Sunday, 21 March 2010

Cannibalising

7:30 am, and there is so much to do. I am struggling with my translation, having reached 41 pp, ie over 1/3 of the way. If  I manage to keep on working at this pace, I might finish the first round in 3 months' time, ie in June. That would be great, though it will be a push.

Have read Guenther Grass's Peeling the onion at last. It is an important book. I want to re-read what Lynn wrote about it, her review. I know that I do not have the same level of excitement as she did. I am becoming single-minded: very interested in the telling details I might exploit for my own book. Cannibal. The same applies to the translation.

That's all for today because of wanting to catch up with the translating, one page a day, and already I am almost 3pp behind. Not to lose more ground today, I should translate at least a page.

2 comments:

Bill said...

Don't know if the cannabilism metaphor truly fits. Creativity is not a physical food after all. The original is no less for you 'feeding' on it, in fact it probably becomes stronger.

Gunther Grass is awesome though isn't he? I always feel like it's so specifically German though, like his style is so embedded in the culture and I am kind of missing out on half of what's going on. Maybe that's the translation though, or just me.

Michalsuz said...

Nice to hear from you, Bill.
I did think at first that the translation was heavy, and it got in the way, but then something sort of lifted up and disappeared and I was in the story.
I haven't been able to read his magical realism works. Maybe I could now, as this book gives the key to many of the symbols.