Collected French Translations: Prose
Page 43
2. Not everyone agrees: Rayner Heppenstall, in his Raymond Roussel: A Critical Study, sees in them signs of “deterioration of mind.”
3. This was not a new practice for him: The names of characters were also left blank in the published version of “The Place of the Red Buttons,” one of the Texts of Early Youth. In the manuscript of the Documents, which I saw once at the home of some distant cousins of Roussel, dates were left blank and names indicated by an initial and a blank. But since the proofs have apparently not survived, it is impossible to know whether the names and dates were eventually supplied by Roussel or (as he had requested in his note) by another hand. The names sound Rousselian.
Speaking of proofs, when I was beginning research on Roussel in about 1959 I went to the offices of Lemerre, which was then moribund but still extant, asking to see any papers they might have relating to Roussel. I was told that there were indeed files but that I would need the permission of a member of the family in order to examine them. I received this permission from Michel Ney, Roussel’s nephew and heir, who accompanied me to the Lemerre offices, whereupon the same official I had spoken to previously told us that they had no Roussel papers! A few months later Lemerre shut down for good and its archives were, I believe, destroyed.
4. I am indebted to Pierre Martory for suggesting these possible plays on words, and also for discovering a copy of the catalogue of Mme Roussel’s art collection (see note 6) at a Paris flea market, at a time when no one knew of its existence.
5. Strangely, Palermo, the city that Roussel seems to have chosen as his place of death, numbers among its monuments a cubical castle of the Norman period known as “La Cuba.”
6. The French phrase “L’Enlèvement d’Europe” could mean both “The Abduction of Europa” and “Europe’s Carrying Off the Prize.”
Mme Roussel owned more than eighty Dresden figurines (as well as paintings by Gainsborough, Lawrence, Fragonard, Nattier, Greuze, Corot, and others), including, in addition to “Europa,” two allegorical figures representing America and Africa.* In my copy of the sale catalogue, someone jotted down both the estimates and the actual prices attained by the various lots at the auction: There, at least, America seems to have triumphed with a price of 12,500 francs, as against 1,500 fetched by “The Abduction of Europa.”
In Havana
1. Considering that Roussel has supplied names, or at any rate initials, for characters who barely make an appearance in his narrative, he seems here to be going out of his way to avoid naming the “miscreant” who plays such a pivotal role. (Trans.)
2. This sentence replaces on the corrected proofs the following incomplete sentence from the original version: “Numerous idlers, counting on many joyous parties purchased with little effort…” (Trans.)
First Document
1. Possibly a spoonerism for mamelles par terre: “breasts on the ground,” i.e., pendulous breasts. (Trans.)
Second Document
2. Pérou is the French name for Peru. (Trans.)
3. The French—jusqu’à ce que vînt le changer Desaix—may be another of Roussel’s hidden puns; changer Desaix is phonetically identical to changer de sexe, “to change one’s sex.” Desaix was a general of Napoleon killed during a charge which determined the French victory at Marengo. (Trans.)
Third Document
4. No doubt volumes from the Bibliothèque Rose, a popular nineteenth-century series of children’s books which Roussel had certainly read as a child. (Trans.)
Fourth Document
5. As was Roussel. (Trans.)
Fifth Document
6. Poulet means both “chicken” and, in argot, “policeman.” (Trans.)
7. An allusion, perhaps, to Roussel’s play L’Étoile au front, “The Star on the Forehead.” (Trans.)
8. The fourth month of the French Revolutionary calendar (December–January). (Trans.)
9. A French custom dictates that when someone opens an almond and finds two kernels instead of one, he or she must give one of them to a person of the opposite sex; the two then become “Philippe” and “Philippine,” and when they afterward meet, whoever says “Bonjour” first wins a prize. Apparently Fred and Alice had already shared a double almond kernel. (Trans.)
10. An elderly character in Molière’s Les Fourberies de Scapin. (Trans.)
11. Méduser: to turn to stone. (Trans.)
Sixth Document
12. The year of Roussel’s birth. (Trans.)
13. I am unable to identify the word “iemskik.” Perhaps it is a kind of steed (a reindeer?) that leads the others. (Trans.)
14. Flamel (1330–1418), a jurist, was reputedly an alchemist. (Trans.)
15. The word in question is jumelle(s), which can mean both “twin sister” and “opera glasses.” (Trans.)
PIERRE REVERDY (1889–1960)
HAUNTED HOUSE
1. “Dangerous idiot,” sot périlleux, a pun on saut périlleux, “dangerous leap.” (Trans.)
