April 2024: Books in Translation

The April 2024 meeting examined Books in Translation.

Michael Morgan, a long-time member of the Atlanta Antiquarian Book Circle and a collector of English translations of the Bible, often repeated one of his favorite anecdotes about translation, quoting the American writer and humorist James Thurber:

Once at a dinner party, another guest came up to Thurber and said she had read his works in both the original English and in a French translation, and she actually preferred the French version, to which Thurber replied, "Well, my work has always suffered in the original!"

The irony of Thurber's retort, of course, is that books are not selected for translation because they suffer but because they thrive.  The hope of translation, then, is to offer that flourishing work to new audiences.

Ancient and classical texts were translated into other languages primarily for academic purposes, but their importance, relevance, and beauty made them into enduring literary masterpieces.  Contemporary translations of highly acclaimed works have allowed readers to transcend their own reality and experience other cultures, beliefs, values, and ideas.  Once translated, a regional story can evolve into world literature and provide a critique or counternarrative on race, gender, or love.  From Beowulf to The Diary of a Young Girl to At the Edge of Night, the books selected represent the various ways in which books in translation enrich the lives of their readers.

The books are ordered chronologically by the appearance of the work in its native tongue.

Gilgamesh: King of Erech

Unknown.  Gilgamesh: King of Erech.  London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1948.  First edition.  Translated by Frank Laurence Lucas.  Illustrated by Dorothea Braby.  The five Sumerian poems which make up the literary history of Gilgamesh were etched in stone between 2100 and 1200 BCE.  F. L. Lucas, a classical scholar, critic, and writer, published his 1948 English translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh to high acclaim.  It remained the most widely used translation until the 2003 scholarly translation by Andrew George, which provides a tablet-by-tablet exegesis of the text with a dual language parallel translation.  This fine press first edition was published in a limited edition of 500 numbered copies of which this is No. 270. 

Gilgamesh illustration by Dorothy Braby

Aristotle's On Poetics

Goulston, Theodore.  Αριστοτέλους περί ποιητικής = Aristotelis de poetica liber.  Cambridge: John Hayes, 1696.  Aristotle on Poetics: illustrated with analytical features.

bound with:

Goulston, Theodore.  Aristotelis de poetica: Liber, Latine Canversus, et Analytica Methodo Illustratus. (Aristotle on Poetics).  Cambridge: John Hayes, 1696.  Aristotle on Poetics: A Book, Illustrated in Latin, and Illustrated by Analytical Method.

bound with:

Rapin, René.  Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie. Containing the Necessary, Rational, and Universal Rules for Epick, Dramatick, and the other sorts of Poetry. With Reflections on the Works of the Ancient and Modern Poets, and their faults noted.  London: Printed by T. Warren, for H. Herringman, and sold by Francis Saunders, 1694.

Title pages of On Poetics in Greek, Latin, and English

Three monographs of Aristotle's On Poetics together in a contemporary rebind, including the text in Greek and Latin with analysis by Theodore Goulston and the text in English with notes by René Rapin.  Artistotle's Περὶ ποιητικῆς, published circa 335 BCE, is the earliest known analytical work on Greek drama.  It is also the first extant philosophical treatment of literary theory.  His treatise on the art of poetry considers verse drama (including comedic, tragic, and satirical plays), lyric poetry, and epic poems.  Most of the work is devoted to Greek tragedy.

Beowulf

Unknown.  Beowulf.  New York: Limited Editions Club, 1952.  Translated by William Ellery Leonard.  Illustrated by Lynn Ward.  While the origin of the Old English epic poem is unknown, the earliest datable manuscript was penned between 975 and 1025.  The first complete translation into modern English was published in 1837 by John Mitchell Kemble.  This translation by William Ellery Leonard was originally published in 1923.  In 2020, the Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database recorded 688 translations in 38 languages.

