Richard H. Harris

How can you go wrong with this title? Well, don’t ask me, Askole. Go and get yer game on, heh!

I found this waiting for me in my Twitter queue this morning and had to do a double-take. The blurb/punchline is “You are already that which you want to be, and your refusal to believe this is the only reason you do not see it.” Gotta say, I don’t see it going on here with the cover art and title.

NOTES TO SELF:

– Spell all words backwards today in search of meaning.

– Why is it only in English that this phenomenon of dog-god/god-dog occurs?

– How on earth did Ms. Cragwall get Henry Ford to endorse her book!

“For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.”

― Bill Murray, Lost in Translation

Easily one of my favourite scenes from one of my favouritest movies, as it captures, well, the title of the movie.

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TRANSLATOR: He say, “More intensheety.”

BILL BABY: That’s it? That’s all he said?

If I’m to use a more serious quote to capture today’s theme, I’d use this one from the German philosopher Walter Benjamin.

“It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language that is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.”

― Walter Benjamin Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

As it were, I’m working on two translations right now, one inbound (into my native language) and one outbound (into my second language). They’re both challenging, of course, if in different ways. Hence, I’ve been thinking a lot about the art of translation lately.

I plan on doing a post on the nuts and bolts of translation in the near future, specifically from a far-out language like Korean (which, comparatively speaking, is very similar to Japanese), but if you have a chance to read an author like Murakami Haruki in English, it’s interesting to see the different styles his main translators have employed over the years, from Alfred Birnbaum to Jay Rubin to Philip Gabriel.

Finally, one more quote on “translation” from a literary point of view and from none other than the great American author of books like White Noise and Underworld:

“When I work, I’m just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that’s not familiar. But I’m not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear.”

― Don DeLillo 

Even if you’re not a professional writer – even if you don’t write to other human beings very often – you have to read this post from Kathy Steinemann (@KathySteinemann) titled “6 Ways to Reduce “-ly” Adverb Abuse: A Word List for Writers.”

Talk about someone who’s committed to her craft! If you can believe it, Ms. Steinemann makes Stephen King look weak when it comes to the latter’s distaste for adverbs.

This post is no joke and will open your eyes as to how to improve your writing in a relatively simple way. You should definitely read the whole well-researched piece, but her six ways to address/slash and burn adverbs can be summarized as follows:

1. Choose stronger verbs

Instead of Harold walked softly toward the door, try Harold tiptoed toward the door.

2. Analyze adverbs of degree

Instead of saying astonishingly harsh, try abrasive, caustic, or rough.

3. Reject redundant adverbs that modify adjectives

Instead of absolutely catastrophic,  badly broken, and relish greatly, try catastrophic, broken and relish, respectively. 

4. Delete redundant adverbs that modify verbs

Instead of caress lovingly, try caress.

5. Watch for –ly adjectives (if an -ly word modifies a noun or pronoun, it’s an adjective)

The teenager’s voice was crackly.

The teenager had a crackly voice.

The blow he delivered was deadly.

He delivered a deadly blow.

6. Delete suddenly.

Here are just a few examples of other ways to say the same word:

All at once
All of a sudden
At once
At that moment

Per The Associated Press via The New York Times:

Michael Ondaatje (On-DAH-Chay), author of the acclaimed novel “The English Patient,” is once again writing about World War II.

Alfred A. Knopf announced Thursday that Ondaatje’s “Warlight” will come out May 8. The novel is set in London in 1945 and tells of two young siblings who have been separated from their parents in the aftermath of the Nazi bombings. “Warlight” is Ondaatje’s first work of fiction since the 2011 release of “The Cat’s Table.”

Ondaatje’s other books include “In the Skin of a Lion” and “Anil’s Ghost.” He won the Booker Prize for “The English Patient,” a 1992 publication later adapted into an Oscar-winning film of the same name starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche.