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dandandanno's review against another edition
5.0
Thought provoking, entertaining, infuriating, brilliant, contradictory, frustrating, fascinating, tedious, hilarious, exhausting, delightful.
My favorite thing about this book is how good Hofstadter is at convincing me about things he himself disagrees with.
I bought a second copy before I even finished this because I'm going to force it on someone so I have someone to talk about it with.
My favorite thing about this book is how good Hofstadter is at convincing me about things he himself disagrees with.
I bought a second copy before I even finished this because I'm going to force it on someone so I have someone to talk about it with.
leesmyth's review against another edition
3.0
Somewhere around the halfway point, this tome got to be a bit of a slog for me. Some of it struck me as self-indulgent (to say the least), and I wasn't convinced by much of the musing and theorizing about the nature of translation and cognition itself. My interest rallied again toward the end, with discussions of Dante and Carol - and Hofstadter's rendering of certain French lyrics that had graced their wedding.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
2.0
I never want to read this poem again, so thanks for that, I guess. Also this book absolutely did not have to be over 600 pages long; a third of that would have sufficed, although Hofstadter includes over 80 translations of the poem.
The function of this book is straightforward: Hofstadter, using Clément Marot's poem "À une Damoyselle Malade," illustrates and discusses the impossibilities of translation from one language (and the associated context, semantics, syntax, mentality, time, etc.) to another. The poem itself is brief—only 28 lines, each a single anapestic foot—and relatively simple in language (in the original French), being a short and sweet little letter to Jeanne d'Albret, the daughter of Marguerite d'Angoulême, who was sick. Here is the original, which perfectly illustrates Marot's "tombeau" (ton beau):
The function of this book is straightforward: Hofstadter, using Clément Marot's poem "À une Damoyselle Malade," illustrates and discusses the impossibilities of translation from one language (and the associated context, semantics, syntax, mentality, time, etc.) to another. The poem itself is brief—only 28 lines, each a single anapestic foot—and relatively simple in language (in the original French), being a short and sweet little letter to Jeanne d'Albret, the daughter of Marguerite d'Angoulême, who was sick. Here is the original, which perfectly illustrates Marot's "tombeau" (ton beau):
Ma mignonne,Hofstadter includes 88 translations, most of them his own (although not all—notably, one is a translation done by Robert French, a professional translator). Much of the book is occupied with Hofstadter's opinions as to what constitutes a "good" and/or "accurate" translation, of the poem but also in general. For example, he identifies the following eight key characteristics of the poem that (he believes) a translator should take into account when translating:
Je vous donne
Le bon jour ;
Le séjour
C'est prison. 5
Guérison
Recouvrez,
Puis ouvrez
Votre porte
Et qu'on sorte 10
Vitement,
Car Clément
Le vous mande.
Va, friande
De ta bouche, 15
Qui se couche
En danger
Pour manger
Confitures ;
Si tu dures 20
Trop malade,
Couleur fade
Tu prendras,
Et perdras
L'embonpoint. 25
Dieu te doint* [donne]
Santé bonne,
Ma mignonne.
1. It is made up of 28 lines;Obviously, I disagree with much of Hofstadter's opinions—and this book is, after all, predominantly occupied with Hofstadter's opinions—but it was fascinating to see the immense variation in the finished products. And that's only from French to English! Unfortunately, despite how much I could relate to the struggle of translating poetry, and how much I loved that little poem itself, I did not want to sit through over 600 pages of Hofstadter sucking his own dick about how clever and learnèd he was. As I mentioned before, the book could easily have been 200 pages and accomplished the same message, probably even with as many examples included—each translation could certainly have been restricted to two pages apiece, and the overall effect would have been much less dull. A stricter editor wouldn't have been amiss.
2. Each line has 3 syllables;
3. The stress falls on the last of these syllables;
4. It is a series of rhyming couplets;
5. The semantic couplets are out of phase with the rhyming couplets;
6. After line 14 the formal vous is replaced by the more colloquial tu;
7. The last line echoes the first;
8. The poet slips his own name into the poem.
jveevers's review against another edition
4.0
Hofstadter is excellent at exploring and explaining the things that are within his domains of expertise (languages, classical music, AI). The thing that turned me off was his screeds later in the book about modern poetry and rock music, which are media which have very interesting formal qualities, regardless of what Hofstadter believes. Overall, a wonderful philosophical exploration of translation.
neven's review against another edition
4.0
A unique look at language and beyond, woven through with a painful emotionality.
msjenne's review against another edition
5.0
This is the book that makes ME want to be a translator.