2. Panier à salade, “salad basket,” is a slang expression for prison van or Black Maria. (Trans.)
3. The Beauce is an agricultural region southwest of Paris known as “the breadbasket of France”; its capital is Chartres. (Trans.)
4. “Skate fish on the wall,” raie au mur, pun on Réaumur, the inventor of a thermometric scale that bears his name. (Trans.)
HENRI MICHAUX (1899–1984)
INTRODUCTION TO AN EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
1. Except in this instance, the word taches has been translated as “blots” throughout. (Trans.)
2. Or electronically small. (Michaux)
SALVADOR DALÍ (1904–1989)
THE INCENDIARY FIREMEN
1. Pompier—literally, a fireman. Various origins are given for the adjectival use of this word to describe a style that is “banal and emphatic” (Larousse). One argument supposes that it comes from the resemblance of the neo-Greek helmets favored by members of the Academy in their Neo-Classical battle scenes to the brass helmets of French firemen. Another places it in a remark by Degas about Academic painters: “C’est les pompiers qui se mettent en jeu” (“The firemen are setting fire to themselves.”). (ARTnews Annual Ed.)
IANNIS XENAKIS (1922–2001)
THE COSMIC CITY
1. In fact, for a density of 500 inhabitants per hectare (2.47 acres), a city of five million inhabitants like Paris covers around 10,000 hectares. The city we propose will cover around eight hectares of ground, or less than a thousandth of this space. (Xenakis)
2. The curse of modern cities, inflicted by the complex and multiple automotive industries. This is one of the examples of pointless economic and social cancerization, difficult to stamp out in free-enterprise nations. (Xenakis)
MARCELIN PLEYNET (1933)
THE IMAGE OF MEANING
1. The third meeting organized by the review Tel Quel on June 11, 1964, in Paris, in the course of which this text was read aloud. (Trans.)
2. I attach the greatest importance to this formulation; it has in fact the advantage of illuminating the question without diminishing it. (Pleynet)
APPENDIX: CHRONOLOGY OF FIRST PUBLICATION DATES OF TRANSLATIONS
1955
Jacob, Max. “Literature and Poetry.” Le Cornet à dés. Semi-Colon 1, no. 1 (ca. 1955).
1956
Unpublished selections from Fulbright Project:
Blanchard, Maurice. “The cloud distributes its rain impartially…”
Char, René. “Play and Sleep,” “The Lords of Maussane,” “Forehead of the Rose,” and “The Room in Space.”
Daumal, René. “Always in Vain.”
Éluard, Paul. “The Evil,” “Universe–Solitude,” “The Covered Forehead,” and “The Broken Bridge.”
Follain, Jean. “The Accidents,” “The Handyman’s Indifference,” “Metaphysics,” and “The Portraits.”
Ganzo, Robert. “Caught in the high branches…”
Lubin, Armen. “Temporary Lodgings.”
Supervielle, Jules. “
47, Boulevard Lannes,” “To Lautréamont,” “The Lane,” “Beautiful monster of the night…,” and “In the Forgetfulness of My Body.”
1960
Reverdy, Pierre. “The Route” and “Surprise.” In “A Note on Pierre Reverdy,” by John Ashbery. Evergreen Review 4, no. 11 (January/February 1960).
______. “That Memory,” “Clear Winter,” “A Lot of People,” “Endless Journeys,” “Love Again,” and “The Invasion.” Evergreen Review 4, no. 11 (January/February 1960).
1961
Breton, André, and Paul Éluard. “Intra-Uterine Life,” “An Attempt to Stimulate the Delirium of Interpretation,” “There Is Nothing Incomprehensible,” and “The Original Judgment.” From L’Immaculée Conception. Locus Solus 2 (1961).
Char, René, and Paul Éluard. “New” and “Landings.” Locus Solus 2 (1961).
Pleynet, Marcelin. “of coal,” “the new republic,” and “Black.” Locus Solus 3–4 (1961).
Roche, Denis. “As a matter of fact…,” “Tears allowing one to think that there are…,” and “The sensory organs watered…” Locus Solus 3–4 (1961).
1962
Ashbery, John. Preface to “Un Inédit de Raymond Roussel.” L’Arc 19 (Summer 1962). French text of “In Havana.” This preface was translated from Ashbery’s English to French by Michel Thurlotte. See 1987 entry for Ashbery’s translation of this preface back into English as “Introduction to ‘In Havana’ by John Ashbery” to accompany his first translation of Roussel’s “À la Havane” in Atlas Anthology 4 (1987).
Dupin, Jacques. “Texts for an Approach.” Alberto Giacometti. Paris: Maeght Éditeur, 1962.
Roussel, Raymond. Chapter 1 from Impressions of Africa. Portfolio and ARTnews Annual 6 (Autumn 1962).
