Lezioni di traduzione

Istruttivo il blog che Lydia Davis ha tenuto sulla Paris Review mentre traduceva Madame Bovary (a proposito, la sua traduzione è appena uscita presso Viking). Particolarmente interessante il rapporto con le precedenti traduzioni: "Each version will be quite distinct from all of the others. How many ways, for instance, has even a single phrase (bouffées d’affadissement) from Madame Bovary been translated: gusts of revulsion/ a kind of rancid staleness/ stale gusts of dreariness/ waves of nausea/ fumes of nausea/ flavorless, sickening gusts/ stagnant dreariness/ whiffs of sickliness/ waves of nauseous disgust.
One truism I would argue with, however. Wise people like to say, wisely: Every generation needs a new translation. It sounds good, but I believe it isn’t necessarily so: If a translation is as fine as it can be, it may match the original in timelessness, too—it may deserve to endure". parisreview.