Posting at BLTnotjustasandwich.com

I have started a group blog with J. K. Gayle, Suzanne McCarthy, and Craig smith over at BLTnotjustasandwich.com.  I have a post up about the forthcoming Oxford Jewish Annotated New Testament and racism in translation.

Here is my introductory post on that blog:

Welcome to the blog named BLT. It is not just a sandwich.  It stands for a set of topics that we hope to discuss:  Bible, Literature, and Translation.  We’ll talk about the Bible as literature and the literature of translation and the translation of Bibles and the translation of literature and literature of translation and Bible as a translation and literary translations of Bibles and so on.  And we are certain to throw in the arts, the sciences, philosophy, mysticism, religion, and pretty much everything else.

The initial crew of bloggers represents a diverse set of viewpoints but one that is unified in our openness to new ideas and a fundamental belief in the dignity of all humans.  This blog is open to all: Jews, Catholics, Mainliners, Evangelicals, Eastern Christians, Atheists, Theists outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, etc.  For me a strong underlying theme of this blog is that  everyone has a voice — especially people that have been traditionally marginalized.

I’ll let my co-bloggers (currently J. K. Gayle, Suzanne McCarthy, and Craig Smith) introduce themselves, but I’ll simply mention that I am a professor at a US university with strong interests in applied issues in linguistics.

There won’t be any bacon or other treif meat in my posts, but there will be lots of substance.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Norton does King James

Although I have not seen it yet, I am cautiously optimistic about the new Norton Critical Edition of the English Bible (KJV) forthcoming later this year (ISBN 039397507X and 0393927458). Perhaps you are familiar with the Norton Critical Edition series — it is a standard series of annotated volumes used in literature classes. The editors working on these volumes are top-notch, and the blurbs are impressive at least:

Robert Alter: “The Norton Critical Edition of The English Bible, King James Version, appearing on the four hundredth anniversary of the great translation, is a real gift to the English-reading world, making this classical version freshly accessible. The introductions to the different biblical books are apt and often illuminating; the generous annotation clarifies archaic terms, corrects translation errors, and provides insight into the texts; and the appended critical and historical materials give readers a wealth of relevant contexts for both Old and New Testament.”

Harold Bloom: “Herbert Marks demonstrates in this work that he is now the foremost literary exegete of the King James Bible and of the Hebrew Bible that it translates.”

If the work is up to the standard of the better volumes in the Norton Critical Edition series, I expect this will become the standard secular teaching text on the King James Bible, and because of its explanation of archaic terms and phrases, may prove useful for ordinary readers as well.

(I should mention that additional materials and notes included in the Norton Critical Edition of the Writings of St. Paul [ISBN 0393972801] make it the best secular one-volume guide to the subject, although it uses the TNIV translation of the Epistles and Acts and Elliott’s translations [ISBN 0198261810] of the apocryphal works related to Paul.)

Quote of the day

From The Novel:  An Alternative History by Steven Moore:

“Can you imagine a Jane Austen heroine declining an invitation to dance because she’s having her period? Can you imagine how much saner our society would be if she had?”

A fun poem

“The Waste Land” by John Beer

Easily the most fun I’ve had in – oh, who can say how long – at least the last 20 minutes or so.

See also Levi Stahl’s take.

THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT BORDERS.
WE WILL BE CLOSING IN FIFTEEN MINUTES.

Condolences on Frank Kermode’s death

From the New York Times:

Frank Kermode, who rose from humble origins to become one of England’s most respected and influential critics, died Tuesday at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 90.

Harold Bloom gravely ill

79-year old Harold Bloom has cancelled all his classes; he is described as “gravely ill” and has been in the hospital since December.  I have a love-hate relationship with Bloom – his writings are sometimes insightful, although more often than not I disagree with him, particularly on his comments on Biblical sources.

I hope he makes a full recovery and returns to writing and teaching.

Strange allies

I like the KJV too (although I like Tyndale more). 

But I just don’t feel tempted to attend this pastor’s (and what a nice touch to be interviewed in his overalls) barbeque – even with the promise of meeting most of his 14 church members. 

You see, I’ve never done [and never plan to do] the Fahrenheit 451 thing – too many bad memories.

(HT: Craig Smith)

PS:  This is the first time I’ve broken my design rule and posted in color.  So you know the clip must be worth watching.

