Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The critical applause the marketing department of this book's publisher dreamed up is one recent example of how money corrupts art. Penguin, often a reliable imprint, needs to be told that THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR PUBLISHING INFERIOR MATERIAL. This was the first Borges I read, and I loved it, until I encountered alternative translations in an anthology called 'Borges: A Reader'. I noticed that the most elegant and intense translations were by someone called Norman Thomas di Giovanni. I asked a number of my Spanish-speaking friends to compare the stories to the originals, and they unanimously agreed that the di Giovannis were more accurate as well. Later I heard that di Giovanni published a number of Borges' works in several books that are now out of print. I wondered why a superior translation would be superseded by a new, clunky one, and why this new clunky one would be hailed as the "definitive English version". I found out that it's because di Giovanni made his translations in collaboration with Borges himself, that they spent years getting it right, and that Borges wept with joy over the translations which he deemed in some cases better than the original. So they agreed to split the profits 50/50, an unprecedented thing for translator to make that percentage. When Borges died his Estate decided they'd make more cash if they got a new translation... and they hold the copyrights. Thus the true definitive versions are condemned to dust. The best that can be said about Hurley's translation is that they're "capable" (see Harold Bloom's obviously paid-for quote on the back); well, you'd have to REALLY screw up to make Borges not amazing. In other words, read whatever you can because Borges is the absolute greatest: the most intellectual fantacist, the most romantic scifi artist, the most classical modernist and modern classicist... and let's not forget the inventor of postmodernism. I should say that after reading all of Hurley's Borges and most of di Giovanni's (as well as versions by various other people here and there) there's nothing really *wrong* with Hurley; often he succeeds in being more "cool" (in a curt, bad*ss kind of way) than di Giovanni, though at the cost of Borges' Victorian intellectual tone (present in all the writings, lectures, and interviews he did in English, as well as the Di Giovanni versions); and instead of re-translating into English from Spanish the bits here and there that Borges translated from English (most often and lengthily occurring in 'A Universal History of Infamy') Hurley just prints the text of the original verbatim, which breaks down some of Borges' carefully crafted illusions but offers much more insight. Also, he is on occasion a little more literal than the Di Giovanni/Borges translations, and therefore perhaps more 'authentic' in some sense... but is it possible to be more true to Borges than Borges was? Changes from the original stories in the Di Giovanni versions must be viewed as the author's revised intentions rather than as inaccurate translation, because of how closely Borges worked with him. Bottom line: In a perfect world, both (and even more) versions would be readily available. But in the present circumstances, where due to greedy money battles we must have one and only one, and all others must be locked in the vault and kept from the eyes of the people forever, why would we want the results of some guy's day job instead of the one Borges himself worked on? WHY WOULD THEY KEEP THAT FROM US? Don't support this blacklisting; seek out the di Giovanni versions and demand Penguin stop publishing inferior material. In a final note, I would recommend 'Borges: A Reader' edited by Emir Rodriguez Monegal and Alastair Reid over any other Borges book in print as both the best place to start and an essential volume. It contains poems, lectures and essays, movie reviews, satires, and of course a great many of the stories printed here, from a variety of translators (including a few Hurleys and a whole lot of Di Giovannis). There is material here you can't find anywhere else, and as two Spanish speakers and Borges experts you can trust them to pick "the best translations" as they say. It is out of print but not hard to come by. Explore!