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Authors: José Carlos Somoza
Tags: Mystery
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metaphor in the style of—'
‘No I confess I raised my voice a little more than I would have liked. Helena stared at me in amazement (I hate to think of it now) ‘It’s not a metaphor, It’s an eidetic image’
‘How can you be so sure?’
I thought for a moment. My theory seemed so obvious that I'd forgotten to gather any proof to back it up! 'The word "lily" is repeated ad nauseam,' I said. 'And the girl's face ...'
'What face? You just said the author only mentions her eyes and hair. Did you dream up the rest?' I opened my mouth to answer, but suddenly didn't know what to say. Helena went on: 'Don't you think you're taking this eidesis business a bit too far? Elio warned us, remember? He said eidetic novels can be treacherous, and he's right. You start thinking that all the images are significant simply because they're repeated. But that's ridiculous. In the Iliad Homer describes the form of dress of many of his heroes in minute detail, but that doesn't mean it's an eidetic treatise on clothing.'
'Helena, look.' I pointed at my translation. 'Here we have the image of a young girl asking for help and warning of danger. Read the whole chapter. Please.'
So she did. I waited, biting my nails. When she'd finished, she again turned her painfully sympathetic gaze upon me. 'Look, you know I'm not as well versed as you in eidetic literature, but as far as I can see the idea of "speed" is the main hidden image here. This alludes to the fourth Labour of Hercules, the capture of the Arcadian Stag, which ran extremely fast. I also find hunting images, referring to the same thing: "trail", "prey", "hunter" .. . And the Stag itself is mentioned a few times: "antlers", "white horns", "mat of fur" ... But the "young girl" and the "lily" are clearly poetic metaphors used—'
'Helena—'
'Let me finish. They're poetic metaphors used by the author to represent the rather artless nature of the philosopher Diagoras .'
I wasn't convinced. 'But why specifically a "lily"?' I objected, annoyed. 'Why is it repeated so often if it's not an eidetic word? And why the repetition of "help" and "danger"?'
'I think you're confusing eidesis with repetition,' smiled Helena. 'Writers sometimes repeat words in a paragraph out of carelessness, or because they've run out of imagery.'
She stopped when she saw the look on my face. 'Helena, I can't prove it, but I'm sure the girl with the lily is an eidetic image ... It's awful ...' 'What is?'
That you hold a completely different view after having read the same text. It's awful that the images, the ideas formed by the words in books, should be so fragile! I saw a deer as I read, and I also saw a girl holding a lily and crying for help ... You see the stag, but not the girl. If Elio read this, perhaps only the lily would catch his attention ... What might another reader see? And Montalo ... What did Montalo see? Only that the chapter was copied out carelessly! But,' I thumped the papers in an unforgivable moment of anger, 'there has to be a final idea that doesn't depend on our opinions, surely? In the end the words must make up a precise idea!'
'You sound like a man in love.'
'What?'
'You've fallen in love with the girl with the lily, haven't you?' Helena's eyes sparked with derision. 'Remember, she's not even a character in the novel. She's an idea that you've pieced together as you translate, an image woven from separate words.' And, pleased to have shut me up, she went back to her classes, just turning to add: 'Some advice: don't get obsessed with it.'
Now, in the evening, in the peace and comfort of my study, I believe Helena's right: I'm just the translator. Someone else would, with utter confidence, produce a different version, with different words, evoking different images. And why not? Perhaps, in my eagerness to follow the trail of the 'girl with the lily', I've created her with my own words. Because, in a way, a translator is also a writer ... or rather (and it amuses
‘No I confess I raised my voice a little more than I would have liked. Helena stared at me in amazement (I hate to think of it now) ‘It’s not a metaphor, It’s an eidetic image’
‘How can you be so sure?’
I thought for a moment. My theory seemed so obvious that I'd forgotten to gather any proof to back it up! 'The word "lily" is repeated ad nauseam,' I said. 'And the girl's face ...'
'What face? You just said the author only mentions her eyes and hair. Did you dream up the rest?' I opened my mouth to answer, but suddenly didn't know what to say. Helena went on: 'Don't you think you're taking this eidesis business a bit too far? Elio warned us, remember? He said eidetic novels can be treacherous, and he's right. You start thinking that all the images are significant simply because they're repeated. But that's ridiculous. In the Iliad Homer describes the form of dress of many of his heroes in minute detail, but that doesn't mean it's an eidetic treatise on clothing.'
'Helena, look.' I pointed at my translation. 'Here we have the image of a young girl asking for help and warning of danger. Read the whole chapter. Please.'
So she did. I waited, biting my nails. When she'd finished, she again turned her painfully sympathetic gaze upon me. 'Look, you know I'm not as well versed as you in eidetic literature, but as far as I can see the idea of "speed" is the main hidden image here. This alludes to the fourth Labour of Hercules, the capture of the Arcadian Stag, which ran extremely fast. I also find hunting images, referring to the same thing: "trail", "prey", "hunter" .. . And the Stag itself is mentioned a few times: "antlers", "white horns", "mat of fur" ... But the "young girl" and the "lily" are clearly poetic metaphors used—'
'Helena—'
'Let me finish. They're poetic metaphors used by the author to represent the rather artless nature of the philosopher Diagoras .'
I wasn't convinced. 'But why specifically a "lily"?' I objected, annoyed. 'Why is it repeated so often if it's not an eidetic word? And why the repetition of "help" and "danger"?'
'I think you're confusing eidesis with repetition,' smiled Helena. 'Writers sometimes repeat words in a paragraph out of carelessness, or because they've run out of imagery.'
She stopped when she saw the look on my face. 'Helena, I can't prove it, but I'm sure the girl with the lily is an eidetic image ... It's awful ...' 'What is?'
That you hold a completely different view after having read the same text. It's awful that the images, the ideas formed by the words in books, should be so fragile! I saw a deer as I read, and I also saw a girl holding a lily and crying for help ... You see the stag, but not the girl. If Elio read this, perhaps only the lily would catch his attention ... What might another reader see? And Montalo ... What did Montalo see? Only that the chapter was copied out carelessly! But,' I thumped the papers in an unforgivable moment of anger, 'there has to be a final idea that doesn't depend on our opinions, surely? In the end the words must make up a precise idea!'
'You sound like a man in love.'
'What?'
'You've fallen in love with the girl with the lily, haven't you?' Helena's eyes sparked with derision. 'Remember, she's not even a character in the novel. She's an idea that you've pieced together as you translate, an image woven from separate words.' And, pleased to have shut me up, she went back to her classes, just turning to add: 'Some advice: don't get obsessed with it.'
Now, in the evening, in the peace and comfort of my study, I believe Helena's right: I'm just the translator. Someone else would, with utter confidence, produce a different version, with different words, evoking different images. And why not? Perhaps, in my eagerness to follow the trail of the 'girl with the lily', I've created her with my own words. Because, in a way, a translator is also a writer ... or rather (and it amuses
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