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  1. Last 7 days
  2. Jan 2024
    1. Luhmann’s claim in ‘Communicating with Slipboxes’, where he said: “it is most important that we decide against the systematic ordering in accordance with topics and sub-topics and choose instead a firm fixed place (Stellordnung).”

      Curious that he quotes Luhmann from Manfred Kuehn's translation, but links to a separate translation

  3. Nov 2023
    1. If you consult any dictionary you will see that the word“exactitude” is not among the synonyms of faithfulness.There are rather loyalty, honesty, respect, and devotion.Umberto Eco1Although Eco was referring to the translation of literarytexts in the lines above

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  4. Oct 2023
    1. Here is Alter’s version of the well-known opening of Genesis 21, part of the story of Isaac, the miracle baby of 90-year-old Sarah, and her 99-year-old husband, Abraham: “And the Lord singled out Sarah.” The word Alter is translating as “singled out” is pakad. The King James, and most others after it, translate it as “visited.” The Jewish Publication Society has it as “remembered.” Others translate it as “kept his word,” “took note of,” “was gracious to,” “was attentive to” or “blessed.” A good literal version, provided by the canny contemporary translator Everett Fox, has it as “took account of” — and there is something numerical and even administrative about pakad. (Elsewhere in the Bible, in the context of describing a public census, pakad means “to number”; in modern Hebrew, it is related to the words for “officer,” “clerk” and “roll-call.”) Weaving together its numerical dimensions with a thread of bureaucratic banality, Alter yields the anxious verb “singled out” and with it, reveals new layers of tension in this story.

      translation of pakad, an administrative word literally translated as "took account of" as "took note of"

    1. The only place in the Hebrew Bible where nasab is translated as a pillar is the case of Lot’s wife: “Lot’s wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). The Hebrew word nasab indicates that Lot’s wife was standing in place like a pillar.
    2. The pillars or sacred stones were stones set apart for religious use. The word massebah comes from the Hebrew word nasab, a word which means “to stand.”
    3. There are two words in Hebrew that are associated with standing stones: the word ʼben and the word massebah.
    1. Thurman, Judith. “How Emily Wilson Made Homer Modern.” The New Yorker, September 11, 2023. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/18/emily-wilson-profile.

      The story of the Wilson family set against the backdrop of The Iliad.

    2. Penelope’s is opaque. (Her name means “veil over the face.”)
    3. Wilson’s translations are the first in English to jettison slurs or euphemisms that mask the abjection of women in a society where a goal of war, according to the Iliad, was to rob men of their women, and where female captives of every rank were trafficked for sex and domestic labor.
    4. Stallings said, “Does Emily’s clarity betray that element of the epic register that Matthew Arnold calls ‘nobility’? Some critics think a certain grandeur is missing. But every translation is a compromise, even a great one.”

      esp. the last portion

      every translation is a compromise, even a great one.

    5. Homer introduces him with the adjective polytropos—literally, “of many turns.” Previous translators have called him “shifty,” “cunning,” and a hundred other things. After grappling with the alternatives, Wilson chose “complicated,” hoping also to convey the sense of “problematic.” Her first sentence—“Tell me about a complicated man”—instantly makes him our familiar: that charismatic prince who’s too impossible to live with and too desirable to live without.
    6. The opening of Robert Fagles’s widely admired Odyssey, she points out, uses two English words for every Greek one.
    1. Wood, Graeme. “The Iliad We’ve Lost: What Emily Wilson’s ‘Iliad’ Misses.” The Atlantic, October 2, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/emily-wilson-iliad-translation-homer/675444/.

