{"id":112888,"date":"2017-07-25T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=112888"},"modified":"2017-07-25T11:02:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T15:02:56","slug":"straightening-out-ulysses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/25\/straightening-out-ulysses\/","title":{"rendered":"Straightening out Ulysses<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

A translator\u2019s notes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Samuel Frederick Brocas, The Ha’Penny Bridge, Dublin<\/em>, 1818.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The indefatigable Bernard H\u0153pffner, who translated many English masterpieces into French\u2014among them <\/em>Huckleberry Finn, <\/em>The Anatomy of Melancholy, and John Keene\u2019s <\/em>Counternarratives\u2014drowned off the northern coast of Wales this past May. Many obituaries in the French press highlighted H\u0153pffner\u2019s involvement in an eight-person retranslation of James Joyce\u2019s <\/em>Ulysses. In homage to an extraordinary figure, <\/em>The Paris Review Daily presents a translated selection from his <\/em>Ulysses \u201clogbook.\u201d \u2014Jeffrey Zuckerman, translator<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summer 2000 \u2013<\/strong> Phone call from Jacques Aubert, asking if I might be interested in retranslating James Joyce\u2019s Ulysses<\/em>. Immediate disappointment upon learning this would be a team effort. Each episode having been written in a different style, he asks me which one I like best, and, without any hesitation, I name Ithaca, in the question-and-answer style of the Catholic catechism.<\/p>\n

October 30, 2000 \u2013 <\/strong>First meeting at \u00c9ditions Gallimard with several staff members, Stephen Joyce and his wife, Jacques Aubert (the general editor), and nine of the other preliminary translators. I am the sole professional translator. Antoine Gallimard appears briefly. Stephen Joyce promises not to interfere in the translation. Homage is paid to the \u201ccomplete French translation of M.\u00a0Auguste Morel, with the help of M.\u00a0Stuart Gilbert, fully revised by M.\u00a0Valery Larbaud and the author\u201d (1929), which we decide to stow out of sight, at the expense of using the edition\u2019s critical apparatus.<\/p>\n

We agree, as our guiding principle, on the credo in Stephen Hero<\/em>: \u201cHe put his lines together not word by word but letter by letter.\u201d We also decide not to Gallicize everything, as Larbaud had done with the preceding translation.<\/p>\n

Contract terms are discussed. The new translation will be published on June 16, 2004, the one hundredth anniversary of Bloomsday, with no notes.<\/p>\n

Winter\u2013Spring\u2013Summer 2001 \u2013 <\/strong>Meeting on January 26, 2001, at Gallimard where we learn that, \u201cdue to unforeseen circumstances\u201d largely Stephen Joyce\u2019s doing, four translators have withdrawn. Val\u00e8re Novarina, for whom I\u2019d created a word-for-word translation of the first pages of Circe, lets me know that he\u2019s drowned in the linguistic undertow. Jacques Aubert persuades me, without much difficulty, to take it on.
\nAnd so the team takes shape: Telemachus (Jacques Aubert), Nestor (Michel Cusin), Proteus (Pascal Bataillard), Calypso (Marie-Dani\u00e8le Vors), Lotus Eaters (P. B.), Hades (Patrick Drevet), Aeolus (Bernard H\u0153pffner), Lestrygonians (Tiphaine Samoyault), Scylla and Charybdis (Sylvie Doizelet), Wandering Rocks (J. A.), Sirens (T. S.), Cyclops (T. S.), Nausicaa (P. D.), Oxen of the Sun (Auguste Morel), Circe (B. H.), Eumaeus (P. B.), Ithaca (B. H.), Penelope (T. S.).<\/p>\n

The contracts are signed and returned, and the project that had faltered over these first six months has now found its footing and set off in earnest. We will meet in Lyon from here on out.<\/p>\n

October 9, 2001 \u2013 <\/strong>Which of the many different editions should we use? We settle on the 1922 edition with Gaskell and Hart\u2019s alterations, with the occasional glance at Gabler\u2019s edition. Pointed discussions over how much to Gallicize proper names (last names, geographical locations): a matter of understanding how Joyce had undone English, and how we might in turn undo French. Joyce has pulled us into a double bind: even though the unique style of each episode grants each team member a great deal of liberty, the immense number of echoes forces us to make decisions we have to agree upon. Patrick Drevet almost convinces us that the place names ought to be translated, but his absence from the next meeting allows us to renege, as it would be impossible to be fully consistent; Patrick very graciously accepts our decision.<\/p>\n

We agree that we\u2019ll respect the syntax\u00a0of each sentence, that there\u2019s to be almost absolute respect for Joyce\u2019s punctuation\u2014including his use of repeated colons and ellipses of varying length.<\/p>\n

