Posted by Sterling on 26/11/2011, 11:08:30, in reply to "Re: Recent Reading"
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I don't know if you consider in the last decade "new." The only complete translation into English that is not based on the Moncrieff et al. translation was published in Britain in 2002. The first four volumes were published in the US in 2003-2004. For some copyright reason the last two volumes will not be available in the US until 2018. However, in our global economy, it is very easy to acquire the volumes published in the UK.
The general editor of the fresh translation was Christopher Prendergast. Each volume was translated by a different person. For starters, they translated À la recherche du temps perdu literally as In Search of Lost Time. Moncrieff's choice is arguable, of course, becuase Proust is quoting Voltaire's translation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 30. Shakespeare wrote "remembrance of things past," which Voltaire translated as 'à la recherche du temps perdu." On the other hand, I am told that Proust had enough English to know what Shakespeare wrote and chose the Voltaire. I'm sure that Voltaire's is not the only French translation. Quite probably, Proust loved the Voltaire. I am told that he hated the translated English title.
But enough of that. I have the full Moncrieff version on my bookshelf, but so far, I have only acquired Vol. 5 of the Prendergast. (I'm starting by acquiring the more difficult ones to be sure that I can get them.)
I will quote the opening of La prisonnière, translated as The Captive by Moncrieff and as The Prisoner by Prendergast's choice, Carol Clark.
Moncrieff:
At daybreak, my face still turned to the wall, and before I had seen above the big window-curtains what tone the first streaks of light assumed, I could already tell what the weather was like. The first sounds from the street had told me, according to whether they came to my ears deadened and distorted by the moisture of the atmosphere or quivering like arrows in the resonant, empty expanse of a spacious, frosty, pure morning;
Prendergast/Clark:
From early morning, with my face still turned to the wall and before I had seen, above the tall window curtain, the colour of the line of morning light, I already knew what kind of day it was. I could tell from the first street noises, whether they reached me muffled and distorted by dampness or twanging like arrows in the empty, resonant space of a wide-open morning, icy and pure.
I am attracted by what I find to be the greater clarity of the contemporary translation. I am also told that it is closer to the French.
--Previous Message--
: --Previous Message--
: P.S. - As for my own recent reading, I'm still making
: my
: way through the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I am
: collecting the volumes of the recent major translation
: of Proust (including the volumes excluded from the US
: by copyright). I think that will be my next big
: project.
:
: I hadn't heard of this new translation of Proust. How
: different is it from the Moncrieff et. al.
: translation? Are there plans to publish it in the US
: at a later date?
:
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