Wednesday, May 18, 2005

on Translation (short)

Brinker quoted Frost (or someone, I forget) today about poetry in translation. "Reading poetry in translation is like kissing a women through a vail. Someone else said it is like eating a potato without any salt."

Is kissing a women through a vail like eating a potato without salt? Apparently.

5 comments:

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

If you've got high blood pressure, you're probably better off with the saltless potato and the veiled woman.

Yehuda said...

The transitivity of "likeness" necessarily depends on the strength of the analogy.

Zev said...

Does that mean you have to read poetry in translation, too?

Yehuda, have you been dipping into the literary critical cookie jar again?

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

If the idea is that it's less exciting, then sure, why not?

miriam said...

i think that's like how eating matza on erev pesach is "like" sleeping with your fiance before the wedding.