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Sunday, June 17, 2012

Translation Diary, Entry #4

I find myself resorting more to Britishisms in my translation, things like "the only thing for it was to...", "each to each.". I've even used "rubbish." As a verb.

I don't know if these will stay in the final version. And I don' know if they're there now because there is something of a  European sensibility to the book that is better expressed in British English than in American.

Or perhaps it's because this book, and especially the introduction, is so clearly a labor of love, a book about a certain kind of love, quite literally and explicitly about possession, and I've only just fallen out of love with and become disposed by and from the Brit with whom I've spent the better part of the last decade as on-again-off-again, love-and-hate soulmates with benefits, but the link between love and English English hasn't fully reabsorbed itself into the inaccessible reaches of my mind. It's the relationship that has had the greatest impact of my adult life on my speech and language patterns and is now the only discernible scar of a deep wound. Who said scholarly work isn't deeply personal?

Perhaps it's a simpler issue, though. Maybe I just have a very plastic ear and need to stop watching reruns of Inspector Morse for the duration of this project.

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