    2. Fagles opts for midriff, which once meant “diaphragm” in English but today makes it sound like Sarpedon was speared somewhere between his low-rise jean shorts and his crop top.

      phrenes - a word connected in ancient Greece to the idea of respiration and of the soul

    3. When she is given a chance to coin a new and unusual phrase and free into English a word hitherto trapped in the amber of Greek, she unfailingly chooses the ordinary and imperfect English word.
    4. The critic Guy Davenport, in a pan of Lattimore, wrote that translation is a game of two languages, and that “the translator is in constant danger of inventing a third that lies between.”
  5. Sep 2023
  6. Jul 2023
    1. Morson, Gary Saul. “The Pevearsion of Russian Literature.” Commentary Magazine, July 1, 2010. https://www.commentary.org/articles/gary-morson/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/.

      You have to love the reference to perversion of Pevear's name in the title! Wonder how they'd translate this into Russian...

    2. Nowhere is the P&V distortion so plain and disturbing as in their versions of Tolstoy.Critics sometimes say it is impossible to ruin Tolstoy because his diction is so straightforward. But it is actually quite easy to misrepresent him if one does not understand the language of novels. Since Jane Austen, novels have tended to trace a character’s thoughts in the third person. The choice of words, and the way one thought begets another, belongs to the character, and so we come to know her inner voice. At the same time, the character’s view may not comport with the author’s, and it is the art of the writer to make clear that what the character is seeing is deluded or self-serving or foolish. This “double-voicing” lies at the heart of the 19th-century novelistic enterprise. For Dickens and Trollope, “double-voicing” becomes the vehicle of satire, while George Eliot and Tolstoy use it for masterful psychological exploration. If one misses what is going on, the whole point of a passage can be lost.
    3. readers typically turn to translations not to hear about culinary ephemera but to read literature.

      Part of literature is the Great Conversation, which often turns on the ability for writers to be understood and appreciated, often in translation. Gary Saul Morson takes P&V to task for their Russian translations which often focus on the incredibly specific nuances of direct translation, but which simultaneously lose the beauty and sense of literature. He says, "[...] readers typically turn to translations not to hear about culinary ephemera but to read literature."

    1. Remnick, David. “The Translation Wars.” The New Yorker, October 30, 2005. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/11/07/the-translation-wars.

    2. At the end of our last conversation in Paris, Pevear went to his shelves and pulled down a volume in French, and read a prayer by Larbaud addressed to St. Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin. Following the line with his finger, Pevear squinted and, slowly, translated: “Excellent Doctor, Light of the Holy Church, Blessed Jerome. I am about to undertake a task full of difficulties, and from this moment on I beg of you to help me with your prayers so I can translate this work into French with the same spirit with which it was composed.”
    3. Pevear, especially, has read some of the theory about translation: Walter Benjamin, José Ortega y Gasset, Roman Jakobson, and, of course, Nabokov.

      Some authors who have written about translations.

    4. Pevear and Volokhonsky told me that they considered Nabokov’s “Onegin” one of the great triumphs of translation, even though it is nothing like their own work. Nabokov, who regarded “The Gift” and “Lolita” as his best novels, thought that his “Onegin” was perhaps the most important project of his life and, at the same time, like all translation, innately futile.
    5. To compare the Garnett and the Pevear-Volokhonsky translations of “The Brothers Karamazov” is to alight on hundreds of subtle differences in tone, word choice, word order, and rhythm.“These changes seem small, but they are essential. They accumulate,” Pevear said. “It’s like a musical composition and a musician, an interpretation. If your fingers are too heavy or too light, the piece can be distorted.”“It can also be compared to restoring a painting,” Volokhonsky said. “You can’t overdo it, but you have to be true to the thing.”
    6. For instance, they will not use an English word that the Oxford English Dictionary says came into use after the publication of the novel they are translating.
  7. Jun 2023
  8. Apr 2023
    1. By the way, I would now revise the sentence you quote to read: "Fixed numbers, abstracted from any content-based order relying on the entire structure has ..."

      It would seem that the version of the translation of Luhmann's Communication with Zettelkasten at http://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes is more up to date than the older archived version at https://web.archive.org/web/20150825031821/http://scriptogr.am/kuehnm because it takes into consideration smaller updates like this.

