On 4/21/24 4:16 PM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
And this story is a perfect example of the pitfalls or problems
of translation. Gilbert Alter-Gilbert's translation says, "I
bought the ape at an auction of property," but then switches to
"the lack of articulate language in monkeys," "monkeys once were
men," and other references to monkeys, until he gets to "the
chimpanzee (which is what Yzur was)." My first reaction is that
Lugones doesn't seem to know the difference between monkeys
(tails) and apes (no tails), chimpanzees being apes. But then I
pause, and check, and in Spanish both "ape" and "monkey" are
called "mono". (When you get down to the species level, there
*are* separate words for "chimpanzee", "orangutan", and "gibbon".)
When I check the Spanish, Lugones has used "mono" and
"chimpance". Alter-Gilbert, however, has decided to translate
"mono" first as "ape" and then as "monkey", even though the latter
is basically incorrect in English. My feeling is that he should
have translated "mono" as "ape" throughout, since I believe that
Lugones was referring primarily to apes, not monkeys, though
"primate" would be an acceptable substitute (albeit more
scientific than literary).
German and French also use the same word for monkey and ape. This causes problems in Discworld translations, where the Librarian (an orangutan)
will get violently offended if you call him a monkey.
--
Gary McGath
http://www.mcgath.com
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