Personae Read Free Page B

the telescope to see the woman within arm’s reach. “Science has eliminated distance,” proclaimed Melquiades. “Soon Man will be able to see what occurs anywhere on Earth without leaving his house.”
 
Theirs is not terrible, unlike the following’s equivalent:
 
One scorching midday they made an amazing demonstration with the gigantic lens: they placed a mound of hay in the middle of the street then set it ablaze by means of concentrated solar rays.
 
There is no reference to the sun in the original Spanish nor to any magnification hence none in the above translation and mound works nicely for montón , certainly better than pile, see how it works? The sun’s rays here would be like dry hay , dumb. Later:
 
Jose Arcadio Buendia didn’t even try to console her, entirely absorbed as he was in tactical lenticular experiments that he conducted with the abnegation of a scientist and even at risk to his own life. Trying to show the potential effects of the lens on enemy troops, he so exposed himself to concentrated solar rays that he suffered ulcerous burns that were slow to heal.
 
Fine I added lenticular and arguably modified ulcer into its adjective form but said additions are yummy and amply supported by the record that is the original. Similarly contrast this:
 
Despite the fact that trips to the capital were then only slightly less than impossible, Jose Arcadio Buendia promised that the moment the government placed its order he would attempt one so he could appear before the military powers-that-be to make practical demonstrations of his invention and personally train them in the complicated art of solar warfare.
 
With the gnarled mess the world got. It’s all enough to make the non-Spanish speaking world jump ship before Buendia can even announce his discovery that the world is round like an orange.
 
In sum, can anyone prefer “an earthly condition that kept him involved in the small problems of daily life” to “a terrestrial condition that kept him entangled in the miniscule problems of quotidian life” and does preference even matter when the Spanish is una condicíon terrestre que lo mantenía enredado en los minúsculos problemas de la vida cotidiana ?
 
Problematic English, finally then, is my diagnosis.
 
The invisible sounds they generate, sure, but also just the way some words look on a page, black ink on white paper, so that it almost seems as if even someone deprived of their sense would recognize their beauty:
 
LONESOME
 
Death is insufficient to us part, deaths is required.
 
. . . the literary equivalent of melody.
 
Art, or a purposeful form of play that seeks to illuminate Life.
 
The author’s task is not to invent or even discover but to reassert, in compelling fashion, what we’ve long known to be true.
 
Melville dying in the gutter though he did damn near write The Gospels of his century.
 
. . . requires… special… selflessness… interest in others… inhabit… nature… engagement with… high… questions…
 
With proper Art man reminds himself of the ideal.
 
. . . great only insofar as it creates palpable human beings one can feel for; otherwise it’s far more likely empty exercise designed principally to benefit the exerciser.
 
Perfection (v.) of which marks the zenith of human activity such that…
 
“Avenge me man.”
“Avenge?”
“You mean avenge your death. His death he wants you should avenge.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I’m dying bro, you see the blood.”
“He’s dying.”
“No that part I get. It’s the avenging part that stops me.”
“Avenge my death.”
“How?”
“How he says. Kill the man who killed him, there’s no other how.”
“Kill? I’m going to kill someone? From what I’ve seen society frowns upon that sort of thing.”
“Society? Who brings up society at a time like this? It’s his dying wish, just accede to it.”
“Easy for you to say, I don’t see you rushing to avenge. Go ahead. Take a