      See: - https://github.com/Zettelkasten-Method/luhmann.surge.sh/commits/master/communicating-with-slip-boxes.html

  9. Feb 2023
  10. Jan 2023
    1. to heaven. I see that if my facts were sufficiently vital and significant,—perhaps transmuted more into the substance of the human mind,—Ishould need but one book of poetry to contain them all.

      I have a commonplace-book for facts and another for poetry, but I find it difficult always to preserve the vague distinction which I had in my mind, for the most interesting and beautiful facts are so much the more poetry and that is their success. They are translated from earth

      —Henry David Thoreau February 18, 1852

      Rather than have two commonplaces, one for facts and one for poetry, if one can more carefully and successfully translate one's words and thoughts, they they might all be kept in the commonplace book of poetry.

    1. Facing the Philistine army is King Saul, his general Abner, son of Ner,and the Israelite warriors. They gather between Socoh and Azekah, at theplace referred to as “Ephes-dammim,” or, in another tradition, “Pas-dammim.” Various battles in which David’s heroes were involved (1Chronicles 11:13) occurred at this place. The name Ephes-dammim doesnot appear in the list of the cities of the tribe of Judah, or in traditions laterthan the time of David. Recently, David Adams, who has worked at KhirbetQeiyafa, has proposed understanding the word “Ephes” in this context asthe border, while “dammim” means blood in Hebrew. He therefore explainsthe name as meaning the “border of blood,” in other words, the bloodybattle zone.3
  11. Dec 2022
    1. Zettelkasten, which in American English means notebox, and in Euro-pean English translates to slip box.

      What really supports this distinction? The closest historical American English translation is probably "card index" from the early 1900s while the broader academic historical translation is "slip box".

    1. Duolingo or whatever French and I had this idea well basically what it reminds me of is Stefan's Vig the Austrian

      https://youtu.be/r9idbh-U2kM?t=3544

      Stefan Zweig (reference? his memoir?) apparently suggested that students translate authors as a means of becoming more intimately acquainted with their work. This is similar to restating an author in one's own words as a means of improving one's understanding. It's a lower level of processing that osculates on the idea of having a conversation with a text.

      tk: track this reference down. appropriate context?

  12. Nov 2022
  13. Aug 2022
    1. The sheet box

      Interesting choice of translation for "Die Kartei" by the translator. Some may have preferred the more direct "file".

      Historically for this specific time period, while index cards were becoming more ubiquitous, most of the prior century researchers had been using larger sheets and frequently called them either slips or sheets based on their relative size.

      Beatrice Webb in 1926 (in English) described her method and variously used the words “cards”, “slips”, “quarto”, and “sheets” to describe notes. Her preference was for quarto pages which were larger pages which were likely closer to our current 8.5 x 11” standard than they were to even larger index cards (like 4 x 6".

      While I have some dissonance, this translation makes a lot of sense for the specific time period. I also tend to translate the contemporaneous French word “fiches” of that era as “sheets”.

      See also: https://hypothes.is/a/OnCHRAexEe2MotOW5cjfwg https://hypothes.is/a/fb-5Ngn4Ee2uKUOwWugMGQ

    1. I have a notifications on the German equivalent to craigslist on Karteikasten, Karteikartenschrank, Karteischrank, Apothekenschrank and the like in a 50km radius around here. Hope one day something comes up that is reasonable priced and small enough to fit the trunk of our little electric car :-)

      https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/wjvoqq/if_youre_going_to_cast_some_zettels_you_may_as/

      A list of German words and English equivalents for index card related containers and furniture

      Karteikasten - index box<br /> Karteikartenschrank - index card cabinet<br /> Karteischrank - filing cabinet Apothekenschrank - apothecary cabinet

  14. May 2022
    1. Ms. Jones, who had previously edited translations of the French philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, the Child book opened a new career path, editing culinary writers: James Beard and Marion Cunningham on American fare, Madhur Jaffrey (Indian food), Claudia Roden (Middle Eastern), Edna Lewis (Southern), Lidia Bastianich and Marcella Hazan (Italian), and many others.
  15. Mar 2022
    1. glas is a very old word, and while the more modern gwyrdd is used for green, glas can in fact be both blue and green, depending on context. The idea behind glas is not so much a colour itself, but the attribute you’d give to plants that are alive. The opposite is llwyd, which is connected to “dead” things like rocks, so naturally you’d translate it as gray, but sometimes it’s used as brown, too. (Again, the Welsh word brown is much newer than llwyd.)