October 2001 \u2013 <\/strong>My translation of Ithaca is finished. Catherine Goffaux, my companion and collaborator, balks at looking it over; she doesn\u2019t like Ulysses<\/em>, puts together a list of people who share her disdain, including Virginia Woolf, and remarks that I reject most of her edits.<\/p>\n

Each of us receives the translations of Telemachus and Nestor for comments and suggestions. I sometimes have trouble accepting the other translators\u2019 choices, although the stylistic variety of these episodes encourages this eight-person schizophrenia.<\/p>\n

December 3, 2001 \u2013 <\/strong>We\u2019re having more and more trouble working with global decisions when they deviate far enough from Joyce\u2019s original. Jacques explains how Ulysses<\/em>\u2019s literary stakes are not only varied but at times contradictory. As such, it\u2019s hard for us to all read the book the same way and create a homogeneous translation.<\/p>\n

March 4, 2002 \u2013 <\/strong>Long back-and-forths result in our replacing \u201cMrs\u201d and \u201cMr\u201d with \u201cMme\u201d and \u201cM.\u201d We also decide to translate urban nomenclature: bridge, street, et cetera. (We will, much later, reverse course, without any exceptions).<\/p>\n

September 9, 2002 \u2013 <\/strong>Stephen Joyce blocks financial support from an Irish institution (ILE).<\/p>\n

Long discussion about multipart names in Joyce and their transposition into French. The particle de<\/em>\u00a0doesn\u2019t add anything in French, so we decide to use \u201crondenuit\u201d rather than \u201crondedenuit,\u201d \u201cfr\u00eanecanne\u201d rather than \u201ccannedefr\u00eane,\u201d et cetera.<\/p>\n

Michel, the Lacanian, proposes the \u201cre-mors de l\u2019inextim\u00e9\u201d as a translation of \u201cagenbite of inwit\u201d; not until November, 2003, will Sylvie agree to that suggestion.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried, for two years, to find, for the riddle that Lenehan poses in Aeolus\u2014\u201cWhat opera is like a railway line?\u201d \u201cThe Rose of Castille. See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel.\u201d\u2014a solution different from the magnificent one Morel\u00a0found: \u201cQuel est l\u2019op\u00e9ra qui ressemble \u00e0 une filature?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cL\u2019\u00c9toile du Nord. Vous y \u00eates? Les Toiles du Nord.\u201d Tiphaine ultimately agrees with my solution, which also alludes to Homer: \u201cQuel op\u00e9ra fait penser \u00e0 la tonte des moutons?\u201d \u201cL\u2019Enl\u00e8vement d\u2019H\u00e9l\u00e8ne. Vous voyez le truc\u00a0? L\u2019enl\u00e8vement des laines.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Aeolus, then Circe are done (if not truly done, at least ready to be shared). I notice that the further I go the more inventive my choices become. I read through Ithaca again to apply this increased inventiveness.<\/p>\n

January 16, 2003 \u2013 <\/strong>Gallimard consents to a communal \u201cpostface\u201d written by the team. Tiphaine wants to try her hand at translating Oxen of the Sun, the episode that, from the start, we had agreed we would keep in Morel\u2019s translation; she will abandon it several months later; we then decide, together, a posteriori and in bad faith, that, since this episode is a history of the English language, integrating Morel\u2019s translation makes it a history of Ulysses<\/em>\u2019s translations\u2014but it is still true that the echoes don\u2019t reverberate here. We go back and forth while sending the typescript back to Gallimard, going through edits, and production.<\/p>\n

Then the work on the innumerable echoes throughout the book starts in earnest. Each of us tries to convince the others to accept particular exceptions to the rules we\u2019d agreed on; invariably due to puns, or neologisms. Numerous emails follow:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you think \u2018chiasse\u2019 is too strong. What do you say to \u2018merdasse\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to replace \u2018mamelles\u2019 with \u2018t\u00e9tons.\u2019 The \u2018gros t\u00e9tons doux qui pendaient\u2019 ought to make Patrick happy with that alliteration. What does Jacques\u00a0think?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTsouintsouin is fine (Circe 483).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m keeping the blenno\u2019s blaireau.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem posed by \u201cthrowaway,\u201d which appears nineteen times in Ulysses<\/em>, is that sometimes it\u2019s the name of a racehorse, sometimes it has to do with a leaflet, sometimes it\u2019s a verb, and it seems to be irresoluble. Pascal proposes translating the name with \u201cJetsam,\u201d which would let us play off \u201cjette \u00e7a,\u201d while the object would be a \u201cprospectus.\u201d The echo split in two. Proposition accepted by all.<\/p>\n

