dumbfoundry

Boldtype is fresh, and it's the translation issue. There's a review of Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung:

In her mesmerizing autobiography Dictee, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha brilliantly reveals the importance and limitations of translation, which not only bridges the gaps between languages but also marks the borders, where one ends and another one begins.

A performance artist and avant-garde filmmaker, Cha was tragically murdered by a stranger in New York City at age 31, a few days after the publication of Dictee, her first and only book. [...]

Excerpts from Dictee, including:

I heard the swans
in the rain I heard
I listened to the spoken true
or not true
not possible to say.

There. Years after
no more possible to distinguish the rain.
No more. Which was heard.
Swans. Speech. Memory. Already said.
Will just say. Having just said.
Remembered not quite heard. Not certain.
Heard, not at all.

Rain dreamed from sounds
The pauses. Exhalation.
Affirmations. All the affirmations.

Little by little

Not possible to distinguish the speech
Exhaled. Affirmed in exhalation.
Exclaimed in inhalation
To distinguish no more the rain from dreams
or from breaths.

Tongue inside the mouth inside
the throat inside
the lung organ alone. The only organ.
All assembled as one. Just one.

There. Later, uncertain, if it was the rain, the speech,
memory.
Re membered from dream.
How it diminishes itself. How to Dim
inish itself. As
it dims.

To bite the tongue.
Swallow. Deep. Deeper.
Swallow. Again even more.
Just until there would be no more of organ.
Organ no more.
Cries.

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Friday, October 08, 2004 at 8:45 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.