God, Death, and Time (Meridian)

Rating:
Summary: Two Books in One: Levinas and a Master Class on Translation
Review: A fine translation that succeeds in converying the tenor or color of Levinas' sentences. From the translator's perspective it offers a master class on the techniques and the art of altering a modern French work into an English one. This occurs at one level through Bergo's knack for a deep lexicon, and then her rendering of 'regular' French grammar and syntax into 'regular' English - something that permitted Levinas' strange passages in the original French to be marked as equally 'strange' in the English translation as well (whether through neologism or sheer quirks that were paid attention to). Bettina Bergo's are benchmark translations of Levinas' writings, and we are happy to have them not only for the powerful current of thought that they conduct, but also for the way that her silent hand guides, reflects on, acknowledges, and remarks on the art and craft of translation.