“There are not, in the whole vast library, true identical books…everything is there…a version of each book in all languages, the interpolation of every book in all books.” – “Library of Babel” 75The Translator
The Argentinian writer, translator and essayist Jorge Luis Borges may be better known as the translator of Garcia Marquez’s One-Hundred Years of Solitude. His work consists of puzzles, falsifications, religion, mirrors, and libraries. And as amazing as his fiction is (I’ll get to that in another blog post), it’s also interesting to interpret his ideas about translation.
What He Says
“They [The Chinese historians of literature] believe that literature and poetry are eternal processes. I think they are basically right.” – “The Thousand and One Nights”, tr. Eliot Weinberger
“The original is unfaithful to the translation.”What He (May) Mean
As with Walter Benjamin, Borges’ opinion of literature and translation appears to be metaphysical. But while Benjamin believes a “pure language” links the original and its translations, Borges suggests that sometimes a translation may improve upon the original.
For Borges, a translation is a separate entity, an individual work.Poetry becomes even more complicated than prose – for you must also think about the rhyme schemes – or lack thereof – alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc.
In other words, a translation becomes a falsification of the original, but also its own creative entity. Like the Library from his short story, “Library of Babel”, literature becomes even more limitless when you consider the multitude of translations – in all languages; each different English edition of Goethe’s Faust is itself a different derivative of the original.
How It Matters
While this is just a brief interpretive skimming over Borges' works, it’s important to note the infinite nature of translation using his view. It reminds us not only that each translation has something new to offer, but also of the creativity that goes into producing a translation.
*The pagination refers to a NOOK book.
Interested in more theory? Check out my post on Walter Benjamin.
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