On Solzhenitsyn, for practice...
Aug. 31st, 2008 12:27 pmA practice translation of the first two paragraphs of a piece by Nicolas Bonnal at Les 4 Vérités, titled Soljenitsyne, le dernier écrivain européen (Solzhenitsyn, the Last European Writer:
Cheers...
UPDATE: LJer
ethelshai suggests that
I am not entirely sure what "la littérature d’avant le désastre" might be alluding to. Might this be a reference to the time "before the fall" of the Soviet Union?
Soljenitsyne est mort, et avec lui une certaine idée de l’homme et de la littérature. C’est la littérature d’avant le désastre, d’avant Coelho ou Harry Potter, Sulitzer ou les best-sellers de plage, la littérature de Voltaire et de Rousseau, de Hugo ou même de Sartre, la littérature qui peut et veut changer le monde. Solzhenitsyn is dead, and with him died a certain concept of man and of literature. It was the literature of before the disaster, of before Coelho or Harry Potter or Sulitzer or of best-sellers to be read at the beach; it was the literature of Voltaire and Rousseau, of Hugo, or even of Sartre. It was literature that could change the world, and wanted to. La littérature des génies et des créateurs, pas celle des 750 nouveaux romans de la rentrée littéraire et des auteures à la mode qui viennent montrer leur derrière ou leur maquillage à la téloche à une heure de plus en plus avancée de la nuit. C’est aussi la littérature qui dérange vraiment, comme celle d’Orwell, de Céline ou de Pirandello, la littérature qui titille les imbéciles et les chiens de garde. Mendiant ingrat comme Bernanos ou Léon Bloy, Soljenitsyne a envoyé paître les démocraties bien-pensantes, pas celle des Grecs ou des républiques italiennes, celles de l’effet de serre et de l’abrutissement planétaire des super-héros. It was the literature of genius and creativity, not that of the 750 new novels of the literary season or of the fashionable authors who come to show their backsides or their made-up faces on the tube at ever-later hours of the night. It is also truly disturbing literature, like that of Orwell, or Céline, or Pirandello. It is literature that titillates imbeciles and guard dogs. An ungrateful peasant like Bernanos or Léon Bloy, Solzhenitsyn sent the right-minded democracies – not that of the Greeks or of the Italian republics, but those of the greenhouse effect and the global mind-numbing effects of superheros – out to pasture.
Cheers...
UPDATE: LJer
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"La littérature d'avant le désastre" in the context of this article is a criticism of extreme-contemporary literary works, considered as being rubbish by the author of the article. He says that books by Coelho or the Harry Potter series are almost insults to literature, in a nutshell.This makes sense, and upon reflection, I think the translation might just stand as-is.