Michael Drout proves “redrawn” version of “But Not the Hippopotamus” is fraudulent

Faithful readers will recall that I previously reported that Boynton expert Michael Drout, English Chair at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, proved that Hippos Go Berserk was a fraudulent work.

Prof. Drout has been at work again with his expert eye and criticism.  This time, he has proved that the “redrawn” edition of But Not the Hippopotamus is fraudulent.

From the master himself:

I recently purchased a copy of But Not the Hippopotamus at the Blue Bunny bookstore in Dedham, Mass. In this copy I found the following opening lines:

A Hog and Frog
cavort in a bog.
But not the Hippopotamus.

Something did not seem right, so I consulted my personal copy of But Not the Hippopotamus. Sure enough, the opening lines are:

A Hog and a Frog
do a dance in a bog.
But not the Hippopotamus.

This variation, “cavort” for “do a dance” is an editorial hyper-correction, probably based on an attempt to force Boynton the Great's artistically flawless meter into a straightjacket of perfect regularity.

Note that in the original version, “do a dance” is a straightforward anapest. I scan the lines as:

a HOG and a FROG (iamb plus anapest)
do a DANCE in a BOG (two anapests)

Pseudo-Boynton forces both lines to be iambs followed by anapests, but examination of the rest of the poem shows that Boynton only once uses the 2 / 3 pattern in the line:

a HARE and a BEAR (iamb anapest)
have BEEN to a FAIR (iamb anapest)

In the other two stanzas we see:

are TRYing on HATS

and

toGETHer have JUICE

These two parallels, “are TRYing” and “toGETHer” are amphibrachs, also three-syllable feet. So there is no need to assume that the iamb in the fourth stanza needs to be followed slavishly by forcing a two-syllable foot (“cavort”) into the first stanza.

From this analysis of the forgery, we can conclude that Pseudo-Boynton is a highly trained scholar, but one for whom Boynton’s brilliant verse is not a native idiom. We can also note that as well as lacking Boynton the Great’s attention to detail (in that Pseudo-Boynton forgets to deal with the six distressed hippos who have never left in his/her version of Hippos Go Berserk), Pseudo-Boynton has a predilection for hippos. Scholars should thus re-examine the Boynton corpus to determine which other texts may have been interfered with by Pseudo-Boynton, looking for editorial hypercorrection, subtle contradictions, and hippos.

And the “Cavort” Recension of But Not the Hippopotamus must be athetized from the corpus.

Be sure to bring this vital issue to the attention of your school and public children’s libraries and librarians.

Translating poetry

After a long series of polemical and political posts, our friend John Hobbins has begun examining Biblical poetry again.

John’s argument in brief is that poetry is best read in the original (not so easy to do when the original, Classical Hebrew, is a dead language).  Drawing apparently on a commentary (I notice a striking similarity with several recent multi-volume commentaries on the psalms, but John did not share his reference sources.  The good news is that several major commentaries share similar features – and I am able to especially recommend the Jerusalem Commentary on the Psalms, which covers all the points that John presents and more.)

John points to additional meanings of words, speculation (with varying degrees of support) about nuances associated with words, and about literary references.  It’s all a bit dazzling, but I hardly think John has succeeded in his goal of “thoroughly discredit[ing] KJV.”  John himself ends up showing how close the KJV is to many of the meanings he indicates; and he further asserts that other translations (he explicitly mentions the ESV, NLT, and the TNIV – all popular translations amongst Evangelicals) have equally serious problems (here, perhaps, I would disagree – those translations have worse problems).  John intriguingly asserts that “It remains possible to produce better Bible translations than those that currently exist,” but he has yet to put forth a candidate.

John’s article reminds of about John Skelton, a contemporary of Tyndale, a character, according to N. Dale, who was happy, in his translation of Poggio’s Bibliotecha Historica, to expand eight words in his original into a paragraph of nearly two hundred words.

I would say that concision is a key element of translation:  to reflect the original precisely, literally, but with stylistic features (including length) that match the original.

It is against this approach towards understanding poetry that I read with interest Jane Reichhold’s recent new translation:  Basho:  The Complete Haiku.  This edition is handsome – it is typeset beautifully, and illustrated with elegant line drawings by Shiro Tsujimura.  Tsujimura is a major artist; his work appears in a local Asian Art Museum as well as at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.  The book is beautifully laid out, with plenty of white space and sexy black end papers. 

