Comments on: Carlo Emilio Gadda: That Awful Mess on Via Merulana

By: Trevor Berrett

Trevor Berrett — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:56:40 +0000

This particular detective novel will be twice as fun for you, Isabel!

About the Italian: I don’t think there were any pieces left in Italian per se – only a few words in a Sicilian dialect, but those were explained. I think there was some French, and, if you can believe it, there were a few sentences in Greek, which I had no chance understanding. All in all, the language is in English, but that didn’t necessarily make it easy to comprehend!

By: Isabel

Isabel — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:43:42 +0000

Yikes! I am so bad with detective novels. I can never figure who did it, despite the hints.

Are parts of the novel in Italian? If yes, then maybe I can muddle through those parts with my Spanish.

By: Trevor Berrett

Trevor Berrett — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:42:27 +0000

Thanks for the article link, Stewart. Here again Weaver does an excellent translation. If it weren’t for his own footnotes, I would never have realized things were lost in translation. It reads like a well written piece of English literature.

And good luck with this one. It definitely is worth it!

By: Stewart

Stewart — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:50:26 +0000

I bought this book earlier in the year, partly because it was a Weaver translation and partly because it was an NYRB Classic, of which I've a number slowly taking over my shelves. I'm looking forward to reading it, although I now realise that I'm going to have to block out a day or two explicitly for it to ensure that I stick to it and read without distraction. What may interest you, on the subject of translation is an article entitled The Process Of Translation, in which Weaver talks about translating Gadda (not That Awful Mess...) and providing examples of how he goes about it.