Telling Stories v. Translating

As I wrapped up work on Mille Fabulae et Una over the past few weeks (hence my absence from this blog), I've been pondering just what will be the best way to proceed with the English version of that book: translating the Latin, or just doing my own fables "inspired" as it were by the Latin versions.

After thinking about both of those options, I've decided to go for the "inspired" version. I'm actually really excited about that. Here are the factors that pushed me in this direction and away from doing translation:

• translation is useful for people who do not know a language (for example, I do not know Japanese, so of course I read Murakami in English ) - but for people who know a language, or who are trying to learn a language, the availability of a translation is actually a huge drawback, making you feel insecure about your own understanding of the text and prompting you to mix up the original and the translation, rather than understanding the original on its own terms
• the actual task of translating is something very tedious and frustrating, at least in my own experience; maybe others feel differently, but I find translating to be very unpleasant: I never feel satisfied with the results, and I am constantly having to rein in my creative impulses in order to keep too much of "me" from creeping into the results
• I already did a huge Aesop translation project, the Oxford University Press edition of Aesop's Fables in English; since I already did a huge Aesop translation project, why do another one?
• Aesop's fables are not literary texts and so they really resist being translated: folklore wants to be re-told, re-imagined, re-invented so that it can live and grow over time; I would like for my versions of the fables to be part of that process!

So, instead of translating (as I was doing previously here at the blog), I am going to allow myself considerably more freedom. I will still be using the Latin text as a basis for my version, but I will also be making some changes, too. If a fable does not have an endomythium, for example, I will definitely allow myself the freedom to include one! If a fable doesn't have a moral, or if I do not like the moral that it does have, I will probably invent my own.

Of course, because I picked all 1001 fables in the book because I like them. There were hundreds of fables I left out of the book simply because they I didn't like them; there is no more grand reason than that. So, I'll be starting with texts that I have already adopted in some sense, texts that I feel connected to and committed to. In fact, that is exactly why I want to allow myself the freedom to create a really good version of each of those fables in English: I want people to enjoy them. That is my main goal, rather than some kind of devotional attitude towards the Latin itself. I think I have demonstrated by Latin devotion by putting together the Mille Fabulae et Una book to begin with! Now, as I create the 1001 Aesop's Fables in English book, I think I will allow myself to have some fun, too! :-)