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By the Light of Translation
Natasha Wimmer
The second section of Roberto
Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives
ends with a conversation
between Amadeo Salvatierra,
an avant-garde poet of
advanced years, and two
young poets. After a long
night of talk over a bottle of
mezcal, Amadeo asks, “Boys,
is it worth it Is it worth it Is
it really worth it” and one of the poets mumbles “Simonel.” We
don’t know exactly what Amadeo is asking, but we can presume
that at some level he means: Is poetry worth it Is the pursuit
of literature worth it Have our lives been worth anything
Clearly, much rests on the translation of “simonel,” which is an
ambiguous Mexico City slang term. Earlier in the novel, another
character asks plaintively “If simón is slang for yes and nel means
no, then what does simonel mean” This sole prior mention
seems to indicate that “simonel” is intentionally ambiguous, and
that the simple solution to the problem is to translate “simonel”
as “simonel,” since the reader has already been given enough
information to draw his own conclusions. But when I inquired, at
least one of my informants said that “simonel” was a mix of yes
and no, but that it really meant yes. Was Bolaño playing with yes
and no only to come down ultimately on the side of yes Or was it
I don’t know shaded with yes Or simply I don’t know
Translating is a kind of writing, of course, but it’s also a
kind of reading: a very, very slow kind of reading—possibly the
slowest kind of reading in the world. First of all, you read the
book (probably: Gregory Rabassa, one of the great translators
of the 20th century, claimed never to read a book all the way
through before he translated it). Then you sit down and face
the first sentence. You read it. You come up with a preliminary
approximation of meaning (this may be instantaneous and
unconscious or slow and laborious). You set out to transfer that
meaning into English. You tack away from the Spanish at one
angle. You tack away at another. You feel the pull of the Spanish
on the English. You break free from the Spanish. You check the
Spanish again: the English is true but it stands on its own, an
independent refraction of the original.
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National Endowment for the Arts