Lydia Davis & Madame Bovary
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
Is there anything more exciting than the promise of Lydia Davis blogging about literary translation?
Besides the woman herself reading from her new Madame Bovary at the 92nd Street Y?
Besides Davis “Getting to Know Your Body”? (This is the phrase that lures readers from the Paris Review Daily to FSG’s Work in Progress blog.)
I for one can’t wait to find out how she translates bouffées d’affadissement. (Truly, despite the breezy, bloggy tone: blame the top hat, the bow tie.)
gusts of revulsion
a kind of rancid staleness
stale gusts of dreariness
waves of nausea
fumes of nausea
flavorless, sickening gusts
stagnant dreariness
whiffs of sickliness
waves of nauseous disgust
Thanks to Scott Esposito for pointing out the Paris Review blog; to FSG for publishing Davis; and to Davis for everything else.
PS: Check out Macy Halford’s post at the New Yorker’s blog on buying this issue of Playboy.

