donald yates – Three Percent /College/translation/threepercent a resource for international literature at the University of Rochester Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:19:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.6 Where Have I Been These Past Few Months /College/translation/threepercent/2009/07/20/where-have-i-been-these-past-few-months/ /College/translation/threepercent/2009/07/20/where-have-i-been-these-past-few-months/#respond Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:25:00 +0000 http://www.wdev.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent-dev/2009/07/20/where-have-i-been-these-past-few-months/ That I didn’t realize Not terribly active, but still, today’s post about is pretty interesting. To provide some context for this quote: earlier in the summer ND held a contest to see if anyone could identify the first publication of Borges by ND. Answer: Two stories (ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œInvestigations on the Death of Herbert QuianÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� and ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œThe Circular RuinsÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½�) appeared in New Directions in Prose and Poetry 11. And here’s a bit more info from translator Donald Yates:

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œThis early appearance of BorgesÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s fiction was the result of James LaughlinÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s recognition of BorgesÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s importance, and no doubt influenced his decision to offer a contract when the manuscript of Labyrinths came across his desk ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½” after it had been rejected by other publishers, including Barney Rosset at Grove Press, who immediately rushed ahead with a translation ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½” by Anthony Kerrigan, et al., ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½” of BorgesÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s Ficciones ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½” immediately after Borges shared with Samuel Beckett the First International Editors in 1961.

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œIn a sense, I think it helped in BorgesÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ critical reception here. A lot of reviewers sat up and paid attention when two Borges collections came across their desk and often (New York Times, e.g.) both were reviewed together. If I had it all to do over again, since we had access to all of BorgesÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s prose published through 1960, I would have also included `El sur,ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ `El aleph.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ and as you point out, `Herbert Quain.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½�

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œI was properly scolded by my friend Anthony Boucher, who reviewed mystery fiction for the NYTBR, for leaving out that story that touched on a subject close to both our hearts ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½” detective literature. He, by the way, did the first translation ever of a Borges tale in English: `The Garden of Forking Paths,ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ which appeared in the August, 1948, issue of Ellery QueenÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s Mystery Magazine. In early 1963, Time magazine selected Labyrinths as one of the top ten fiction titles published in 1962. And in 2008 The Authors Society of London named Labyrinths as one of 50 outstanding English-language translations of the previous 50 years.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“Donald Yates

Hopefully ND keeps this up. That place must be a treasure trove of interesting literary anecdotes.

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