Tuesday, November 04, 2003
The Don: Picked up Edith Grossman's new translation of Don Quixote on the way to work this morning. I've just read Cervantes' Prologue, and it is fantastic in Grossman's translation, which is certainly the lightest and most modern I've attempted.
It begins with a very subtle joke: "Idle reader: without my swearing to it, you can believe that I would like this book, the child of my understanding, to be the most beautiful, the most brialliant, and the most discreet that anyone could imagine."
But why should we believe it when he won't swear to it? We shouldn't believe it. In fact, he admits a bit later that the book isn't his child, but his step child.
This looks very promising.
It begins with a very subtle joke: "Idle reader: without my swearing to it, you can believe that I would like this book, the child of my understanding, to be the most beautiful, the most brialliant, and the most discreet that anyone could imagine."
But why should we believe it when he won't swear to it? We shouldn't believe it. In fact, he admits a bit later that the book isn't his child, but his step child.
This looks very promising.
