Have you read Korrektur by Thomas Bernhard, or the English translation by the late Sophie Wilkins, Correction? If you haven't, come back when you have.

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The ventriloquial narrator of the book, Roithamer,'s text is introduced in the German by ", so Roithamer", which you might translate into English by ", says Roithamer" or ", wrote Roithamer" or ", according to Roithamer", none of which preserves the rhythm of the original. The Bernhard sound is at least as important as the Bernhard content. So Sophie Wilkins renders ", so Roithamer" ", so Roithamer".

"so" is not "so". "Roithamer" is "Roithamer". I wonder how odd this looks to people who don't know German.

posted at: 11:49 | path: /OE | permanent link to this entry

This week Google started to offer an interactive scrolly map of the UK built by machines for, as far as I, machines. There is no orography, no contour lines, no lees, no drainage patterns. Nobody could tell from Google Maps where the railway line I take to work sinks out of bright sunlight into cold fog, never to emerge.

It's like a police map of Glasgow or Algiers, except the invisible map pins mark businesses rather than crime scenes or insurgents.

I'm bored, so I want something disruptive. Multimedia messaging might be more use if you could photograph a mystery vegetable or waterfowl and have it identified. Why can't the service for identifying pop music work for birdsong?

This reminds me to remind myself that I like Messiaen.

posted at: 11:25 | path: /maunderings | permanent link to this entry