Thursday, September 16, 2004
(9:45 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Thursday Translation Attempt: I've got the DTs
I've lost interest in the translation of the Badiou article about a movie I've never seen. It's back to Derrida, with a hard-hitting passage from Donner la mort:Un secret fait toujours trembler. Non seulement frémir ou frissonner, ce qui arrive aussi parfois, mais trembler. Le frémissiment peut certes manifester la peur, l’angoisse, l’appréhension de la mort, quand on frémit d’avance, à l’annonce de ce qui va venir. Mais il peut être léger, à fleur de peau, quand le frémissiment annonce le plaisir ou la jouissance. Moment de passage, temps suspendu de la séduction. Un frémissiment n’est pas toujours très grave, c’est parfois discret, à peine sensible, un peu épiphénoménal. Cela prépare plutôt que clea ne suit l’événement. L’eau, dit-on, frémit avant de buoillir, c’est ce que nous appelions la séduction: une pré-ébullition superficielle, une agitation préliminaire et visible.Translation:
A secret always causes one to tremble. Not only to quiver or to shudder, which sometimes also happens, but to tremble. Quivering can certainly show fear, anxiety, apprehension of death, whenever one quivers before or at the announcement of that which is going to come. But it can be fickle, superficial, when quivering announces pleasure or enjoyment. Moment of passage, suspended time of seduction. Quivering is not always very serious, it is often discrete, hardly sensible, a little epiphenomenal. It prepares rather than follows the event. Water, one says, quivers before boiling—this is what we call seduction: a superficial pre-boiling, a preliminary and visible agitation.And now for David Willis's translation:
A secret always makes you tremble. Not simply quiver or shiver, which also happens sometimes, but tremble. A quiver can of course manifest fear, anguish, apprehension of death; as when one quivers in advance, in anticipation of what is to come. But it can be slight, on the surface of the skin, like a quiver that announces the arrival of pleasure or an orgasm [ed. note: jouissance]. It is a moment in passing, the suspended time of seduction. A quiver is not always very serious, it is sometimes discreet, barely discernible, somewhat epiphenomenal. It prepares for, rather than follows the event. One could say that water quivers before it boils; that is the idea I was referring to as seduction: a superficial pre-boil, a preliminary and visible agitation.The biggest discrepancy is that I said "hardly sensible" where he said "barely discernible." Looking it up in the dictionary, "sensible" in French does not have the same connotations as the English "sensible," so discernible is a more accurate translation. Congratulations to David Willis.
I recently got the book French for Reading by Karl Sandberg and Eddison Tatham in the mail. I've worked through the first couple chapters, which are very basic, but I've already picked up some helpful information about particular clues for cognates. Hopefully working through the whole book will help to solidify and expand upon what I got in my class.
