For Norwegian Readers About Per Petterson
August 28, 2015 3:11 AM Subscribe
In Per Petterson's great novel, Out Stealing Horses, there is a moment when baby animals appear outside a home. The English translation that is current calls them "fauns". This disturbs me and I have read and re-read the passage to determine if we are talking about "fawns" which would make sense, or goat-footed children, which would be something different. Although others have noted this translation difficulty, no major critic seems to take notice. So, I want to know: "fauns" or "fawns"?
The difference is crucial: what kind of symbolism, what kind of writing are we dealing with here? "Fawns" seems to make sense, but is this something weird Petterson is doing here? Please, anyone who has read this in the original Norwegian, can you clarify?
BTW, I believe Petterson will be the recipient of a Nobel Prize in another decade or so. This is a really great writer, but in the four books of his I have read in translation there is nothing to indicate the kind of symbolism "fauns" would make.
The difference is crucial: what kind of symbolism, what kind of writing are we dealing with here? "Fawns" seems to make sense, but is this something weird Petterson is doing here? Please, anyone who has read this in the original Norwegian, can you clarify?
BTW, I believe Petterson will be the recipient of a Nobel Prize in another decade or so. This is a really great writer, but in the four books of his I have read in translation there is nothing to indicate the kind of symbolism "fauns" would make.
Pending the arrival of a Norwegian who can settle this, I used the ‘search inside this book’ option at Amazon, which turned up some instances of faun, on pp. 11-12 of the 2006 Vintage (UK) edition, p. 11 of the 2008 Picador (US) edition, both using Anne Born’s translation, in the passage beginning:
posted by misteraitch at 4:57 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
‘What kind of dog was it you had to shoot?’ […]
‘An Alsatian [German Shepherd]. But it was not mine. It happened on the farm where I grew up. My mother saw it first. It ran around the edge of the forest hunting roe deer: two terrified young fauns we had several times seen from the window grazing in the brushwood at the edge of the north meadow. They always kept close, and they did so then. The Alsatian chased them, encircled them, bit at their hocks…’Is that the passage you’re asking about? If so, I’d say that’s an error/typo and fawns is correct.
posted by misteraitch at 4:57 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't have a definitive answer but, as you say, Petterson writes very straight, very grounded prose and I'd be super surprised if he was suddenly dropping some magic symbolism or otherworldly weirdness into such an account. 99.5% sure it's a mistranslation of "fawns". It would be an easy one to make.
posted by distorte at 5:54 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by distorte at 5:54 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
It pains me to say this, but I am a copy editor and your question baffled me until I turned to my handy dictionary. I definitely thought "faun" was the proper spelling until right now. Makes me feel awful inside but there you go. I'm desperately hoping this word hasn't shown up in anything I edited.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:58 AM on August 28, 2015 [10 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:58 AM on August 28, 2015 [10 favorites]
Best answer: In the swedish translation the word is "kalvar" which would translate to "fawns". So definitly a typo/mistranslation.
posted by Tawny Owl at 7:53 AM on August 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Tawny Owl at 7:53 AM on August 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks, Tawny Owl, that seems more or less conclusive.
Yes, misteraitch, that is the passage I mean. "Fauns" is used in three places. From context, it's deer that are meant, but coming so early in the novel made me wonder if Petterson was setting up some kind of extra level of meaning. There was a review in the New York Review of Books a while back that praised this translation. (I believe Anne Born is dead now.) Perhaps everyone considers this such an obvious typo that it needs no mention.
BlahLaLa, I feel your pain.
posted by CCBC at 3:04 PM on August 28, 2015
Yes, misteraitch, that is the passage I mean. "Fauns" is used in three places. From context, it's deer that are meant, but coming so early in the novel made me wonder if Petterson was setting up some kind of extra level of meaning. There was a review in the New York Review of Books a while back that praised this translation. (I believe Anne Born is dead now.) Perhaps everyone considers this such an obvious typo that it needs no mention.
BlahLaLa, I feel your pain.
posted by CCBC at 3:04 PM on August 28, 2015
« Older How do I help my friend who is losing hope? | Need to print a lot of labels. Need to stay sane. Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Rock Steady at 3:15 AM on August 28, 2015