Notes Toward a Translation of L'Étranger

Notes Toward a Translation of L'Étranger LEON LEWIS In April, 1946, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., published Stuart Gilbert's translation of Albert Camus's L'Étranger. Gilbert's work is still the only version of Camus's masterpiece available in the English language in the United States. Like many Americans, I can trace the beginning of my serious affection for Camus to Gilbert's text, but an examination of Camus's writing in his own language has led me to consider some of the limitations of Gilbert's work, and then to attempt to capture the style and spirit of L'Étranger in relatively contemporary American English. For me, the primary difficulty of Gilbert's version is that he has chosen to present die voice and mind of Meursault in a kind of midTwentiedi Century British English. The language with which Meursault dius presents his life is often inappropriate for a French Algerian living in the Mediterranean sun. The vocabulary Gilbert uses locates bodi die logistical and psychological action of die book in a milieu diat does not correspond to die cultural framework of Camus's basic conception . As a typical example, one might consider Gilbert's translation of "répondais toujours à côte" widi die locution "shilly-shallied"; or his translation of "si elle le voulait" with the colloquial "if she was keen on it."1 The conclusion of Part I of L'Étranger is Meursault's passionate reflection on the moment that shattered the structure of his life. Camus presents Meursault's thoughts in a kind of "continuous past" tense that converts the experience of the past into an ongoing narrative present. Leon Lewis teaches literature and directs the Film Program at Appalachian State University. His translation of Valéry's Helene appeared in a recent issue of Cold Mountain Review. 1 Albert Camus, The Stranger, trans. Stuart Gilbert (New York, 1954), p. 52. 18TOWARD A TRANSLATION OF L'ÉTRANGER As Meursault recalls the events of that crucial day in his life, he is attempting to understand what happened by re-creating (perhaps even re-living) the incidents that led to his shooting the Arab. In diis part of Meursault's account, Camus's narrative is driven forward by the pressure and immediacy of the "present" in which the action originally took place. To convey this "present/past" amalgam, I have chosen to make considerable use of the participial form, using the ing ending extensively in the central section of my translation. There are a number of passages in which I have chosen to forsake an absolutely literal reproduction of Camus's words in order to render the sense of the text as I see it. Every translator is compelled to act with similar arrogance on certain occasions, and I believe that die logic of my choices is apparent in most cases. For instance, in my second paragraph (Camus uses only one paragraph for the entire section, while Gilbert divides the passage into four paragraphs), I have translated "vacillé," as "spin," and dien continued the image two sentences later by translating "le ciel s'ouvrait," as "the sky spun open." However, I acted almost out of instinct in translating "détruit l'équilibre du jour," as "destroyed the equilibrium of my life." The word "jour" would seem inescapably to demand the translation "day," but I believe that Camus has developed a conception of Meursault in Part I as a character who lives in a sort of perpetual present in which each day is a conspectus for an entire life, and each moment the epitome of an existence. In this sense, life seems to carry the meaning of the phrase more completely . In addition, as Judith Rothschild has pointed out to me, there is an echo in the word in this context of the "poetic plural" jours, which specifically suggests one's life as an accumulation of one's days.2 My goal is to make it possible for one to say that he has truly read Camus even if he cannot read French. *Dr. Judith Rothchild is the Chairman of the Department of Romance Languages at Appalachian State University. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW19 The Stranger BY ALBERT CAMUS...