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La Traduction Est Une Histoire D'amour (2009)

by Jacques Poulin(Favorite Author)

3.54 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

2742761020 (ISBN13: 9782742761029)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Leméac / Actes Sud

review 1: Marine is a translator living in a chalet on the Île d'Orléans, near Quebec City, where her friend, the novelist Monsieur Waterman, lives. She translates his novels and they both share a love of language and literature. There is a significant age difference between them but they get along very well. One day Marine encounters a black cat at the chalet -- it doesn't fare very well in a territorial spat with her own cat -- and discovers a message in its collar, asking for help. She and Monsieur Waterman decide to find out who sent the message and what they can do to help.This is a very dream-like book -- one blurb describes it as "quietly affecting", and quiet is about the best word you can pick for it. Marine relates the circumstances of the story in a calm, matter-of-fact... more manner, and her sentences lull the reader along. There are spikes of humour or loud moments here and there, but for the most part this is a contemplative book. Despite being published in 2009, it feels like it takes place in a much earlier time, with Marine doing a lot of her translations by hand with paper dictionaries, and few or no mentions of cell phones or much other modern technology. And I liked the relationship between Marine and Monsieur Waterman, which was affectionate but not sexual (yes, men and women CAN be friends without sleeping with each other).Overall I liked this book and found it a very quick read, but I may have overhyped it in my head because of the novelty of having a translator as a protagonist. And really, would I have been interested in the book if I did not share the protagonist's profession? Who knows. If this sounds like your cup of tea, go for it. It's a short book, less than 200 pages, and the Archipelago Books edition is a lovely little square thing that's a joy to read from.
review 2: Marine, a young Irish-Quebequoise and newly qualified translator, has returned from her studies in Europe to reconnect with her Quebec and Irish past. While she has already decided on her first big translation project, a novel by a well-known local author with the pseudonym Jack Waterman, she still has to find him and convince him of her abilities. Luck is on her side and not only does she meet him by chance, he, a seasoned writer in the autumn of his life, is enchanted by her seriousness mixed in with youthful enthusiasm and confidence. He agrees to give her a try...Award-winning Canadian (Quebec) novelist Jacques Poulin, himself also an experienced translator, has a deep affinity to the meaning of words and phrases and how they are or can be transposed into another language: "Can one really communicate through the music of words? I don't know, but the translation is one of those means by which to create a bridge between two things..." *) he reflects in an interview about this unassuming, yet very charming short novel.The story centres on Marine, the vivacious voice of the story. Settled in a summer cottage on the île d'Orléans (a small island just outside of Quebec City), she can pursue her translation while completely free to roam and to immerse herself in the natural beauty of her surroundings. The author spends his weekends at the cottage to escape from his tower block apartment in the City and the stresses of professional life. Interestingly, he soon addresses her in the familiar form of "tu", whereas for her he remains "Monsieur Waterman", thus not only reflecting the age difference but also the different perspectives within their growing relationship. All we learn of the author, however, is filtered through Marine's thoughts and descriptions. Their dialog is always brief and to the point. Only in her mind does Marine explore who Waterman is and how she can immerse herself into his way of thinking, which is necessary for her translation work. When he is away, she walks around in some of his clothes, she studies his notes: "Don't think that it is sufficient for us to find the words and phrases that correspond best to the original text. One has to go further, namely to sink oneself into the handwriting of the other like a cat nestles into a basket. One has to marry the author's style."In her daily life, Marine is a born communicator - she not only befriends a young girl at the end of the path, she talks to horses, the fox and deer, and eventually adopts a black kitten to add to her old cat, Chaloupe. The black kitten, however, carries a secret message that leads the translator and the writer into a joint private detective venture. That pursuit not only disturbs their calm existence at the cottage and interrupts their work, in the end it reveals more about their individual needs and connections to each other than anything that could ever have been expressed directly between them.Poulin gives Marine a very distinct voice: she writes in a precise and descriptive language, often addressing the reader with "if you are interested" or "you should know". While language and translation is clearly a theme in the novel, it is subtly woven into the narrative. Through her at times poetic descriptions, one is easily pulled into the landscape, whether on the island or the city. At times, however, the heroine comes across as younger than one would assume her to be, given her times abroad and professional training. Her character appears to have something unfinished about her, still in need to come to terms with her personal history and past. While this is makes for a fresh and lively character, one wonders how good her translations of an eminent older novelist can be in the final analysis. less

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