Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Le Petit Prince: Can we legally translate it?

From: Robert LeChevalier <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 22:22:00 -0400

At 07:12 PM 9/10/02 -0600, Jay F Kominek wrote:
>On Tue, Sep 10, 2002 at 08:43:34PM -0400, Bob LeChevalier wrote:
> > I remain partial to Burton's version of the Arabian Nights of which 12
> > volumes are up on Gutenberg (not sure if its complete - I've seen up to 30
> > volume versions), because it has the virtue of being of classic interest
> > and because it definitely is NOT a children's book but retained some of 
> the
> > general appeal of same. But whether the language is "reasonably 
> modern" is
> > a matter of opinion; it is Victorian era and he was trying to emulate the
> > flowery style of the Arabic.
>
>Translating a translation seems rather unproductive, I know for a fact
>I'm not the only Lojbanist who considers it vastly distasteful. Of
>course, not many of us know Arabic, but that just means we ought not
>be translating Arabian Nights. (There is actually an Arabic speaking
>Lojbanist now, (Hi iusris!) who ought to be the one translating
>something like Arabian Nights, if anyone.)

My understanding is that "Thousand Nights and a Night" is an oral tradition 
story, and thus there is no canonical Arabic text to translate from; they 
are Arabic cultural tales and there are stylistic elements that Burton went 
to great lengths to imitate. Translations as such have ranged from a 
single volume to Burton's which ranges from 20-30 vol (he kept adding to it).

The Arabian Nights stories actually come from all over the region 
(especially India and Persia in addition to the Arabic world, and many show 
evidence of pre-dating the Arabic version. Sheherazad for example is 
Persian. The first version may actually have been Persian. The earliest 
Arabic versions date to around 850 when there were relatively few stories 
(the 1001 was metaphorically "a lot"), and the stories have accumulated 
over the years in multiple versions (and probably a variety of dialects of 
Arabic). Even Burton did more than one version, but the one to aim for is 
the "unexpurgated version".

The inputs of an Arabic language speaker would be valuable in coming up 
with a definitive Lojban "translation", but one of the reasons I've always 
liked the idea of doing the Arabian Nights is the fact that we CAN take 
liberties with the text so long as we work to preserve the culture and 
style, and thus the Lojban version might end up as a work unto itself.

lojbab

-- 
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org