"You have to become the language of the text"
Claro (author of our Electric Flesh) interviewed at Scott's Quarterly Conversation (another actual human being I got to lay eyes on at Book Expo America, that alleged waste-of-time so many publishers would sooner kick to the curb...)
FM: A good reader wants a book in translation to lose as little as possible. Ideally, the rhythm, the music, the richness, the depth, the meaning should be as close to the author's project as possible. Some people think that reading a translated book in French is not quite like reading a book originally written in French. On the contrary, you always insist that your work consists in producing French prose. How does one respect Gass's music, Seth's sonnets, or Pynchon's sentences while producing French literature?CC: Samuel Beckett said somewhere that books were like icebergs drifting across the continents, waiting for a place to settle. When you translate a book, you're not manufacturing an equivalent; it's not like importing a regular product. You try to decipher its DNA, then rebuild the whole thing. In order to do that you have to be sure that you have the proper tools, and, predominantly, the right momentum. You have to internalize the music, not the notes, the colors, not the exact hues. That's why I work quickly when doing the first draft, because I want to keep the initial speed of the creation, and I kind of trust my linguistic instinct. Each book is written in its own language, has its own logic (however complicated or seemingly absurd). I would say that, in a way, you have to become the language of the text.