Beowulf illustrations by Lynn Ward

Histories Extraordinaires

Poe, Edgar Allan.  Histories Extraordinaires.  Paris: Michel Levy Frères, 1869.  Translated by Charles Baudelaire.  Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was first published in English in 1839.  French poet, essayist, critic, and translator Charles Baudelaire discovered the works of Poe in 1947 and became occupied with reading and translating Poe.  He published three volumes of Poe's short stories, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Eureka, beginning with Histories Extraordinaires in 1856.  Baudelaire was not the first French translator of Poe's works, but his ability to faithfully capture the mood of Poe elevated his translations above the others and was largely responsible for Poe's popularity in France.

Ange Pitou and The Two Dianas

Dumas' Romances is an English translation series of the works of Alexandre Dumas.  This International Limited Edition series consists of 19 titles, in 40 volumes, published by Estes and Lauriat from 1893 through 1896.  Each volume is numbered with the series limited to 1,000 copies.  The series is uniformly bound in green cloth with printed paper labels affixed to the spine.  Two titles from this series are shown.

The Two Dianas frontispiece

Dumas, Alexandre.  The Two Dianas.  2 vol.  Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1895.  Les Deux Diane was originally published in French in 1846-47. It was first translated into English in 1857.  Though originally attributed to Dumas and published under his name, Les Deux Diane was written by Paul Meurice, though Dumas may have collaborated in its composition.  When Meurice published a dramatized adaptation in 1865, Dumas inked a prefatory letter confirming Meurice as the real author.  The copies shown from this limited-edition series are numbered No. 516 (Volume 1) and No. 305 (Volume 2).

Ange Pitou title page

Dumas, Alexandre.  Ange Pitou.  2 vol.  Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1895.  Mémoires d'un médecin - Ange Pitou was originally published in French in 1850-51 serialized in 6 parts.  It was translated into English as Ange Pitou in 1853, sometimes retitled as Storming the Bastille (Volume 1) or Six Years Later (Volume 2).  The story was written in collaboration with Auguste Maquet.  Dumas and Maquet also cowrote The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.  With most of their collaborations, Maquet crafted the plot and characters and Dumas drafted the prose and added dialogue and detail.  The copies shown from this limited-edition series are numbered No. 169 (Volume 1) and No. 657 (Volume 2).

At the Edge of the Night

Lampe, Friedo.  At the Edge of the Night.  London: Hesperus Press Limited, 2019.  Translated by Simon Beattie.  Lampe's novel was first published in German as Am Rande der Nacht in October 1933. In December 1933, the book was seized and withdrawn from sale by the Nazis and placed on their list of "damaging and undesirable writings."  The book was banned for its inclusion of homosexual characters and an interracial relationship between a German woman and a black man.  The openly gay novelist lamented his novel was “born into a regime where it could not breathe.”  Lampe was stopped at a checkpoint outside Berlin by two Red Army soldiers who demanded to see his papers.  Lampe had lost a considerable amount of weight during the war and did not resemble the photograph on his papers.  When he was unable to explain himself to the Russian soldiers, they shot and killed him on May 2, 1945, only six days before the official end of the war in Europe.  Am Rande der Nacht was republished in 1949 with the offending passages removed, and an unexpurgated edition was published in 1999 on the centenary of Lampe's birth.  This 2019 edition of At the Edge of Night is the first English translation.

Хоббит (The Hobbit)

Tolkien, J. R. R.  Хоббит.  St. Petersburg: Republican Publishing House, 1991.  The Hobbit, or There and Back Again was first published in English in 1937.  It was first translated into Russian in 1976.  This edition is offset from the 1976 edition with illustrations by Mikhail Belomlinskij.  The title, like the names of characters and places, is transliterated from the English rather than interpreted.

Hobbitus Ille (The Hobbit)

Tolkien, J. R. R.  Hobbitus Ille (aut Illuc Atque Rursus Retrorsum). London: Harper Collins, 2012.  The Hobbit, or There and Back Again translated into Latin by Mark Walker, an intermittent classics teacher.  Walker's Latin Hobbit follows a line of novelty Latin translations of modern books, such as Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone).  The book is widely panned by Latin readers for its grammatical errors and for its problematic switching among various styles of Latin, such as Classical, Medieval, and Contemporary Latin.