1963
Michaux, Henri. Introduction to an Exhibition Catalogue. Henri Michaux. London: Robert Fraser Gallery, 1963.
1964
Bataille, Georges. “Eponine.” L’ Abbé C. Art and Literature 3 (Autumn–Winter 1964).
Hélion, Jean. “Figure.” Art and Literature 1 (March 1964).
Jacob, Max. “The Spy’s Memoirs,” “Poem in a Style Which Is Not Mine,” “Poem,” “The Italian Straw Hat,” “The Rue Ravignan,” “Translated from the German or the Bosnian,” “Untitled,” “Literary Manners,” “Time and Tide Wait for No Man,” “The Aunt, the Tart, and the Hat,” “Adventure Novel,” “The Situation of Maidservants in Mexico,” “Mutual Contempt of the Castes,” “Another Point of Law,” “The Beggar Woman of Naples,” “In the Hill Country,” “The Name,” “The Centaur,” “A Great Man Needs No Valet,” “Errors of Pity,” “They Won’t Come Back Again,” “Certain Disdains and Not the Others,” “Life and Tide,” “The Bibliophile,” “The Poet’s House,” “Modern Family,” “Maecenases,” “Picture,” and “Charlie Chaplin at the Seashore.” Selections from Le Cornet à dés. Art and Literature 3 (Autumn–Winter 1964).
Leiris, Michel. “Conception and Reality in the Work of Raymond Roussel.” Art and Literature 2 (Summer 1964).
1965
Artaud, Antonin. “Correspondence with Jacques Rivière.” Art and Literature 6 (Autumn 1965).
de Chirico, Giorgio. Selection Two from Hebdomeros. Art and Literature 4 (Spring 1965).
Pleynet, Marcelin. “Reread What Is Written” and “The Image of Meaning.” Art and Literature 4 (Spring 1965).
Redon, Odilon. From To Oneself. Art and Literature 6 (Autumn 1965).
Roche, Denis. “Eros Gone Wild.” Art and Literature 4 (Spring 1965).
1966
Xenakis, Iannis. “The Cosmic City.” Art and Literature 10 (Autumn 1966).
1967
Dalí, Salvador. “The Incendiary Firemen.” ARTnews Annual 33 (October 1967).
de Chirico, Giorgio. “Courbet,” “The Engineer’s Son,” and “The Survivor of Navarino.” Art and Literature 11 (Winter 1967).
1969
Dalí, Salvador. “DeKooning’s 300,000,000th Birthday.” ARTnews 68, no. 2 (April 1969).
Cravan, Arthur. “Some Words.” World 17 (November / December 1969).
1972
Cravan, Arthur. “Elephant Languor.” Juillard 9 (Spring 1972).
1973
Chassignet, Jean-Baptiste. Six Sonnets from Le Méspris de la vie et consolation contre la mort. The World 27 (April 4, 1973).
Jarry, Alfred. “Fear Visits Love.” Fiction 2, no. 1 (1973).
1975
de Chirico, Giorgio. “On Silence.” Big Sky 9 (August 1975).
1984
Baudelaire, Charles. “Landscape.” A Wave, by John Ashbery. New York: Viking, 1984.
1987
Ashbery, John. “Introduction to ‘In Havana’ by John Ashbery.” First appeared in French, as a preface to “Un Inédit de Raymond Roussel,” L’ Arc 19 (Summer 1962), the first publication in French of Roussel’s “In Havana.” It was translated from Ashbery’s English into French for L’Arc by Michel Thurlotte. Ashbery then translated it back into English as “Introduction to Raymond Roussel’s ‘In Havana,’” to accompany his translation of “À la Havane,” in Atlas Anthology 4 (1987).
Roussel, Raymond. “In Havana.” Atlas Anthology 4 (1987).
Roussel, Raymond. “An Unpublished Note.” With Ashbery’s notes. Atlas Anthology 4 (1987).
1990
Martory, Pierre. “Ganymede.” O-blēk 8 (Fall 1990). “Prose des Buttes-Chaumont,” “Return of the Birds,” and “Toten Insel.” Every Question but One. New York: Intuflo Editions, Groundwater Press, 1990.
1991
Martory, Pierre. “Black Diamond.” The New Yorker (June 10, 1991).
Monnier, Pascalle. “In the spacious and flower-decked salons…,” “Luck is now sent to you…,” and “The Murphy Bed.” In Violence of the White Page: Contemporary French Poetry. Edited by Stacy Doris, Phillip Foss, and Emmanuel Hocquard. Special issue of Tyuonyi 9/10 (1991).
