fwriction

I’ve been immersed in translation lately, and Lydia Davis, so this is a wonderful combination. This will be a continuing series over the next two weeks, leading to Davis speaking at the 92nd Street Y on October 4.

“It happened several time while I was doing the translation that I would open a newly discovered previous translation of Madame Bovary and my heart would sink. I would say to myself: Well, this is quite good! The work I’m doing may be pointless, after all! Then I would look more closely, and compare it to the original, and it would begin to seem less good. I would get to know it really well, and then it would seem completely inadequate.”