RIP Ernesto Sabato (1911-2011)

[Gerardo A]

Don't have my copies of The Tunnel or On Heroes and Tombs or Abaddon: the Angel of Darkness with me, so I can't post the rave reviews from Camus, Gombrowicz, Piovene, Quasimodo, Nadeau and Greene about Sabato (on the back cover of El túnel I think). But do yourselves a favor and read him if you haven't.

[Gerardo A]

Surfer, you might want to learn to read Spanish so you can read my copies (they're in the boxes you're holding for me). Hey, if Joyce learned Norwegian just to read Ibsen, and Freud learned Spanish just to read Don Quixote...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Sabato

[Jesse]

And Beckett wrote in French, to translate himself into English...
RIP, The Tunnel was an early discovery in my encounter with Latin American fiction [launched in '79 or so by an excellent anthology, the title of which escapes me]. I got into Sabato, Llosa, Marquez, Arenas, Fuentes, Borges, so many simultaneously, such strong work I indulged [briefly] an arrogant Latin American fiction trumps everything else snobbishness [I was 24, fer crissakes].

Gerardo, your pics of your child are beautiful, keep 'em coming.

[surfer]

What an odd and eerie coincidence that a new Penguin translation of El Tunel was just released two days ago, after years of languishing in obscurity through a obscure Ballantine edition published in the 80s. Its about time . . . . .

[Gerardo A]

And Beckett wrote in French, to translate himself into English...

And Nabokov wrote both in Russian and in English (my favorite work of his was in English too)...

And thanks ('bout my baby!), will do!

Surfer, that's sweet, I'd love to compare that translation some time with the original.

[faster]

And Beckett wrote in French, to translate himself into English...

And Nabokov wrote both in Russian and in English (my favorite work of his was in English too)...

Don't forget Joseph Conrad!

[Jesse]

The translation of The Tunnel I have at hand is Margaret Sayers Beden-any comments, Gerardo?

[Gerardo A]

The translation of The Tunnel I have at hand is Margaret Sayers Beden-any comments, Gerardo?

Jesse, sorry, but I've only read the original versions in Spanish so I wouldn't know. However, what I can tell you is that I endorse anything translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Bolaño's English translator, she's young and gets all the gritty slang incredibly well), Jerome Rothenberg (the best English translator of Spanish poetry I've found, he even tackled Vicente Huidobro's Altazor, which must a bitch to work on; also, as he's a pretty good poet himself, he was also a close friend of Octavio Paz, who he also translated terribly well), and Gregory Rabassa (Garcia Marquez' "official" translator). BTW you do know my day-job is as a translator, right? I mostly do political/financial texts, but also tackle literature from time to time (it's severely underpaid, though, if you actually get paid to do it, which is why I mostly focus on "Babylon" work, raggamuffin-speaking).

And Beckett wrote in French, to translate himself into English...

And Nabokov wrote both in Russian and in English (my favorite work of his was in English too)...

Don't forget Joseph Conrad!

Of course, not to mention all the Jewish intellectuals from the XIX and early XX century (before the wars and reorganization of European countries) who, for instance, were Russian but also spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Czech, Latin, Greek, and French and English (of course, these two are the "easy" languages). I think Max Brod (Kafka's friend) was one of those, Karl Kraus (the great aphorist) too.

I'm guessing our missed Fearandpanic would add several names to this conversation.

[Gerardo A]

(...) my encounter with Latin American fiction [launched in '79 or so by an excellent anthology, the title of which escapes me]. I got into Sabato, Llosa, Marquez, Arenas, Fuentes, Borges, so many simultaneously, such strong work I indulged [briefly] an arrogant Latin American fiction trumps everything else snobbishness [I was 24, fer crissakes].

I hadn't responded to this point. I'm 31 and still feel that way sometimes! I'm not saying that in a parochial, chauvinistic way, which would be nonsensical, but anyone who can read has to admit that when those guys you mentioned were at their prime (from early 60's to late 70's), they were a pretty hard-to-beat bunch. If you throw in some additional names like Cortazar, Sabato, Onetti, Felisberto Hernandez, Juan Rulfo, Donoso, etc., even Borges who was still doing great work at that point (he always did, really, although his most classic stuff like Ficciones was much earlier (mid-40's I think), they were at the level of any f*cking literature in the history of the world, to say the least. You could also argue it wasn't until someone like Bolaño came along (and several other examples before, but it's late here and I have to go to bed) that Latin American literature finally shook off their influence (which wasn't always a great influence, to be honest). So yeah, I can relate to the feeling you're describing.

[Jesse]

Thanks for the feedback, Gerardo. No, I didn't know you worked as a translator.
Rabassa is the guy I was trying to recall who edited the seminal [for me] anthology of Latin American writers-I think it was titled The Eye of the Heart.

[faster]

Of course, not to mention all the Jewish intellectuals from the XIX and early XX century (before the wars and reorganization of European countries) who, for instance, were Russian but also spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Czech, Latin, Greek, and French and English (of course, these two are the "easy" languages). I think Max Brod (Kafka's friend) was one of those, Karl Kraus (the great aphorist) too.

I'm guessing our missed Fearandpanic would add several names to this conversation.

Yeah, I just meant that English was the third language in which he wrote--and he didn't really learn English until his 20's, iirc. Pretty cool.

[Gerardo A]

Of course, not to mention all the Jewish intellectuals from the XIX and early XX century (before the wars and reorganization of European countries) who, for instance, were Russian but also spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Czech, Latin, Greek, and French and English (of course, these two are the "easy" languages). I think Max Brod (Kafka's friend) was one of those, Karl Kraus (the great aphorist) too.

I'm guessing our missed Fearandpanic would add several names to this conversation.

Yeah, I just meant that English was the third language in which he wrote--and he didn't really learn English until his 20's, iirc. Pretty cool.

Ah that's cool, didn't know it. I've only read Heart of Darkness (of course), but I have The Secret Agent and Lord Jim on my shelf, maybe another sailors one I can't recall. He was Polish, right?