As befits the material, the presentation is unrushed, with plenty of white space.  For the first time, all 1012 of Basho’s contributions are translated, together with a brief description if it is given by Basho in his original work.  In the second major section, Notes (still beautifully laid out) give the poems in Japanese, romanized Japanese, and using a word-for-word precise translation of each Japanese word, along with the date of composition, and notes explaining the poems. 

What a beautiful layout.  The aesthetic experience of reading the poems in translation is presented to the audience directly – the reader understands and appreciates the poems.  As he wishes to delve deeper, he turns to a later section to read the Japanese, and if is confused by a word, a word-for-word translation is apparent.  Then, any necessary factual information is given.  What is missing here is that insidious style of Bible teachers everywhere:  “I am going to explain this poem to you and then you will understand it.”  Different people may pick up on different aspects with poems as sublime as these (or of the psalter.)  If you are explaining poetry, it is no longer poetry.  The primary reaction here is that the poem speaks to something to in our intellect, or in our soul.  Such a touching feeling disappears when the pedant shows up eager to explain each word by itself. 

What would you rather do – go to a fun movie or listen to a lecture where someone points out all the points you may have missed in a fun movie?

Should you wish to learn more, the volume also contains nice stylistic and historical essays on Basho; the classic list of 33 different techniques that can be used by Haiku; a life chronology of Basho; a glossary with more 300 technical terms defined, an English bibliography, and an index of first lines.

This book, while not expensive, is a book of art (much like a beautifully typeset edition of the Hebrew Bible is, much as a few very elegantly typeset editions of the KJV are.)

The advantage is that one can enjoy the poems as poems (without footnotes or commentary) or change the page and dig deeper.  This is really the best of both worlds.

I cannot imagine a reader of this blog who would not be delighted by this book of Basho’s poetry.  I give it a strong recommendation.

Why do we uplift the reader of Dante and put stumbling stones in the way of the reader of Scripture

If you want to read Dante’s Divine Comedy in English translation, you have it good.  There are any number of outstanding translations to choose among.  You can expect, as a standard feature that most volumes you will choose among will present the text bilingually in the original Italian (although they sometimes republished as single omnibus volumes without the Italian, e.g., Ciardi, Mandelbaum).  All translations contain a running commentary (which in some cases is simply outstanding, e.g., Singleton’s commentary (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), and in some cases highly accessible to a novice reader, e.g., Robert Hollander’s commentary to his joint translation with Jean Hollander (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso).  Editions almost always include diagrams and sometimes illustrations, in some cases by brilliant artists such as Barry Moser, William Blake (see also here), Gustave Dore, Botticelli, Salvador Dali (see also here and here), Giovanni di Paolo, and Sandow Birk.  And most important, editions are usually made by single translators or a team of two translators rather than a ecclesiastical committee with little ability to write English.  In many cases, translators are poets, with an interest in reproducing Dante’s effects in English:  e.g., Robert Pinsky, John Ciardi, Jean Hollander (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), Longfellow, Laurence Binyon, or even omnibus volumes that show the different styles of many different translators; as well as literal text translations; e.g., Singleton (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso).

In contrast, unless you are reading a (the best of) scholarly or a Jewish translation or commentary of Scripture, you are probably reading work by a committee, diglots are the exception rather than the rule, and illustrations (if they are to be found at all) are insipid.

But even more wonderful is the tradition of Lectura Dantis.  This tradition dates back to 1373, when the Commune of Florence asked Giovanni Boccaccio to give public lectures on the Divina Commedia – each one an exposition of a single one of Dante’s 100 cantos.  Since then, we have been graced with many outstanding Lectura Dantis series, and in modern times we have been seen Lectura Dantis Newberriana, Lectura Dantis Romana, Lectura Dantis Scaligera, Lectura Dantis Turicensis, Lectura Dantis Neapolitana, and Lectura Dantis Virginiana.  One fascinating example of this series is the wonderful Lectura Dantis California:  Inferno and Purgatorio.  (We eagerly await Paradiso.)  The strength here is the collection of studies by individual scholars – each quite different in approach.  Not only do we learn something about Dante in the process, but we see the entire range of modern approaches to text.

