[Vwoolf] "The 'Increasing' Black Population in Virginia Woolf's Fiction"

[Adolphe Haberer]

Dear Stuart,
You surprisingly forgot to mention the first "black woman" in *Jacob's Room*,
even though she turns out to be a rock: "A large black woman was sitting on
the sand. He ran towards her." (Ch. I)
Also, there exists another translation of the book into French, done by
Agnès Desarthe, Paris: Stock, 2008.
Thank you for your contribution to the list.
Best
Ado

==
Adolphe Haberer
Professeur émérite à l'Université Lumière Lyon 2
1 route de Saint-Antoine 69380 Chazay d'Azergues
Adolphe.Haberer at univ-lyon2.fr
ado at haberer.fr
33 (0) 4 78 43 65 24
33 (0) 6 63 57 95 91




2018-04-28 14:01 GMT+02:00 Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
>:

> This is the title of an article of mine in VWM81* & VWB37.  It suddenly
> occurred to me to wonder what translators have made of the problem, and, if
> I am right, more black people are appearing in translations. My knowledge
> of foreign languages is limited, and the examples I’m choosing from
> “Jacob’s Room” are another problem, since generally it was not one of the
> first of Woolf’s books to be translated.  The only complete translation to
> appear in her lifetime was Swedish (selections appeared in French in
> journals).  And of course, I don’t have all the translations.
> *https://virginiawoolfmiscellany.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/
> vwm81spring2012.pdf
>
> Ch. VI: Out she swept, the black woman with the dancing feather in her
> hat.
>
> Ch. XII: Italy is all fierceness, bareness, exposure, and black priests
> shuffling along the roads.
>
> FRENCH
>
> Jean Talva, 1942: “la femme en noir”; “prêtres” [no adjective!].
>
> Magali Merle, 1993: “la femme en noir”; “noire prêtraille” [an obscure
> word to me, which I am guessing means clergy].
>
> Adolphe Haberer, 2012: “la femme noire”; “prêtres noirs”.
>
> PORTUGUESE
>
> Maria Teresa Guerreiro, 1989 (Brazil):  “a mulher negra”; “padres de
> preto”.
>
> Lucília Rodrigues, 1992 (Portugal): “a mulher negra”; “padres negros”.
>
> ITALIAN
>
> Anna Banti, 1950: “la donna in nero”; “neri preti”.
>
> Mirella Billi, 1994: “la donna vestita di nero”; “preti neri”.
>
> GERMAN
>
> Gustav K. Kemperdick, 1981: “die schwarze Frau”; “schwarze Priester”.
>
> Heidi Zerning, 1998: “die schwarze Frau”; “schwarze Priester”.
>
> SWEDISH
>
> Siri Thorngren-Olin, 1927: “den mörka kvinnan”; “svarta präster”.
>
> Siri Thorngren-Olin (revised by unknown), 2007: “den mörka kvinnan”;
> “svarta präster”.
>
>
> I think the tendency is there, although these examples are not
> conclusive.  However, translators should not make a book simpler for their
> readers than it is for the (English) native speaker.  If the word seems
> more ambiguous (or even more misleading) now than it did in 1922, to what
> extent should the translator use a contemporary word or interpretation?
> Yet, I don’t want to read Dante in English, where the English seems
> incomprehensible:
>
> Now had the sun to that horizon reached,
> That covers, with the most exalted point
> Of its meridian circle, Salem’s walls,
> And night, that opposite to him her orb
> Rounds, from the stream of Ganges issued forth,
> Holding the scales,  that from her hands are dropped
> When she reigns highest ...
>
> Stuart
>
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