Samstag, 25. März 2017

Montepulciano Calling


















Siamo bambini rapiti sepolti in un bar
Guardiamo la Senna che passa e che va
Parigi è una stella, non è una città
Paghiamo il conto in fretta
Ragazzi terribili delle SS
Hanno già fatto irruzione in hotel
Amore non piangere, vieni con me
Scivoliamo via

Mentre facciamo l’amore
Sentiamo sparare
Voci che gridano il nome di Allah
Il fiato si gela con freddo che fa

Lili Marleen
Auf Wiedersehen
Mourir en scene
Ça fait combien?
Lili Marleen
Lili, je t’aime
Joseph Kosma et Jacques Prevert
Ich will dich

Io mi ricordo i tuoi occhi
Venati d’inverno
La voce di Bowie su Spotify
Un giorno di nuovo mi sorriderai

Lili Marleen
Auf Wiedersehen
Mourir en scene
Ça fait combien?

Adesso per chi canterai
E con chi dividerai
Le sigarette della guerra
Chi eravamo noi
Te lo ricorderai
Un cancro
Un’eresia
Due cani in sagrestia

Lili Marleen
Auf Wiedersehen
Mourir en scene
Ça fait combien?
Lili Marleen
Lili, je t’aime
Apollinaire et Jacques Prevert

Lili Marleen
Non, rien de rien
Mourir en scene
Ça fait combien
Lili Marleen
Lili, je t’aime
Michel Houellebecq et Jacques Prevert

Sonntag, 5. März 2017

The Translation-Jobbers


















You see, Sir Walter, into what “sloughs of despond” we
German translators fall— with the sad necessity of drag-
ging your honor after us. Yet this is but a part of the ge-
neral woe. When you hear in every bookseller’s shop
throughout Germany one unanimous complaint of the
non-purchasing public and of those great profit-absor-
bing whirlpools, the circulating libraries,— in short all
possible causes of diminished sale on the one hand; and
on the other hand the forestalling spirit of competition
among the translation-jobbers, bidding over each other’s
heads as at an auction, where the translation is knocked
down to him that will contract for bringing his wares soo-
nest to market;—hearing all this, Sir Walter, you will per-
ceive that our old German proverb “Eile mit Weile,” (i. e.
Festina lente, or the more haste, the less speed) must in
this case, where haste happens to be the one great quali-
fication and sine-qua-non of a translator, be thrown alto-
gether into the shade by that other proverb— “Wer zuerst
kommt mahlt zuerst” (First come first served).

From the “German ‘Translator’s’ Dedication to Sir Wal-
ter Scott, Bart.”, in: Walladmor: “Freely translated [by
Georg Wilhelm Heinrich Häring aka Willibald Alexis] into
German from the English of Sir Walter Scott.” And now 
freely translated [by Thomas de Quincey] from the Ger-
man into English, London, Taylor and Hessey, 1825.