Why do we have so many works and translations that take Dante seriously, while so much of contemporary Biblical scholarship and translation is mediocre?  I suspect it has to do with simple fact of audience:  in the effort to make the Bible as accessible as possible, we have tolerated scholarship designed to reach out to those without education; and a glance at the demographic figures for different denominations indicates that those denominations most eager to make a large show of studying Scripture are often the weakest in educational achievement; while perhaps most of those reading Dante have a strong taste for serious study of literature.  Our Bibles bear a curse:  being divine, they are treated as often as not with intellectual disdain; while the Divine Comedy, being merely great literature, can receive serious treatment.

Happy Birthday

2009 is the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s nasty little poems (all with twisted barbs) known as his Sonnets, and many organizations are celebrating the anniversary today, on this day celebrated as Shakespeare’s (unknown) birthday:  St. George’s Day.

Google UK has celebrated this convergence of celebrations with one of its clever doodles; this one reprising the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet:

(You can see this in color here)

To celebrate the day, here is one of the less nasty poems, although it still has its bitter thorn:

Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other:
When that mine eye is famish'd for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
With my love's picture then my eye doth feast
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my heart's guest
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself away art resent still with me;
For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them and they with thee;
     Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
     Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.

March 17: Speaking up for snakes

Today is a traditional day to honor the contributions of Ireland – and surely, they are many.  I salute the many Irish writers who have deeply influenced my thinking, among them:

• John Banville
• John Bell
• George Berkeley
• Samuel Beckett
• George Boole
• Robert Boyle
• William Congreve
• Oliver Goldsmith
• William Hamilton
• Seamus Heaney (my friend!)
• Chaim Herzog
• James Joyce
• Iris Murdoch
• Edna O’Brien
• George Bernard Shaw
• Laurence Sterne
• Bram Stoker
• Jonathan Swift
• John Millington Synge
• John Toland
• Oscar Wilde
• William Butler Yeats

But I want to speak up for snakes.  I disagree with Patrick’s decision to drive them out of Ireland.  Snakes are a marvelous creature of God, and not to be treated as something to be discarded or harmed.

Now of course, there is the historical fact that there were no snakes in Ireland – so the story of Patrick is really a story of religious intolerance:  perhaps Patrick launched a mission of ethnic cleansing against the Druids of the time, who often used snake symbols.

And if this is the case, then we must admit that in many quarters of America, we are not much further advanced than Patrick.  Those who launch invective against free-thinkers are miniature Patricks, spreading a message of intolerance.  I am thinking in particular of a set of messages urging individuals to launch a jihad against Unitarians (which in this case is broadly interpreted – really it is a message of intolerance against free thinkers). 

The first use of “free thinker” was, according to some accounts used by the Irish philospher George Berkeley to describe the Irish philosopher John Toland, who was, in fact, what we might call a Unitarian – in his dramatic and important works Christianity Not Mysterious and Letter to Serena. 

So, on this marvelous anniversary, I side with the snakes, the free thinkers, the great Irish intellectuals, and the Irish people.  And may our modern intolerant Patricks be enlightened.

Trevor Nunn’s King Lear (starring Ian McKellen)

The sold-out RSC 2007 King Lear (which also toured in New York and Los Angeles) received rave notices, particularly for the performance of Ian McKellan as Lear.  The work will be broadcast on PBS on March 25th (and on NHK and UK Channel 4 around the same date.)  If you want to watch it on your computer in a tiny little window, that will apparently also be an option.  The Folger Library also has a web page on this production.

The stage work had a brief nude scene which will reportedly cut from the televised version.

The production has already been released on DVD in the UK (currently only £13) and a US DVD release is likely in the works.

I don’t normally recommend people to watch television, but in this case, I may make an exception.

(HT:  Duane)

David Foster Wallace

The New Yorker has published an extraordinarily painful biography-article on David Foster Wallace, a post-modern novelist who recently committed suicide.

Despite the pain of the article, I do recommend it – it is fascinating in it grimness, and briefly surveys Wallace’s completed and uncompleted works.

Dream tonight in honor of Joyce

Today, James Joyce’s 127th birthday, is the 70th anniversary of Joyce’s greatest novel – his great book about dreaming:  Finnegans Wake. 

Here are some quotations noted by David Kelly.

