7. But there was also a politics and philosophy behind literalism, a conservative desire for fixed text.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. With Nabokov, crafting English translation that was as close to syntax & diction of Russian as possible was path to lost past.
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9. With the Straussians as well, conservative impulse guided translations: if Great Books encoded secret wisdom translations had to be exact
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10. Straussian translations are often closer to encryption (tranliteral decoding of words) than to translation.
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11. Much of what is wrong with Leo Strauss is obvious when you consider his philosophy of translation.
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12. Strauss: "the perfect translator is either one who understands nothing of what he translates and never presumes that he does..."
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13. Strauss con't: "...or one who understands everything in the text and knows what he is doing."
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14. For Strauss both humanity & translators divided into those who know nothing (most people) & those who know everything (philosophers)
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15. What Strauss ignores is the possibility of a pragmatic middle ground between knowing nothing and knowing everything.
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16. Of course Cold War can't explain everything. I don't know Richmond Lattimore's politics (his brother Owen was famous lefty).
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17. Should add that these thoughts on translations inspired by work of @artgoldhammer, notably: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~agoldham/articles/Mansfield.htm …
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