Michèle Audin - One Hundred Twenty-One Days

Here’s where I should probably say something about the differences created in the translation (which some might call “losses,” but “differences” is a bit less negative, don’t you think?). As Oulipian readers may have guessed, there are a few hidden constraints tucked into certain points of this book, such as the alphabetical list in chapter x and the parenthetical vocalic restrictions in chapter VII. 6Without going into terrible detail (no one wants to read a long translator’s note), let it suffice to say that I had to radically transform these passages in English in order to maintain the constraints. For me, such transformations were the most thrilling part of the entire project.

I made sure to ask Michèle for her permission to mention these constraints, since revealing constraints is a point of contention within the Oulipo.

Some of the other differences gained in my translation came about through the book’s rich intertextuality — all those quotations from and allusions to other literary works. As a general rule for the quotations from foreign-language texts, I chose to use published translations where possible. While this is the usual practice for quoting works in translation, it also celebrates the work of previous translators and their contributions to the ever-changing intertextual network that is World Literature. 7

You will find a list of these translators in the Supernumerary Note, which follows this note.

A familiar face cropped up in all this intertextuality in the references to two texts by Rudyard Kipling: his short story, “The Elephant’s Child,” and his poem, “If.” Readers can decide for themselves how much or how little chapter I parodies Kipling’s story — for me, it was a matter of inserting certain words and phrases from the story into my translation, which certainly created a different effect compared to if I had simply translated the chapter without looking at Kipling’s text.

I also adopted a few strategies in other parts of the text to manipulate its heteroglossic nature, following what I saw as the text’s own logic. For example, I rendered Harold Smith’s letter in chapter x in British English, which seemed necessary given his Oxonian origin. I also followed the text’s logic in chapter v when I wanted to add a footnote to explain an acronym; while footnotes are usually discouraged in literary translation, in this case my footnote blends right in with the 46 other footnotes in the chapter. As for the German words and phrases scattered throughout the novel, I chose to leave those alone, since translations have already been provided in the text itself. 8

In other words, no annoying translator’s footnotes required.

Before you close this book, please allow me to thank Michèle Audin, for her humility and openness to collaborate with me throughout this journey; David Dollenmayer, for his generosity in assisting my understanding of the Brecht quotations; my mentors Emmanuelle Ertel and Alyson Waters, for their infectious devotion to the art of literary translation; my parents, for their everlasting encouragement 9; and my husband and best friend Jonathan, for his steadfast love and patience, not least in listening to my muddled attempts to express my translation struggles at the end of a long day’s work, reading through my entire manuscript when I was sick of editing it, and coming up with a solution for one of the trickiest parts of this text. 10

And because you should honor your parents if you want to live a long life (Ex 20:12). No telling which one, but a choice few of you already know.

Christiana Hills

Binghamton, NY

I would also like to thank the following translators for their exceptional work which, in various ways, found a place in this translation:

ALAN BANCROFT ( Poems of St Thérèse of Lisieux , St. Thérèse of Lisieux), ANN HOBART (“Should We Pardon Them?”, Vladimir Jankélévitch), ANTHEA BELL ( On the Natural History of Destruction , W. G. Sebald), ARRAND PARSONS & LOLA RAND ( The Damnation of Faust (libretto), Hector Berlioz & Almire Gandonière), C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF ( The Charterhouse of Parma , Stendhal), CAROLYN FORCHÉ (“The Night Watchman of Pont-au-Change,” Robert Desnos), DANIEL LEVIN BECKER ( Painting at Dora , Francois Le Lionnais), DAVID DOLLENMAYER ( Conversations in Exile (uncredited), Bertolt Brecht), DAVID LUKE ( Faust , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), GEORGE MUSGRAVE ( Inferno , Dante Alighieri), HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ( Inferno , Dante Alighieri), KEITH WALDROP (“The Swan,” Charles Baudelaire), RAYMOND ROSENTHAL ( The Drowned and the Saved , Primo Levi), RICHARD HOWARD ( Force of Circumstance , Simone de Beauvoir), SAMUEL BECKETT ( The Lost Ones , Samuel Beckett), STUART WOOLF ( If This Is A Man , Primo Levi).

Thank you all for your support. We do this for you, and could not do it without you.

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