The Complete Fantasy of Clark Ashton Smith. New forthcoming French edition.

https://fr.ulule.com/zothique/

And the official trailer for the crowdfunding campaign:

https://youtu.be/P1JNcoHC5Mc

After a few days, most of the options have already been financed. This is going to be one of the most beautiful CAS edition ever.
http://drfhlmcehrc34.cloudfront.net/cache/3/5/38c9550721ff167a947a48a0c77c52.png



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 19 May 16 | 07:45AM by Chipougne.

60000€ reached. Next step: 65000€, inner illustrations.

Well, guys, am I the last? Am I telling the audient void? ;-)

Why is such an enormous amount of money necessary for this project?

Two, perhaps three encased hardbound volumes (Smyth Sewn it seems) with many illustrations, fabric backs with golden lettering, are to be expected. But, mostly, because everything will be translated from scratch (none of the former translations will be used) according to a very specific protocol (i.e. strict guidelines and constant cross-checking to make sure everybody works the same way). It means thousands of hours of hard work by professional translators.

I see. I did not realize the text did not already exist. It seems subscribers will have to wait quite a while for this book set to arrive.

They did. I realize the expression « from scratch » is misleading here, sorry about that. What I meant was that they chose to retranslate everything, as if from scratch, despite the fact that most of the texts had been translated in the 1970’s and 1980’s. However these translations (oop for decades anyway) were made by different people without any real connection with each other, and sometimes they didn't even know who Smith was and they were not familiar with fantasy. So the present publisher thought it was preferable to do it all over again. With all the money already collected, they should be able to pay a team of translators familiar with the genre for what looks like a full-time job, so the whole thing could be ready within a year, according to what I understand.

The translation of the first book is very good.

But the translation of the other half is not (though there were more people involved, the style of the old versions was much much better). So, "the most beautiful CAS edition ever"? Not even close.

SeventhSon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The translation of the first book is very good.
>
> But the translation of the other half is not
> (though there were more people involved, the style
> of the old versions was much much better). So,
> "the most beautiful CAS edition ever"? Not even
> close.


I said « one of the most beautiful » and I was referring to the covers, the inner illustrations, the binding, of course, not the translation. As a matter of fact, I disagree with this « près du texte » trendy approach according to which you assume that, just because readers know this was originally an English text, you can afford to « stick to the original », whatever that is supposed to mean. Did CAS « stuck » to Verlaine, Hugo or de Musset? Anyway people, have a look at this, isn't it beautiful?

Agreed--it looks gorgeous. The cover artist, Zdzislaw Beksinski is an inspired choice. I own a book of his paintings and am kicking myself for never noticing the echoes between his work and Smith's. Check it out (The Fantastic Art of Beksinski, published by Morpheus International, 1998) and see for yourselves.

@Chipougne : Sorry my english is not very good. Yeah I knew you meant that, all I wanted to say is : I wouldn't be envious of this edition (I do like the visuals, but it's secondary thing to me).

Well, every new version of this second half is not the "worst" one, cause the old translations were uneven. But when I read say The tale of Satampra Zeiros or The double shadow, it really is inferior, and generally the second half (at least the most poetic stuff) is to me.

It seems the "près du texte" approach is quite working in Zothique/Averoigne (?), but yes, not for every nuance of Smith's style, I dislike when the guy doesn't even seem to try to change the order of the parts. Or maybe, the first translator knew better when to adapt when it was so so.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 30 Jun 17 | 04:15PM by SeventhSon.

SeventhSon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Chipougne : Sorry my english is not very good.
> Yeah I knew you meant that, all I wanted to say is
> : I wouldn't be envious of this edition (I do like
> the visuals, but it's secondary thing to me).
I see, thank you for clarifying your position.


> I dislike when
> the guy doesn't even seem to try to change the
> order of the parts.
Yes, precisely my point. It is true that, in the past, translators were perhaps too systematically trying to rewrite works aiming at an idiomatic end result that could have been written by, say, a native French speaker. In some cases it simple didn't make sense, but sometimes it proved a rewarding approach. However nowadays it seems that we are going too far in the opposite direction.

Feel the same here. Old translations also making useless changes / trying to facilitate the reading, as if we were idiots. And maybe especially when the material was seen as "genre fiction". Nowadays there is usually so little adaptation it can be ugly (although you have to be a good translator to see it). These is a middle way somewhere.

In fact, most Hyperborea or Poseidonis, had this sort of prose poem "frame" in the old translations. Now it doesn't. I'm not good enough in english to see what approach (I fear no one didn't even realize the change...), is the most faithful, but think my disappointment talks for itself. I don't get how we can have such a difference between two translations.

Well, having read the original version of some of these texts, I really believe the new translation doesn't render Smith's style at all. Poor him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 1 Jul 17 | 12:36PM by SeventhSon.