Reverdy, Pierre. “Tip of the Wing,” “Messenger of Tyranny,” “Heavier,” “That,” “… Is Ajar,” “The Crystal Cobblestone,” and “From Another Shore.” Selected Poems. Selected by Mary Ann Caws. Edited by Timothy Bent. Winston-Salem, N.C.: Wake Forest University Press, 1991.
Roussel, Raymond. Documents to Serve as an Outline. Atlas Anthology 7 (1991). With Ashbery’s introduction and notes. First English publication of Documents 1–6.
1992
de Chirico, Giorgio. “That Evening Monsieur Dudron…,” “It Was Something Like…,” and “Monsieur Dudron’s Adventure.” Hebdomeros: With Monsieur Dudron’s Adventure and Other Metaphysical Writings. Cambridge, Mass.: Exact Change, 1992.
1993
Martory, Pierre. “Red and Black Lake.” The World 46 (February 1993). “From Here On…,” “Ma Chandelle est morte,” “The Landscape Is Behind the Door,” “The Landscapist,” and “American Nocturne.” American Poetry Review 22, no. 5 (September/October 1993).
1994
d’Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine. “The White Cat.” In Wonder Tales: Six French Stories of Enchantment. Edited by Marina Warner. London: Chatto and Windus, 1994; New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996; New York: Vintage, 1996.
Martory, Pierre. “At the Bottom of the Steps,” “Under the Elm,” “A Sunday in Montfort l’Amaury,” “Blues,” and “Recitative and Aria of the Tears.” The Landscape Is Behind the Door. New York: Sheep Meadow Press, 1994.
Monnier, Pascalle. “Para siempre Teresita? Para Siempre Rodrigo” and “Locations.” Conjunctions 23 (Fall 1994).
1995
Martory, Pierre. “Oh, Lake…” Trafika 5 (Autumn 1995).
2000
Martory, Pierre. “Bastille” and “Wine.” Poetry 177, no. 1 (October–November 2000).
2002
Fauchereau, Serge. Selections from Déplacements (1996) and Expositions et affabulations (1992). “Displacements” and “Demonstrations and Fabulations,” in Complete Fiction. Translated by John Ashbery and Ron Padgett. New York: Black Square Editions, 2002.
2003
Ja
mme, Franck André. The Recitation of Forgetting. New York: Black Square Editions, 2003.
2005
Mallarmé, Stéphane. Selections from Recueil de “Nursery Rhymes.” Conjunctions 45 (Fall 2005).
2007
Reverdy, Pierre. Haunted House. Brooklyn: Black Square Editions and the Brooklyn Rail, 2007.
2008
Martory, Pierre. “Pygmalion.” Oh, lac / Oh, Lake. With monotypes by Francis Wishart. Edited by Olivier Brossard and Eugene Richie. Hove, East Sussex, U.K.: Artery Editions, 2008.
2011
Rimbaud, Arthur. “After the Flood,” “Sideshow,” “Cities [I],” “Promontory,” and “Genie.” Selections from Illuminations. New York: Norton, 2011.
2013
Bonnefoy, Yves. From “Théâtre”: “XIV I see Douve stretched out…” and “XVII The ravine penetrates the mouth now…” From “Real Location”: “The Real Location of the Stag.” The Massachusetts Review 54, no. 4 (Winter 2013).
Monnier, Pascalle. “I will look at…” The Massachusetts Review 54, no. 4 (Winter 2013).
Ponge, Francis. “The Insignificant” and “The Candle.” Jacket2 (Fall 2013). http://jacket2.org.
2014
Martory, Pierre. Introduction to Washington Square by Henry James. PN Review 40, no. 3 (January–February 2014).
UNPUBLISHED PROSE TRANSLATION
de Chirico, Giorgio. Selection One from Hebdomeros.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ashbery, John. “Appearing on Belgische Radio en Televisie, Brussels (date unknown).” Interview. Pennsound. http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Ashbery.php.
______. Collected Poems 1956–1987. Edited by Mark Ford. New York: The Library of America, 2008.
______. “Contributor’s Statement.” Special issue, “Poetry and Translation: Interchanges.” Mantis 2 (2001). 45.
______. “Growing Up Surreal.” ARTnews 67, no. 3 (May 1968). 40–44, 65.
______. “John Ashbery.” Bookworm. KCRW. Interview by Michael Silverblatt. May 21, 2009. www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw090521john_ashbery.
______. “John Ashbery: An Interview.” Interview by David Remnick. Bennington Review 8 (September 1980). 14–21.
______. “John Ashbery Interviewing Harry Mathews.” The Review of Contemporary Fiction 7, no. 3 (Fall 1987). 36–48.