De Sleutel tot het Geheim (The Key to the Secret)

Lewis, C. S.  De Sleutel tot het Geheim.  Amsterdam: Uitgeverij W. Ten Have N.V., 1942.  Broadcast Talks was first published in English in 1942.  It was translated into Dutch as De Sleutel tot het Geheim (literal translation: The Key to the Secret) the same year.  Broadcast Talks was the first of three volumes adapted from a BBC series of radio talks delivered from 1941 through 1944.  Together with Christian Behaviour (1943), and Beyond Personality (1944), the 3 small volumes were combined and edited to become Mere Christianity (1952).

The Diary of a Young Girl

Frank, Anne.  The Diary of a Young Girl.  Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1952.  Translated by B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday.  Frank's diary was first published in Dutch as Het Achterhuis (The Annex) in 1947.  Anne's diary chronicles the two years (1942-1944) in which the Frank family and the van Pels family hid in an achterhuis (a "behind house") during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.  The Jewish families were discovered in 1944, and Anne died of typhus at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.  After the war, Anne's father, Otto Frank, edited the two versions of the diary Anne kept, omitting some journal entries in which Anne wrote candidly about her emerging sexuality.  Two English translations were attempted in 1950, but neither was published.  By the time Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday was contracted to translate the Dutch diary, Otto permitted the deleted passages to be included in the English translation, which was published in 1952 with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt.  The diary has since been published in 73 languages.  This copy is a second printing of the first edition in English, printed the same year, matching all points of issue identifying the second printing both in the book and on the dust jacket.  The book is in very good condition as is the dust jacket, which maintains its vibrant red color with no fading.

La Fin d'une Liaison (The End of the Affair)

Greene Graham.  La Fin d'une Liaison.  Paris: Robert Laffont, 1951.  Translated by Marcelle Sibon.  The End of the Affair was first published in English in 1951; the French translation was released shortly after while Greene was traveling through East Asia.  This association copy bears an inscription from Greene to Paul Boucarut, a French war veteran and officer of the Sûreté Fédérale, the French civil police force, serving in Indochina in the early 1950s. 

Graham Greene inscription

Dear Paul,

     I'm sorry I missed you yet again.  I leave for Hong Kong – & afterwards for Malaisia – on Dec. 22.

     I hope you like this book, but you probably will not.

Yours,

     Graham Greene.

Paul and his Vietnamese wife, Hô, were friends with Greene.  While undated, Greene's travel plans noted in the inscription coincide with Greene's visit to Vietnam from October to December 1951.  Greene and the Boucaruts reconnected in Douala, Cameroon, in 1959.  At that time, the Boucaruts introduced Greene to Yvonne Cloetta, effectively setting them up on a date.  Though both married, Greene and Cloetta began an affair which continued until Greene's death in 1991.

The French translation was released only in a softcover binding.  This copy is housed in a contemporary three-quarter leather rebind of red leather, red and gold fleck marbled paper, and gilt lettering on the spine.

The Lord of the Rings French translation

Tolkien, J. R. R.  Le Seingeur des Anneaux.  Paris: Christian Bourgois Éditeur, 1994.

          .  Les Deux Tours.  Paris: Christian Bourgois Éditeur, 1994.

          .  Le Retour du Roi.  Paris: Christian Bourgois Éditeur, 1994.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, was first published in English in 1954 and 1955.  It was first translated into French by Francis Ledoux and published in 1972 and 1973.

The Lord of the Rings German translation

Tolkien, J. R. R.  Die Gefährten.  Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1994.

          .  Die Zwei Türme.  Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1994.

          .  Die Rückklehr des Königs.  Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1994.

The Lord of the Rings was first translated into German by Margaret Carroux (story) and Ebba-Margareta von Freymann (poems) and published in 1969 and 1970.

During Tolkien's lifetime (d. 1973) The Lord of the Rings was translated—in whole or in part—into 9 languages, including these French and German translations.  Today, there are 88 distinct translations in 57 languages.