      The older Welsh words 'glas' and 'llwyd' designate both colors (green/blue and gray/brown respectively) but also indicate the idea of 'being alive' (like plants) or 'dead' (like rocks).

      These words can sometimes be translated differently than the more modern words gwyrdd (green), glas (blue), llwyd (grey), brown (brown).

      Irish is somewhat similar, where 'glas' is green, but usually for the less vivid greens of the natural world (seaweed might be called 'glas') versus artificial vivid green (the green on the Irish flag would be 'uaine'). However a 'madra glas' is not a green or blue dog, but a grey one.

      Glasgow / Glaschu (the place name) means "green hollow".

  16. Feb 2022
    1. When Arnaud’s mother saw me looking around the shared house at the holidays with a squinty face, she smiled and said, “Qui a lâché Médor?”

      "Qui a lâché Médor?" (or who let in the dog, Médor is the French equivalent of Spot), is the French equivalent of "Who cut the cheese?" in relation to smelling a potential fart, presumably because the French wouldn't malign a smelly cheese.

  17. Jan 2022
    1. Even finding terms totranslate concepts like ‘lord’, ‘commandment’ or ‘obedience’ intoindigenous languages was extremely difficult; explaining theunderlying theological concepts, well-nigh impossible.

      Example of the difficulty of translating words when the underlying concepts don't exist in a culture.

  18. Dec 2021
    1. As a result of extensive work with this technique a kind of secondary memory will arise, an alter ego with who we can constantly communicate.

      I want to look at the original German for this sentence, particularly with respect to the translation of the phrase "secondary memory". Is the translation semantic or literal? Might the original German have been a more literal "second brain"?

      Compare this to the one or two other examples of this sort of translation from the German.

    2. index card file

      Given the use case that Niklas Luhmann had, the translation of zettelkasten into English is better read as "index card file" rather than the simpler and more direct translation "slip box".

      While it's not often talked about in the recent contexts, there is a long history of using index cards for note taking in the United States and the idea of an index card file was once ubiquitous. There has been such a long span between this former ubiquity and our digital modernity that the idea of a zettelkasten seems like a wondrous new tool, never seen before. As a result, people in within social media, the personal knowledge management space, or the tools for thought space will happily use the phrase zettelkasten as if it is the hottest and newest thing on the planet.

  19. Nov 2021
    1. I have used the Oxford text of T. W. Allen, 2nd edition, and followed itexcept in a very few places

      The source of the translation of the Odyssey by Richmond Lattimore is the 2nd edition of the Oxford text of T. W. Allen.

  20. Jul 2021
    1. https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2008/2008.12.41/

      A searing review of David R. Slavitt's translation of Lucretius.

      The "close enough" nature of the translation seems like the intellectual slide shown by too many moderns which decontextualizes our historical precedents. Perhaps fine for a quick view, but could be a slippery slope for taking as part of the basis for Western intellectual tradition.

    2. Slavitt’s volume enters a crowded field where there are praiseworthy translations of Lucretius in both prose and poetry. There was no need for yet another English version of the De Rerum Natura, and Slavitt’s attempt to compete with the likes of the venerable Bailey, the reliable Melville and the often sublime Stallings should serve as an impetus for those interested in Lucretius to learn Latin, or at least to use a translation that is more Lucretius and less David Slavitt.

      An apt summary of a scathing review.

      Also a handy ranking of some of the extant translations.

    3. Seems as if Slavitt has translated a lot of modernity into an ancient text which likely didn't have many of our modern references. This seems to be the sort of reading into a text that many moderns do to the Bible. Better would be to read it as the author intended to the audience to which it was intended rather than reading additional meanings into the text.

