Moby-Dick: or The Whale

Melville, Herman

doi:10.1093/oseo/instance.00209189

Cited by 183 publications

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“…(Melville, 1930(Melville, [1851 The many "calque structures" (an expression used by Michel Ballard, meaning structures which are translated literally from the source text and result in incorrect structures in the target text) give the impression that she worked quickly even leaving some words untranslated: "Je suppose that" (Smith, n.d., p. 8). Her French is error-ridden, seeming to indicate poor linguistic skills.…”

Section: Working Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Her French is error-ridden, seeming to indicate poor linguistic skills. However, the vocabulary, and especially the technical vocabulary, is on the whole accurately translated; for instance "vaisseaux, barques, bricks, goelettes" (ibid., p. 5) render "ships, barques, brigs, schooners" (Melville, 1930(Melville, [1851, p. 4). At times, a disorientating effect is produced when technical terms are appropriately included in a sentence where the syntax and the translation of the general vocabulary are themselves inadequate.…”

Section: Working Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Melville, 1930(Melville, [1851 (Melville, 1938, p. 8) A minor change in the Gallimard edition: d'une manie culinaire de ce genre (my italics, Melville, 1941, p. 4).…”

Section: Cahiers Du Contadour Editionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the translation, many long noun phrases, with compound words and numerous adjectives are (1) Soon they through dim, bewildering mediums, saw her sidelong fading phantom, as in the gaseous Fata Morgana; […]. (Melville, 1986(Melville, [1851, p. 684; my italics)…”

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confidence: 99%

“…13 (2) But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a merchant sailor, I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage; this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the constant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unaccountable way-he can better answer than anyone else. (Melville, 1986(Melville, [1851, p. 97; my italics)…”

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confidence: 99%

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Giono, Translator or Reader of Moby-Dick?

Génin

2016

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The article discusses the interaction between reading and translating, in the case of the first unabridged translation of Moby-Dick into French by Jean Giono, Lucien Jacques and Joan Smith, published by Gallimard in 1941. After a brief survey of the status of that translation—an important cultural landmark in France—the paper examines what the paratext (Giono’s diary, notes and letters) and the typescripts reveal about a seemingly paradoxical situation: Giono’s keen reading of Moby-Dick on the one hand and the simplification and clarification strategies adopted in the translation on the other hand. A selection of stylistic analyses illustrates both the choices made by the translators and the part played by each participant in the project. It appears that Giono did not necessarily misread Moby-Dick, underestimating its scope and significance. Instead, after reading the novel, he grew indifferent to its translation and concentrated his energy on his own writing in which he re-invested his reading experience. As to the other co-translators, Joan Smith provided a word-for-word translation of the text that made no attempt at interpreting the text, while Lucien Jacques strove to re-write Smith’s literal first draft, in spite of his difficult position as a non-reader (albeit an enthusiastic one) of Moby-Dick.Cet article étudie les rapports entre lecture et traduction dans le contexte de la première traduction intégrale en français de Moby-Dick, traduction réalisée par Jean Giono, Lucien Jacques et Joan Smith, et publiée par Gallimard en 1941. Après avoir dressé un rapide bilan du statut de cette traduction, devenue référence culturelle majeure en France, l’article s’attache au paratexte (le journal, les notes et les lettres laissés par Giono) et aux tapuscrits pour éclairer ce qui semble paradoxal : d’un côté la lecture attentive que Giono fait de Moby-Dick, et de l’autre les stratégies de clarification et de simplification déployées dans la traduction. Quelques analyses stylistiques illustrent les choix de traduction ainsi que le rôle joué par chacun des participants. Il apparaît que Giono n’a pas mal lu Moby-Dick, ni sous-estimé son importance et sa portée, mais plutôt qu’après avoir lu le roman, il s’est désintéressé de sa traduction et a concentré ses efforts sur ses propres oeuvres, ré-investissant dans celles-ci l’expérience de sa lecture. Quant aux autres traducteurs, Joan Smith a proposé une traduction mot à mot qui n’interprète pas le texte tandis que Lucien Jacques s’est efforcé de ré-écrire cette première version littérale malgré le handicap de sa position de non-lecteur (certes enthousiaste) de Moby-Dick

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Section: Working Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Working Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Melville, 1930(Melville, [1851 (Melville, 1938, p. 8) A minor change in the Gallimard edition: d'une manie culinaire de ce genre (my italics, Melville, 1941, p. 4).…”

Section: Cahiers Du Contadour Editionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Giono, Translator or Reader of Moby-Dick?

Génin

2016

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Writ in Water: The Books of Melville'sMoby‐Dick

Kelley¹

2012

A Companion to the American Novel

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Herman Melville and the “Harborless Immensities” of World Literature

Lyons¹

2019

A Companion to World Literature

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Herman Melville's Moby‐Dick has been considered as both a classic of world literature and the Great American Novel. This chapter considers the relation of those statuses, and argues that Melville's works encapsulate tensions and contradictions in the project of world literature, to the degree that it is driven by calls for cosmopolitanism and democratization. Melville's densely allusive texts are approached as attempts both to theorize about the sociopolitical processes of which they are a part and to practice world literature, approximating it in form. The polyphony of his novels is approached as wound into his philosophies of knowledge and his representations of multicultural crews as representative of humanity entering technological modernity. The chapter argues that Melville attempts to work out of an emergent mid‐nineteenth‐century dialectic in which the world shapes America, which in turn shapes the world, and toward ways in which the destructive telos of world‐integration might be redirected.

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Moby-Dick: or The Whale

Cited by 183 publications

References 0 publications

Giono, Translator or Reader of Moby-Dick?

Giono, Translator or Reader of Moby-Dick?

Writ in Water: The Books of Melville'sMoby‐Dick

Herman Melville and the “Harborless Immensities” of World Literature

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