{"id":424312,"date":"2019-08-20T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/?p=424312"},"modified":"2019-08-20T13:04:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T17:04:17","slug":"the-most-anticipated-translation-of-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2019\/08\/20\/the-most-anticipated-translation-of-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Anticipated Translation of 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Riverhead)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead<\/em> may well be the most anticipated translation of the season. Olga Tokarczuk\u2019s second novel in as many years is a mystery novel that never declares itself as such. Despite all the deaths that litter it\u2014the book starts off with Big Foot\u2019s demise choking on a bone from a deer that he had poached\u2014the novel is more of a character study of its quite quirky narrator, Janina Duszejko, who valiantly tries to convince the police that all four deaths are the result of animals taking revenge against hunters.<\/p>\n

The lack of detailed investigations, the absence of a plucky detective putting the pieces together is one of the book\u2019s great charms. It redirects the focus from the typical concern for justice and human lives, and instead allows Janina to unfurl her life story\u2014as an engineer of bridges turned schoolteacher turned caretaker of summer houses, vegetarian, astrologist, co-translator of Blake\u2019s poetry, and devoted animal lover\u2014and her dislike for hunters of all stripe, especially one particular5 group of poachers, whose connections to the local law enforcement and politicians takes on a conspiratorial air.<\/p>\n

There are actually two mysteries in the novel, neither of which are hard to solve: the deaths of the four hunters, and the mystery of what happened to Janina\u2019s \u201cLittle Girls,\u201d her dogs that are absent for unexplained (although quite easy to surmise) reasons. I don\u2019t want to give away any spoilers (although if there\u2019s a true weak point to this book, it\u2019s that the answers to the mysteries are pretty obvious, right from the start), but these two mysteries are intertwined.<\/p>\n

Although the deaths are the engine behind the novel\u2019s plot, the book really runs off of Janina\u2019s voice. The success of this is a true testament to Antonia Lloyd-Jones\u2019s skill as a translator. In one of what could be a half-dozen or more qualifiers, I will admit that I\u2019m friends with Antonia, have known her for years, and am working with her on a few books. I\u2019ve also read a number of her translations, and I was very impressed how this book doesn\u2019t <\/em>sound like Antonia. This is a problem that perceptive readers can pick up on, and something that translators have to grow their way out of as their careers progress. Even if you let the original text guide you, there are turns of phrase, certain rhythms, subtle tics that show up in most renderings. It\u2019s not intentional, it\u2019s not even conscious, but it\u2019s something I see in my students\u2019 work that\u2019s 100% absent here. Which is maybe my way of saying something meaningless like \u201ca smooth translation\u201d but isn\u2019t, really.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Plow <\/em>is a fast read, an enjoyable book, one that has a strong, compelling voice and enough plot points to keep you engaged. (Although I\u2019m not sure about the overall pacing, with the ending revelation feeling both obvious and too abrupt all at once.) But why, exactly, is it the \u201cmost anticipated translation of the year\u201d as I postulated above? Did you even pause on that and think, \u201cNo way! XXXXXXX is the most anticipated!\u201d I\u2019m willing to bet that most everyone just passed right over that statement, or took it as \u201cInternet Objective.\u201d (Those statements online that are clearly hyperbolic, but an acceptable level of hyperbole because it\u2019s 2019 and we can\u2019t exaggerate enough to get a reaction anymore.)<\/p>\n

Given the number of reviews of Plow <\/em>already up on BookMarks . . . I might actually be right. But why is that the case? Listed below are ## reasons why people are looking forward to this particular book, along with my personal assessment (on a scale of 1 to 10) as to how meaningful these aspects really are:<\/p>\n

