Gluing

Abstract

32 worldliteraturetoday.org Gluing Benny Andersen This glue is amazingly quick-setting sets immediately on your fingers before the glue has glued what needs to be glued namely a little wooden piece onto a bigger wooden piece where it used to be now one more time and faster this glue repels water fire mold rot temperature impact earthquakes hurricanes everything except wood cardboard metal rubber plastic leather glass stone bakelite masonite and fingers push the little wooden piece in place press for fifteen seconds and pull away your finger and with it the little wooden piece that is now stuck to your finger Now clean off the dried glue and skin pieces from the little wooden piece and put glue on the clean surfaces again and press this time with a suitably shaped stick so the wooden piece sits where it’s supposed to and after fifteen seconds it’s stuck on crooked this time really stuck and after another fifteen seconds two questions arise: should you break the wooden piece off again and start over or is there something more important you could be doing? Translation from the Danish By Michael Goldman Benny Andersen is the foremost living poet and lyricist in Denmark. First published in 1960, he has produced twenty volumes of poetry along with numerous recordings, stories, screenplays, and children’s books. His works are renowned for their humor, expressionistic wordplay, and colloquial depth. He has won a great number of literary and musical honors including the Danish National Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. Now eighty-three, he continues to write and to perform to soldout audiences in Denmark. He lives on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Michael Goldman taught himself Danish over twentyfive years ago to help him win the heart of a lovely Danish girl—and they have been married ever since. Recently he has found another use for his love of language—to bring across the Atlantic yet another Danish treasure: the poetry of Benny Andersen. In addition to translating, Goldman is a carpenter/contractor and jazz clarinetist. He lives in Florence, Massachusetts. Editorial note: First English translation of “Limning,” copyright © 1969 by Benny Andersen. top photo : will fuller special section March–April 2014 • 33 Translating Humor Three Questions for Michael Goldman QTranslating humor across cultures is particularly challenging. What difficulties did you confront while translating this poem and how did you resolve them? ALack of punctuation is the general rule for Andersen’s poems, and this one is no exception. With only two capital letters , one colon, and a final question mark, placement of the line breaks is critical. There are a couple of places where I had to invert a phrase to keep the flow logical in English. QThe New York Times quotes Myrsini Gana, saying, “I feel that when the translator is laughing , the humor will manage to get across.” What in Benny Andersen’s writing made you laugh? AI laugh at the futile slapstick of the gluer in the poem. For me the humor escalates from a smirk at reading the glue label (repels hurricanes ) to head shaking at a failed attempt (the little wooden piece that is now stuck to your finger . . . clean off the dried glue and skin pieces) to smiling at another failed attempt (after fifteen seconds it is stuck on crooked) to laughing at the release in the final line, where we, along with the gluer, recognize the triviality of the whole enterprise. I am laughing also at myself, though. Having been a carpenter/builder for fifteen years, I have time and again been faced with futile cosmetic repairs that ended up causing more aggravation than they were worth. QIs it possible to fully convey the humor in the original, or are some things simply lost in translation? AWhat is charming about this translation is not so much its difficulty but its universality. The language is quite straightforward , revealing an absurd situation in which many of us have found ourselves, regardless of national borders: manipulating the material world is not often as elementary as it appears at first glance. Translating Humor Three Questions for Roger Sedarat (see page 34) QTranslating humor across cultures is particularly challenging. What...