Is it possible to talk about a musical translation? We talk about musical interpretations. Succinct and beyond modern in its attitudes, “On Translation” puts forward the idea that translation is a genre of writing unto itself, and much more than the transfer of ideas between languages :Ī translated text has been translated by someone based on a first reading which is always just as personal as the writing, and which can never be erased.
In a book that is largely about writing, however, a short essay about the art and craft of translation stood out for me. In Me & Other Writing, t here are pieces of varying length and depth collected, ranging from meditations on Duras’ s mother to essays on Flaubert, local new s, reading, writing, Yves Saint Laurent, and so much more. It is this duality in the “me” voice that makes these essays so endearing and easy to engage with.Īlthough more well known for her work as a novelist and playwright, Duras was also an author of nonfiction, with books such as Writing, The War: A Memoir and Practicalities. Her voice comes across as measured yet absolute, generous yet unrelenting. Duras writes this “me, ” this “I, ” this assured voice that lends an air of assurance to outspoken and controversial opinions.
Even as she ages, even as she is struggles with alcoholism, Duras’ s sense of self in these pages as an active, never-resting being who must write persists. They span thirty years and have no clear connecting thread other than Duras’ s recurring exploration of her own enduring, fastidious writerly self and the themes that haunted her for her entire life. Many of the pieces collected here are appearing in English for the first time. Duras, on the other hand, comes across as a hyperactive, if not always systematic, writer throughout Me & Other Writing, a volume of her selected nonfiction works just out with the publishing project Dorothy, and translated by Olivia Baes and Emma Ramadan with an introduction from Dan Gunn. In the first entry of the long, episodic essay Summer 8 0, Marguerite Duras asks: “ And what is this concept of summer anyway? ” A timely question for the arrival of a new collection of her writing - fond memories of summer with its heat and slowness and inactivity.
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