Subject
Alter,Nabokov Translation philosophy
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(If this has already been sent and I missed, apologies.)
EDNOTE. The full text of Updike's review of Alter's translation/commentary of
the Pentateuch was run. Most of the long essay did not involve VN and I run the
VN portion here separately for those who didn't wish to read the long version.
Robert Alter is a first-rate Nabokovian, among much else.
The New Yorker - Nov 1, 2004
From John Updike's review (The Great I Am) of Hebrew scholar and
literary critic Robert Alter's new translation of the first five books
of the Bible, "The Five Books of Moses":
"..However, in his very zeal to communicate the nuances of the
underlying Hebrew, Alter falls into the error of Vladimir Nabokov's
translation of 'Eugene Onegin': in the effort to achieve absolute
fidelity, he settles on rather odd English.. Take Alter's version, for
starters, of the opening verses of Genesis:
> When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and
waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the waters, God
said 'Let there be light.' and there was light. <
... Alter's syntax goes off the rails when 'God's breath hovering over
the waters' is tacked onto a series of non-parallel nouns; by
comparison, 'And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters' is
clearer narrative and great poetry. It may stray minutely from the
Hebrew but it is theologically intelligible."
----- End forwarded message -----
EDNOTE. The full text of Updike's review of Alter's translation/commentary of
the Pentateuch was run. Most of the long essay did not involve VN and I run the
VN portion here separately for those who didn't wish to read the long version.
Robert Alter is a first-rate Nabokovian, among much else.
The New Yorker - Nov 1, 2004
From John Updike's review (The Great I Am) of Hebrew scholar and
literary critic Robert Alter's new translation of the first five books
of the Bible, "The Five Books of Moses":
"..However, in his very zeal to communicate the nuances of the
underlying Hebrew, Alter falls into the error of Vladimir Nabokov's
translation of 'Eugene Onegin': in the effort to achieve absolute
fidelity, he settles on rather odd English.. Take Alter's version, for
starters, of the opening verses of Genesis:
> When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and
waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the waters, God
said 'Let there be light.' and there was light. <
... Alter's syntax goes off the rails when 'God's breath hovering over
the waters' is tacked onto a series of non-parallel nouns; by
comparison, 'And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters' is
clearer narrative and great poetry. It may stray minutely from the
Hebrew but it is theologically intelligible."
----- End forwarded message -----