Translation
PORTFOLIO: Brian Evenson (2022 - present)
American author Brian Evenson's novels and collections embark us on terrifying tales in which rational, meticulous characters are driven to the brink of madness by their thirst for knowledge. In a hostile world stricken by unexplained apocalypses, inhabited by unspeakable mutations, and haunted by power-hungry cults, curiosity kills the cat. Yet Brian Evenson, with his consummate art of suspense and brevity, forbids us to look away.
Introduced in France in 2005 thanks to the "Lot 49" imprint at Cherche midi Publishers, next to great names of post-modern American literature such as Thomas Pynchon and William Gass, Brian Evenson has since enjoyed considerable critical success in France, thanks to the inimitable boldness of his vision of cruelty and the originality of his prose, whose voluntarily laconic minimalism is sometimes compared to that of Beckett. Some of his work belongs to genre literature, namely horror and science fiction, and it was only natural that the author should collaborate with Payot & Rivages' new Rivages/imaginaire imprint, dedicated to "science fiction and fantasy novels from diverse horizons".
Translating Brian Evenson represented the dual challenge of meeting the expectations of the genre literature readership, on the one hand, and to stay true to the uniqueness of his prose, on the other.
As a translator, it was therefore essential to ensure that the genre markers were reproduced in French. Foremost among these is the virile, nihilistic tone, often associated with detective stories and a certain post-apocalyptic SF, with which the author endows many of his narrators. Brian Evenson's novels and short stories are often narrated with a stoic, detached voice that could be that of a detective who wasn't born yesterday. Short, laconic sentences, with a limited lexicon, welcome the imminent arrival of violence with unfailing aplomb.
"He would stir the coffee a little, take a sip, maybe two. Soon, he knew, things would come to head. Another three minutes, maybe four."
– Song for the Unraveling of the World
This hard-boiled tone often required me to reconcile the original's prosaic narrative register with the French reader's demand for lexical variety. Indeed, while it's now common practice in the translation of thrillers and SF novels to dispense with the use of the French imperfect subjunctive, deemed too literary for the prosaic nature of the genre, word repetition, on the other hand, so prevalent in American novels, still puts off French readers. The trend in translation, therefore, is to eliminate repetitions, which are hunted down to the last one by the professional proofreader ProLexis, to be replaced by synonyms. However, eradicating all word repetitions from the original in the name of the French taste for lexical variety entailed the risk of not only cluttering up the text with ostentatious synonyms, but also overlooking how Brian Evenson uses repetition to express certain characters' obsession with morbid details, their almost comic relapse into dead-end labyrinthine journeys, or the presence of disquieting doubles.
"There was hair in front and hair on the back – only saying which was the front and which was the back was impossible."
– No Matter Which Way We Turned
My task as a translator was therefore to distinguish, on a case-by-case basis, between word repetitions that would be retained for their stylistic function and those that could be replaced using synonyms.
Another of Brian Evenson's preferred genre markers is suspense, which he brilliantly produces by linking actions whose logical articulation is left undetermined. To this end, Brian Evenson uses the present participle, intransitive verbs, coordinating conjunctions, excessive spatialization, and numerous incisions to present actions without specifying their exact logic, thus suggesting the hostile opacity of the world in which his characters struggle.
"They both stared at the car, the license plate, talking. One spoke into his radio, quietly. After a moment, the low crackly of a reply. Then they both were moving, more determined now, back to their police car. They got in and waited."
– Song for the Unraveling of the World
However, French doesn't have as many intransitive verbs as English, the frequent use of the present participle is unwelcome, action verbs don't fit well with adverbs of spatialization, the systematic use of the coordinating conjunction is considered unfortunate, and the inopportune use of the comma is outlawed. How, then, to translate American suspense without offending French readers' taste for clear, intelligible sentences?
As a translator adhering to Antoine Berman's ethical principles, I embraced an approach that accommodated the unconventional aspects of this writing. That's why it was essential to reproduce in French the abrupt syntactic indeterminacy of the original, even if it meant introducing a not-always-orthodox use of punctuation, by closely following the syntactic structure of the author's sentences.
Finally, the tension of this prose is heightened by the sudden intrusion, amid a lexicon that first appears deceptively clear, simple, and familiar, of words that are rare, archaic, or impossible, like a blood spatter in an unwonted place.
"Before long, he was spending so much time passed out on the floor that the walls of the house began to run and grow furzed around the edges."
– Sisters
Exchanges with the author were necessary to identify and understand these abstruse words often ignored in translation and to create lexical monstrosities capable of rivaling the linguistic mutations of the original.
Therefore, in the translation, I used a register, tone, and rhythm that unmistakably situated the author within genre literature, while seamlessly integrating the audacious prosody and lexicon that define the author’s distinctive fusion of horror, humor, and poetry.
This content strategy has not gone unnoticed. My French translation of the novel Immobility was one of the most reviewed science-fiction translations of 2023 in France, and critics have been impressed by the economy of words, the tone, and the precision of style I mobilized to translate Brian Evenson's prose.
"A minimalist style tinged with black humor."
Christophe Laurent, Corse Matin
"Immobilité brings to a climax the minimalist art of Brian Evenson, capable of evoking so much in so few meticulously chosen words".
Charybde 27 bookseller's blog