    4. In general, the greatest deficiency in the translation (besides its omissions) is failure to capture Lucretius’ style: archaism and indeed repetition are part of what makes Lucretius Lucretius (and not Slavitt).

      Archaism and repetition are part of what makes Lucretius Lucretius.

    5. No indication is given of how his version might be better than Stallings’ Penguin, or the Oxford verse translation of Melville, another formidable competitor Slavitt does not equal.

      David R. Slavitt's translation isn't as solid as those of A.E. Stallings or Ronald Melville.

      I've been skimming Stallings' this morning and it is quite nice. I'll have to pull up Melville's.

      Ronald Melville, Lucretius On the Nature of the Universe. Oxford, 1997. Also Anthony M. Esolen, Lucretius On the Nature of Things. Baltimore, 1995.

  21. Apr 2021
    1. Hérigone's only important work is the six volume Cursus mathematicus, nova, brevi, et clara methodo demonstratus Ⓣ<span class="non-italic">(</span>Course on mathematics : new, short, and with clear methods shown<span class="non-italic">)</span> or, to give it its French title, Cours mathematique, demonstre d'une nouvelle, briefve, et claire methode which appeared between 1634 and 1642.

      There is a clever little bit of UI on this page in which there appears a red letter T in a circle after the Latin title. If one clicks it ,there's a pop up of the translation of the title into English.

  22. Dec 2020
    1. The work translated here has traditionally been calledDe arca Noe mystica, or ‘‘TheArk of Noah According to the Spiritual Method of Reading.’’
  23. Oct 2020
    1. Concerning the discipline of sociology, he described the dichotomy of sedentary life versus nomadic life as well as the inevitable loss of power that occurs when warriors conquer a city. According to the Arab scholar Sati' al-Husri, the Muqaddimah may be read as a sociological work. The work is based around Ibn Khaldun's central concept of 'aṣabiyyah, which has been translated as "social cohesion", "group solidarity", or "tribalism". This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun's analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds – psychological, sociological, economic, political – of the group's downfall, to be replaced by a new group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion. Some of Ibn Khaldun's views, particularly those concerning the Zanj people of sub-Saharan Africa,[27] have been cited as a racist,[28] though they were not uncommon for their time. According to the scholar Abdelmajid Hannoum, Ibn Khaldun's description of the distinctions between Berbers and Arabs were misinterpreted by the translator William McGuckin de Slane, who wrongly inserted a "racial ideology that sets Arabs and Berbers apart and in opposition" into his translation of the Muqaddimah.
    1. The worst answer I can imagine is the one Pope Gregory VII gave for refusing to let the Holy Scripture be translated out of Latin: “... [I]f it were plainly apparent to all men, perchance it would be little esteemed and be subject to disrespect; or it might be falsely understood by those of mediocre learning, and lead to error.”

      I'd push back on this a bit by saying that there are huge swaths of people looking at English translations, of Latin translations, of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic translations. Not only is there some detail lost in the multiple levels of translation, but many modern Christians are actively mis-applying the stories in the Bible to apply to their modern lives in radically different ways than was intended.

    1. However, if Welsh does not yet possess a spoken standard, it does possess a literary standard which can be traced back to the translation of the Bible by Bishop WIlliam Morgan in 1588, which in turn is based on the language of the medieval court poets who were the heirs of the Cynfeirdd, the earl poets Aneirin and Taliesin. These lived in the sixth century AD and described battles which took place in today's Scotland and Northern England [...]

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    1. “Am I to understand,” I asked, “that you leave the whole of the property, of every sort and description, of which you die possessed, absolutely to Lady Verinder?” “Yes,” said Sir John. “Only, I put it shorter. Why can’t you put it shorter, and let me go to sleep again? Everything to my wife. That’s my Will.”

      This is so hilarious! An instance of translation, from legalese to ordinary speech and back.