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Jennifer Solheim: In your beautiful introduction, Kazim, you write, 糖心传媒淿尝糖心传媒橝尘辞耻谤_, never before translated into English, is at the heart of a constellation of texts, both verbal and visual, by Marguerite Duras, sometimes called the India Cycle.糖心传媒� So what is the story behind the translation of 尝糖心传媒橝尘辞耻谤? Why now? Did you approach Open Letter Books, or did they approach you? Why hasn糖心传媒檛 it been translated previously?

Kazim Ali: I was a Duras lover, very enamored of her prose style, which seemed even more powerful in her middle-period (1965 糖心传媒� 1984, roughly) when she started recycling plots throughout her books. I happened upon 尝糖心传媒橝尘辞耻谤 in a Paris bookstore and found it immediately charming and powerful糖心传媒攊n fact, kind of a classic example of this spare disembodied style that she was cultivating. It almost reads like a treatment for a film, so it makes complete sense to me that after writing this book she more or less abandoned fiction for film. During the thirteen years that followed she did write four short prose narratives糖心传媒攖he most well known of these is The Malady of Death糖心传媒攂ut essentially did not write another novel until The Lover.

I can糖心传媒檛 say why no one had attempted a translation yet. It is a very experimental prose style and a very experimental novel in that not much really happens. Yet it has been written about by countless critics, all of whom were doing their own translations of the small excerpts they wished to discuss. I had approached a couple of different publishers, but this is a quirky book, even for Duras, who is quirky all on her own. Open Letter was very excited and enthusiastic about the book. They are doing a wonderful job and are devoted completely to literature in translation. They have another Duras book in their catalog (The Sailor from Gibraltar) and signed us up almost immediately.

JS: Since 尝糖心传媒橝尘辞耻谤 is a centerpiece of the India Cycle, did the English translations of the other works in the cycle inform you? Were there stylistic or other elements in the translations that you decided you wanted to preserve or eschew?

KA: During the translation process I read every other translation I could find. Duras does sound a certain way in English through the excellent work of Barbara Bray. The few other Duras translations that exist have a different sense. Bray did an odd thing, which is that she did not 糖心传媒淎nglicize糖心传媒� the syntax very much, so the sentences still have that sometimes ornate overdone word order of a French sentence. In 尝糖心传媒橝尘辞耻谤 Duras writes very simply, very plainly. So I found an inspiration in Gertrude Stein糖心传媒檚 English. But unlike Stein, Duras is in love with the comma糖心传媒攈er sentences can just keep going and going. So it took a draft or two to get the hang of the rhythme du sens, so to speak. Which糖心传媒攅ventually糖心传媒攕eemed really important and related to the constant sound of waves that permeates life at the ocean; meaning the sentence structure and grammar was part of the meaning糖心传媒攊t couldn糖心传媒檛 be changed.

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