Abstracts
Abstract
As a rule, translation “nurtures” a text, extends its genealogy across cultural and historical divides. The strange account of this article is perhaps the exception that proves the rule. We’ll see a seventy-year old Jorge Luis Borges put heads together with a young Harvard man by the name of Norman Thomas di Giovanni and “re-write the slate clean,” translate old texts for the purpose of “sticking it” to them, suppressing them, even consigning them to oblivion. The collaboration was a bit of inspired naughtiness that we’ll call “translational infamy.” It had enduring consequences, for the good and bad, on the characters populating Borges’s writings and his private life. This equation of translation and oblivion, we’ll see it play out in Borges’s older fictions, specifically Pierre Menard; in the editorial logistics of his collaboration with Di Giovanni; in the creation—and simultaneous translation—of new fictions (Brodie’s Report); and, perhaps most interestingly, in the details of his own biography.
Keywords:
- translation,
- re-writing,
- infamy,
- nihilism,
- history
Résumé
En principe, la traduction ménage son objet, cherchant à lui faire franchir intact les frontières culturelles et historiques du pays de destination. Les curieux faits relatés dans cet article sont sans doute l’exception qui confirme la règle. À soixante-dix ans, Jorge Luis Borges s’associe à un jeune homme de Harvard, Norman Thomas di Giovanni, pour effacer l’ardoise de ses premiers écrits, pour les traduire à seule fin de les malmener, de les supprimer, voire même de les vouer à l’oubli. Leur collaboration espiègle, que nous qualifions d’« infamie traductionnelle », ne va pas sans conséquences - heureuses et malheureuses - tant sur les personnages de Borges que sur sa vie privée. Nous verrons que l’équation traduction / disparition opère dans les premières oeuvres de l’écrivain, surtout dans Pierre Menard, mais aussi dans les pratiques éditoriales adoptées avec Di Giovanni ; dans la création – et la traduction en parallèle – de nouvelles oeuvres (Brodie's Report) ; enfin, plus intéressant encore, jusque dans les détails de sa biographie.
Mots-clés:
- traduction,
- réécriture,
- infamie,
- nihilisme,
- histoire
Appendices
References
- BORGES, Jorge Luis. (1926). El tamaño de mi esperanza. Buenos Aires, Proa.
- ___ (1928). El idioma de los argentinos. Buenos Aires, Manual Gleizer.
- ___ (1957). Manual de zoología fantástica. Mexico, Fondo de cultura económica.
- ___ (1970). “An Autobiographical Essay.” The Aleph and Other Stories. Trans. and ed. Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. New York, Dutton. Original Spanish edition (1949). Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada.
- ___ (1972). Selected Poems. Trans. and ed. Norman Thomas di Giovanni. New York, Delacorte Press.
- ___ (1974). In Praise of Darkness. Trans. Norman Thomas di Giovanni. New York, Dutton. Original Spanish edition (1969). Elogio de la sombra. Buenos Aires, Emecé.
- ___ (1994). “Bill Harrigan, el asesino desinteresado.” Historia universal de la infamia. Madrid, Alianza. Alianza edition from (1974). Buenos Aires, Emecé Editores. English edition by Norman Thomas di Giovanni (1972). A Universal History of Infamy. New York, Dutton.
- ___ (1997). “El encuentro.” “La intrusa.” “Historia de Rosendo Juarez.” “Juan Muraña.” “El otro duelo.” “El evangelio según Marcos.” “El informe de Brodie.” El informe de Brodie. Madrid, Alianza. Alianza edition from (1970). El informe de Brodie. Buenos Aires, Emecé Editores. English edition by Norman Thomas di Giovanni (1971). Doctor Brodie’s Report. New York, Dutton.
- ___ (1997). “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote.” “La biblioteca de Babel.” “El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan.” “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” “La lotería en Babilonia.” Ficciones. Madrid, Alianza. Alianza edition from (1974). Ficciones. Buenos Aires, Emecé.
- BORGES, Jorge Luis and Adolfo BIOY CASARES (1942). Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi. Buenos Aires, Sur.
- BORGES, Jorge Luis and Margarita GUERRERO (1969). The Book of Imaginary Beings. Trans. and ed. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. New York, Dutton. Original Spanish edition (1967). El libro de los seres imaginarios. Buenos Aires, Editorial Kier.
- BERMAN, Antoine (1984). L’Épreuve de l’étranger. Paris, Gallimard.
- BORGES, Jorge Luis (1999). “Problemas de la traducción: el oficio de traducir.” Borges en sur: 1931-1980. Buenos Aires, Emecé.
- BURGIN, Richard (ed.) (1998). Jorge Luis Borges: Conversations. Mississippi, University Press of Mississippi.
- CARRIZO, Antonio (ed.) (1982). Borges el memorioso: conversaciones de Jorge Luis Borges con Antonio Carrizo. Mexico and Buenos Aires, Fondo de cultura económica.
- DI GIOVANNI, Norman Thomas (1988). In Memory of Borges. London, Constable.
- DI GIOVANNI, Norman Thomas, Daniel HALPERN and Frank MacSHANE (eds.) (1973). Borges on Writing. New York, E.P. Dutton.
- FARÍAS, Víctor (1992). La metafísica del arrabal: El tamaño de mi esperanza, un libro desconocido de Jorge Luis Borges. Madrid, Anaya.
- IBARRA, Nestor (1969). Borges et Borges. Paris, Éditions de l’Herne.
- LEFEVERE, André (1992). Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York, Routledge.
- LAFON, Michel (1990). Borges ou la réécriture. Paris, Éditions du Seuil.
- MESCHONNIC, Henri (1973). Pour la poétique II. Paris, Gallimard.
- MONEGAL, Emir Rodriguez (1978). Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography. New York, E.P. Dutton.
- WOODALL, James (1996). The Man in the Mirror of the Book: A Life of Jorge Luis Borges. London, Sceptre.
- Journalism and Other Media
- BORGES, Jorge Luis (2002). This Craft of Verse: Borges in his own Voice, The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures. 1967. Audio CD 4 discs. Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press.
- Obituary (Reuter and AP, Geneva) (1986). “Argentine writer was nominated for Nobel Prize.” The Globe and Mail, 16 June 1986, sec. A, p. 16.
- SNIDER, Norman (1981). “On Heroes and Tombs.” The Globe and Mail, 15 Aug. 1981, sec. E, p. 13.
Works by Borges
*All references correspond to the editions consulted.