An evening with Lydia Davis/1: A story

Last night we went to listen to Lydia Davis at the Verdi Club, an event hosted by the Center for the Art of Translation. 

She gave a fascinating talk about her translation of Madame Bovary, about which I'll write tomorrow (probably in Italian). Today I just want to reprint the story that was read at the beginning of the evening: To Reiterate, from her great collection Almost No Memory.

"Michel Butor says that to travel is to write, because to travel is to read. This can be developed further: To write is to travel, to write is to read, to read is to write, and to read is to travel. But George Steiner says that to translate is also to read, and to translate is to write, as to write is to translate and to read is to translate. So that we may say: To translate is to travel and to travel is to translate. To translate a travel writing, for example, is to read a travel writing, to write a travel writing, to read a writing, to write a writing, and to travel. But if because you are translating you read, and because writing translate, because traveling write, because traveling read, and because translating travel; that is, if to read is to translate, and to translate is to write, to write to travel, to read to travel, to write to read, to read to write, and to travel to translate; then to write is also to write, and to read is also to read, and even more, because when you read you read, but also travel, and because traveling read, therefore read and read; and when reading also write, therefore read; and reading also translate, therefore read; therefore read, read, read, and read. The same argument may be made for translating, traveling, and writing."

Lydia Davis

[Prima parte. Continua]