February 2003 \u2013 <\/strong>When it\u2019s necessary to translate a proper name or a last name because there\u2019s a particular significance that recurs in the text, we decide to find a name that \u201csounds\u201d English (so as not to create a Dublin where everybody has French names). Blazes Boylan becomes Flam Boylan (a brilliant trick by Tiphaine\u2014we ended up resolving many seemingly irresoluble problems after unwinding a bit), Miss Dubedat becomes Mlle Wimafoy, Alexander Keyes is rechristened Alexander Descley, and so on. What a strange activity to \u201ctranslate\u201d English names into English names; we\u2019re veering dangerously far away from \u201ctranslation,\u201d from Charybdis, and we\u2019ll be ensnared by Scylla. Joyce, were he still alive, might have said: \u201cThe restlessness you feel is merely that of seaquakes, spates, whirlpools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiphaine Samoyault lets us know that her translation of Penelope, along with a critical analysis thereof, will be part of her professorial thesis. She succeeds brilliantly at the defense.<\/p>\n

March 4, 2003 \u2013 <\/strong>Work on Calypso and Hades. We borrow a few ideas from the Italian translation or the recently published German translation on occasion, and more often from Morel\u2019s translation. The Italian and German translations are so trite, so uninventive that they ultimately only serve as counterexamples.<\/p>\n

April 8, 2003 \u2013 <\/strong>Which Bible should\u00a0we use? \u201cHouse of bondage\u201d could be translated by \u201cMaison de l\u2019esclavage\u201d (Sacy), \u201cMaison de la servitude\u201d (Segond), or \u201cMaison d\u2019asservis\u201d (Bayard); \u201cwilderness\u201d by \u201csolitude\u201d (Sacy) or \u201cd\u00e9sert\u201d (Segond). No decision is made, but we have to respect the echoes.<\/p>\n

October 24, 2003 \u2013 <\/strong>Jacques is absent; he has given Tiphaine the \u201cRed Notebook\u201d where he has written down all the pitfalls and their possible solutions. We run through each one and reach \u201cz\u201d at the day\u2019s end. We consider taking advantage of Jacques\u2019s absence to discreetly get rid of a \u201cbrise-bise\u201d that had stuck in our craw, but a spy rats us out.<\/p>\n

November 21, 2003 \u2013 <\/strong>The final true work meeting. All the episodes have to be sent to me by December 10. I will standardize everything so that the complete translation can be printed and mailed to everybody, who will read through the book one more time. The definitive (?) text on paper will be sent to Gallimard in the middle of December, and the digital version later, once we\u2019ve integrated their copyedits. I suggest hiring someone who doesn\u2019t know French to proofread the translation in keeping with the spirit of the original, which had been given to compositors unfamiliar with English; when the time comes, we\u2019ll try to get it accepted by Gallimard.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

We all cross our fingers that on June 16, Gallimard will be generous enough to fly the whole team out to Dublin for the feasts and festivities. A bit nervous. Have to keep a weather eye out. We\u2019ll all have a pint. Arm in arm. And raise a toast with our yachtsman\u2019s caps.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

PS: It goes without saying that this \u201clogbook\u201d isn\u2019t that of the whole team but solely of one of the translators in the team.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeffrey Zuckerman is digital editor of\u00a0<\/em>Music & Literature Magazine. His writing and translations have appeared in\u00a0<\/em>Best European Fiction, the\u00a0<\/em>Los Angeles Review of Books,\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review Daily,\u00a0<\/em>Tin House, and\u00a0<\/em>Vice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re having more and more trouble working with global decisions when they deviate far enough from Joyce\u2019s original. Jacques explains how Ulysses\u2019s literary stakes are not only varied but at times contradictory. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1201,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[807],"tags":[29690,29694,2672,29693,5431,29697,2679,28080,1120,18464,29696,947,2684,687,29691,29698,29699,29700,29692,11915,2675,6054,29695,530,25535,946,969],"class_list":["post-112888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-translation","tag-bernard-hoepffner","tag-blazes-boylan","tag-bloomsday","tag-circe","tag-dublin","tag-editions-gallimard","tag-english-literature","tag-french-translation","tag-ireland","tag-irish-literature","tag-jacqus-aubert","tag-james-joyce","tag-june-16","tag-language","tag-logbook","tag-m-auguste-morel","tag-m-stuart-gilbert","tag-m-valery-larbaud","tag-notes-from-a-translator","tag-punctuation","tag-stephen-dedalus","tag-stephen-joyce","tag-syntax","tag-translation","tag-translator","tag-ulysses","tag-virginia-woolf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStraightening out \u2018Ulysses\u2019: A Translator\u2019s Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Renowned French translator Bernard H\u0153pffner drowned off the northern coast of Wales this past May. 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