A Break
I'm in the process of translating Irène Némirovsky's Suite française.
The book is thus far very intriguing to me. To give a little back story, Irène Némirovsky was a fairly well-known french female writer before WWII and then later was held captive in a German concentration camp. She kept a journal/notes of her experiences up until her death...Her daughter kept the journal of her mother close until just recently when she revealed her secret to a friend. So far it is only available overseas in the UK. But I do believe the English translation is in the works.
Translating it is a booger. Many of the sentences contain vocabulary unknown to me -- I think some of it might be of the author's own creation. I don't know. The french dictionaries I've used haven't been helpful, though I can make reasonable connotative inferences according to context. It's actually really rewarding not having to rely on an English translation that someone else translated. Perhaps I'm making mistakes in my translation, but I'm working with a few people more qualified to translate from french to english than I who are also in the process of reading the book. The group effort is rewarding. Hopefully when I get to Princeton I'll meet others who might like to work on this translation with me. Actually I'll probably be too busy with Greek and Hebrew studies. This translation may have to wait.
If you would like to check out the book I think it's around £ 21 on Amazon.com ($45 roughly).
Anyway, back to work...
The book is thus far very intriguing to me. To give a little back story, Irène Némirovsky was a fairly well-known french female writer before WWII and then later was held captive in a German concentration camp. She kept a journal/notes of her experiences up until her death...Her daughter kept the journal of her mother close until just recently when she revealed her secret to a friend. So far it is only available overseas in the UK. But I do believe the English translation is in the works.
Translating it is a booger. Many of the sentences contain vocabulary unknown to me -- I think some of it might be of the author's own creation. I don't know. The french dictionaries I've used haven't been helpful, though I can make reasonable connotative inferences according to context. It's actually really rewarding not having to rely on an English translation that someone else translated. Perhaps I'm making mistakes in my translation, but I'm working with a few people more qualified to translate from french to english than I who are also in the process of reading the book. The group effort is rewarding. Hopefully when I get to Princeton I'll meet others who might like to work on this translation with me. Actually I'll probably be too busy with Greek and Hebrew studies. This translation may have to wait.
If you would like to check out the book I think it's around £ 21 on Amazon.com ($45 roughly).
Anyway, back to work...
posted by Timcom at 11:12 AM
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