Anthony Burgess:

The world has forgiven Joyce for the excesses of Ulysses, but it is not yet ready to forgive him for the dementia of Finnegans Wake. Yet it is difficult to see what other book he could well have written after a fictional ransacking of the human mind in its waking state. Ulysses sometimes touches the borders of sleep, but it never actually enters its kingdom. Finnegans Wake is frankly a representation of the sleeping brain. It took Joyce 17 years to write between eye operations and worry about the mental collapse of his daughter, Lucia. He got little encouragement, even from Ezra Pound, that prince of avant-gardistes; his wife, Nora, merely said that he ought to write a nice book that ordinary people could read. But clearly Finnegans Wake had to be written, and Joyce was the only man dedicated or mad enough to write it.

Edna O’Brien:

Madness he knew to be the secret of genius . . . . He preferred the word exaltation, which can merge into madness. All great men had that vein in them. The reasonable man, he insisted, achieves nothing.

My favorite book on Finnegans Wake (other than the novel itself) is John Bishop’s Joyce’s Book of the Dark.  (I know the author, but I formed my high opinion of the work before I met him.)  Bishop’s book treats the Wake as a dream novel, and has incredible explanatory power to this famous difficult book.

See also this first draft version.

Shakespeare Teacher’s univocalic summaries of Shakespearian plays

Following up with my lipogrammatic Eunoia theme, see Shakespeare Teacher’s brilliant univocalic (one vowel only) summaries of

A:  Henry IV, Part One

E:  As You Like It

I:  Cymbeline

O:  Hamlet

U:  Measure for Measure

I should mention that Shakespeare Teacher’s blog is always full of wonderful word games and puzzle.

Michael Drout proves Hippos Go Beserk is a forgery

 

Wheaton College (Mass) English Chair Michael Drout has the breaking news:  Hippos Go Beserk is a forgery.  Professor Drout explains “A close-minded critical establishment dominated by a line of Oxford and Cambridge Professors has refused to acknowledge that Hippos Go Berserk contains inconsistencies that the real Sandra Boynton would never have included in a work.” 

The key point in his analysis relies on a meticulous reading of the text.  After the Hippos have already gone beserk and are leaving the party, the text says:

Seven hippos heading west
Leave six hippos quite distressed.
Five hippos then set forth
With four hippos headed north.
Three hippos say “good day.”
The last two hippos go their way.
One hippo, alone once more, misses the other forty-four.

In his brilliant analysis, Drout points out that the six quite distressed hippos never leave, thus, there can never one hippo left alone from the other forty-four – rather, there are thirty-eight hippos who leave. 

You must read Drout’s analysis to see his inescapable logic that the Pseudo-Boynton is actually Byrthferth of Ramsey.  More details here.

Dracula (1)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a genuinely scary novel.  Read it with the lights on.  It is also a high-tech novel, full of the latest science and technology of the time: phonographic diaries, typewriters, blood transfusions, shorthand, trepanning, hypnotism – and it is a (pop) avant-garde told in the form of letters, telegrams, press cuttings, etc.  It of course has been filmed numerous times and the story is likely familiar to most of us, but that hasn’t stopped a recent range of editions from appearing.  Here are a few:

• Leslie Klinger has prepared the New Annotated Dracula (with gorgeous illustrations) and extensive annotations – taken from the surprising perspective that Dracula describes real historical events.  The editor told me that he would not have been able to write this book without the Internet!
• John Morgan has prepared an edition of Dracula using a variety of typefaces for the different types of material and a cover that mimics the original. (This has been released in the UK, and will be out in the US in a few weeks.)
• Darce Stoker, the great-grand-nephew of Bram, has written a sequel called Dracula, the Undead (the original title proposed from Bram’s masterpiece until an editor rejected it) reportedly using material from Stoker’s original notes (although I suspect that the best of these already appear in Klinger’s book.)

This book is so much fun that I will need to write about it more, but I have some fun reading tonight, so please forgive me for waiting until later another day for that post!

Waiting for the post-lipogrammic book discussion

Such a point in history for us now!  Our books push limits of vocabulary and method.

I was going to kick-off this blog with a discussion of Christian Bök’s brilliant post-lipogram work, but now I cannot (it would not do!), for I found an accompanying CD, and I want to first catch it prior to saying my opinions.  My compact disk copy is on its way from Amazon.ca. 

Thank God that this silly post is a lipogram. 

During your wait for my forthcoming post, you may fancy a look at La Disparation or its translation, A Void.  (It may gratify your fancy, but I still think you will not find lipogrammic Unhooking a DD-Cup Bra without Fumbling to fill your bill.)