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An Audience That\u2019s Been Reading Olga Since Primeval and Other Times<\/em> (2\/10)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I absolutely loved this book when Twisted Spoon brought it out. (This blog post<\/a> from 2011 is so lame! And the opening sentence should be “were” not “was.”) At that time (2010), I was reading all of their titles, each one unique, dark, adventurous. But they were based in Prague, with pretty shitty U.S. distribution, so I was probably one of a dozen people who read this. (Although I distinctly remember a very well-respected book critic telling me that this book was not very good and that they couldn\u2019t understand why I liked it. The things the brain remembers\u2014the dramatic, the negative, the moments of self-doubt.) It\u2019s exactly why I got samples of both Flights <\/em>(called \u201cRunners\u201d at that time) and Drive Your Plow<\/em> and desperately wanted to publish them. Alas, over the course of many years, multiple authors who were on our editorial board fought against this possibility, so we never even got to the point of making an offer. We could\u2019ve been Fitzcarraldo!<\/p>\n

But the point isn\u2019t to lament yet another on the long list of misses that I\u2019ve had in my life (see: The Savage Detectives <\/em>reader\u2019s report I commissioned in 2001), but to say that not one single review mentioned Primeval <\/em>or House of Day, House of Night<\/em>, which was published by Northwestern University Press. There was no long-term growth of Tokarczuk\u2019s English-reading audience; her readership materialized instantly and for other reasons.<\/p>\n

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The Astrology Parts of Drive Your Plow<\/em> (3\/10)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I read some article recently about how millennials have replaced religion with astrology. Which I have no problem with! I know lots of my friends like to punk on all beliefs (I used to be friends with someone whose whole brand was based around not believing in anything and taking a sarcastic, ironic, caustic approach to everything someone might incorporate into their life), but that sort of \u201cscientific rationality\u201d is not for me. Hidden patterns? Forces that are just beyond our understanding? Things that can\u2019t be explained in school-board approved textbooks? SIGN ME UP.<\/p>\n

In a natal Horoscope the date of birth determines the date of death as well. That\u2019s obvious\u2014anyone who has been born is going to die. There are many places in the Horoscope that point us toward the time and nature of death\u2014one simply needs to know how to spot and connect them. For example, one has to check the transitory aspects of Saturn to the hyleg, and what\u2019s going on in the eighth house. Also to cast and eye of the relative position of the Lights\u2014meaning the Sun and Moon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m trying to find out if this sort of approach\u2014\u201ctransitory aspects of Saturn to the hyleg\u201d and \u201ceighth house\u201d\u2014is normal astrology speak or nonsense, and hoping that it\u2019s nonsense. Not because I\u2019m anti-astrology (again, hidden patterns, academics being wrong, all that appeals<\/em>), but because I want to imagine that Janina\u2019s mental instabilities are evident in this\u2014if you know the language.<\/p>\n

While trying to find this quote, I found one other paragraph that I love, and that might not deserve its own header, but is why I <\/em>would recommend you read this book:<\/p>\n

I grew up in a beautiful era, now sadly in the past. In it there was great readiness for change, and a talent for creating revolutionary visions. Nowadays no one still has the courage to think up anything new. All they ever talk about, round the clock, is how things already are, they just keep rolling out the same old ideas. Reality has grown old and gone senile; after all, it is definitely subject to the same laws as every living organism\u2014it ages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The Controversy over The Books of Jacob <\/em>(6\/10)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re talking. One of the first times most people heard of Tokarczuk was when this 1,000 page book won the Nike Award and was attacked by Polish nationalists who, because we live in one of the worst possible worlds, are incredibly anti-Semitic and assholes. (Just what the world needs now, more assholes who believe they\u2019re more special than others. Every day it feels like there are more white nationalist and fewer glaciers, which will, literally<\/em>, be the death of us all.)<\/p>\n

Although this book has yet to appear in English translation (Jennifer Croft\u2014read her memoir, Homesick<\/em>\u2014is working on it), the death threats and controversy registered in the international press and all of a sudden, Olga Tokarczuk was an author \u201cworth looking into\u201d by many editors.<\/p>\n

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The Movie Version of Drive Your Plow <\/em>which Is Called Spoor <\/em>(3\/10)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nah. I\u2019m not even sure most English readers are aware that this exists. (1,377 YouTube views. Or more, depending on how many people are reading these words and clicking this video.) Here\u2019s a trailer in case you\u2019re interested:<\/p>\n