive clothes, sprinkles himself with oinment then enters a bawdy house and I am treated to an incredibly exciting paragraph... in Latin!
It started with one paragraph, which my partner was kind enough to translate for me, but soon enough I was left with a whole page containing just one English sentence. I threw such a tantrum that my partner rushed to check if there is not a more contemporary translation avaliable in the National Library (there is and he already booked it for me).
Usually it would be customary to end with a question "Did my fellow Litopians have similar problems?", but in this case I guess "What do you think of that" is more appropriate
Indeed, as recently as 1980, my beloved John Boswell in "Christianity, social tolerance and homosexuality" complains on the inadequacy of information common reader and scholar alike may encounter: latin word irrumo being translated in dictionaries (!) as "to treat in a foul or shameful manner, to abuse, decieve", when in fact it means something quite different.
I used to laugh at these silly prudences of times-long-past, not knowing that soon the joke will be on me.
When treasure-hunting at the local flea market I was lucky to find, among other things, an album titled "Chinese Erotic Art". There are two things I take into consideration before making a purchase like this. Firstly, the authors. I would like some real scientists behind a work of this nature, not just someone chasing a cheap sensation. Checked. Then when it was published- call me silly, but I've grown to think that they don't write non-fiction like they used to nowadays. It's from the 60ties, very good. After skimming through the content I found that the book contains not only illustrations (of course) and commentary but also translations of medieval Chinese love poems and erotic novels. Pictures you can find on the internet but that, that is really rare.
Perfectly satisfied I payed 18E and took the book home. I read the introduction, very good, much intellectual value. Then come the love poems- yes, yes. Finally, the erotic novels and another introduction. I read it with great interest and prepare myself for the Asian equivalent of Casanova's diaries. Finally, the main text-the hero dresses himself in his most expensive clothes, sprinkles himself with oinment then enters a bawdy house and I am treated to an incredibly exciting paragraph... in Latin!
It started with one paragraph, which my partner was kind enough to translate for me, but soon enough I was left with a whole page containing just one English sentence. I threw such a tantrum that my partner rushed to check if there is not a more contemporary translation avaliable in the National Library (there is and he already booked it for me).
Usually it would be customary to end with a question "Did my fellow Litopians have similar problems?", but in this case I guess "What do you think of that" is more appropriate
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