The Art of Writing Translations by Florian Von Banier

Ninth Chapter: On Love

*1 I am incapable of Love. Therefore even I cannot trust what I have written here. Because it is only through Love that writing can be said to assume its approximation to splendor, to divine perfection, to Truth. Only through Love can anything be said to be worthwhile. All that I have written is wrought into a wreck upon the shore of Love, where I have run aground and shipwrecked myself, through the sealed chambers of my heart, the hatred that causes my name to whisper out in night, that empties my soul into the flewing rivers of Canaan, the providence of Da Rish Sha Nam, the holy language of DaRiSaNa, the spiritual linguistic patron of DRSN, of a mistaken past, of a holy order, of a challenge from Hell, from Hades, from Severus, upon which I have expired, like an old weary tree, yet I grow still, I breathe still, I live still. Only my life occurs against my will, for without Love I am but a wind in the air, my speech are but empty sounds devoid of any actual form, my words are but hieroglyphs written on caves that exist only as shadows in remote corners of maps that are indecipherable and mistaken in all of their locations, I am but a chaos embodied.

Appendix: The Book of Yelps and Growls.

Though still a matter of some controversy, the fables were certainly printed as an appendix to some versions of The Art of Writing Translations, though probably not included in the original impression. Many of the fables from the apocryphal The Book of Yelps and Growls have been digitized here on e2 by other users. However, it is highly unlikely that those fables are actual translations from another language, rather than a translation of a text not yet written. In the Preface Von Banier speaks of creative translation, which he roughly defines as 'the translation of a work not yet written'. Further, it is obvious that The Book of Yelps and Growls was also used, like the examples from Chapter Eight, to demonstrate the difficulty of employing archaic translation mechanisms and the advantages of Von Banier's own Seven Principles of Translation (as described in chapters 5 and 6 of this treatise, which have not yet been digitized). Still, Von Banier held that translation was always a near-impossible task.

A complete index of and introduction to The Art of Writing Translations is available at that node.

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