Utbränd (A Burnt-Out Case)

Greene, Graham.  Utbränd.  Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söners Förlag, 1960.  Translated by Torsten Blomkvist.  Utbränd (Burnout) is a rare example of a book in translation being published before the book is released in its original language.  This Swedish translation is the first appearance of A Burnt-Out Case, preceding all others in any language, including the original English.  Greene completed A Burnt-Out Case in March 1960, and informed his friend, Ragnar Svanström, a literary advisor to Norstedt Förlag, who then facilitated the Swedish translation.  A. S. Frere, Greene's long-time editor and then-Director of William Heinemann Ltd., wanted to "experiment" with waiting and releasing A Burnt-Out Case during the first week of January 1961, and did not object to the novel appearing in Sweden first.  Some critics speculated that the decision to release the book first in Sweden was an attempt to increase Greene's candidacy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but Greene dispelled that notion by blaming the delay of the English edition solely on Frere.  The Swedish edition was issued simultaneously in hardcover and softcover, with only a small number of hardcover copies bound.  This scarce hardcover copy is in very good condition with the original owner's name in ink and dated Julan (Christmas) 1960.  The dust jacket is intact in very good condition with no fading to the deep red color of the spine and front cover.

The Name of the Rose

Eco, Umberto.  The Name of the Rose.  New York: HarperVia, 1983.  Il nome della rosa was first published in Italian in 1980.  It was first translated into English by William Weaver in 1983.  The story is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian Franciscan monastery in the year 1327. It is an intellectual puzzle combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory. The book has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. It was adapted into a less-than-successful movie in 1986, starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater.

The Shadow of the Wind

Zafon, Carlos Ruiz.  The Shadow of the Wind.  New York: Penguin Press, 2004.  First US edition.  La sombra del viento was first published in Spanish in 2001.  It was first translated into English by Lucia Graves in 2004. 

The Shadow of the Wind

Zafon, Carlos Ruiz.  The Shadow of the Wind.  Clawson, MI: Subterranean Press, 2008.  Illustrated by Vincent Chong.  This copy is a limited edition, No. 725 of 1000 numbered copies, signed by the author.

The Shadow of the Wind is the first in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series.  The story begins in Barcelona in 1945. The city is slowly healing in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. When he sets out to find the author’s other works, he discovers someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. It’s likely that Daniel has the last of Carax’s books in existence. Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into Barcelona’s darkest secret.

The Three-Body Problem

Liu, Cixin.  The Three-Body Problem.  New York: Tor Books, 2014.  First English edition.  The Three-Body Problem was first published in Chinese in 2008.  It was first translated from Chinese to English by Ken Liu in 2014.  It is the first work in translation ever to win the Hugo Award (2015).

The Three-Body Problem

Liu, Cixin.  The Three-Body Problem.  Clawson, MI: Subterranean Press, 2019.  Illustrated by Marc Simonetti.  This copy is a limited edition, No. 266 of 500 numbered copies, signed by author Liu Cixin and translator Ken Liu.

The Three-Body Problem is the first in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy.  The story is set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960’s.  A secret military project sends radio signals into space with hopes of establishing contact with aliens.  An alien civilization on the brink of destruction sends a warning message to earth but the protagonist who is totally disgusted with humanity responds anyway.  The aliens launch ships to invade Earth that will arrive in 400 years.  Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps form, planning to either welcome the aliens or fight against the invasion.  The series has been adapted to the screen 3 times.

Mouse Adventure series

Torben Kuhlmann retells stories of real-life adventurers but adds a twist: an equally adventurous mouse.  Kuhlmann's German maeuseabenteuer (Mouse Adventure) stories include the adventures of a daring mouse alongside Charles Lindbergh, Neil Armstrong, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein.  Kuhlmann posits in Armstrong, for example, that without the help of a little mouse, the 1969 moon landing might never have happened.  The books are written and illustrated by Kuhlmann.

Lindbergh image

Kuhlmann, Torben.  Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse.  New York: North South Books, 2014.  English translation by Suzanne Levesque.

Armstrong image

Kuhlmann, Torben.  Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon.  New York: North South Books, 2016.  English translation by David Henry Wilson.

Edison image

Kuhlmann, Torben.  Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure.  New York: North South Books, 2018.  English translation by David Henry Wilson.

The collector is now on an adventure of her own, the hunt for the fourth book in the series, Einstein: The Fantastic Journey of a Mouse Through Space and Time (2020).