William Rodarmor

thumb|William Rodarmor in 2012 William Rodarmor (born June 5, 1942) is an American journalist, editor, and translator of French literature. He is notable in the field of literary translation for having won the Albertine Prize, and the Lewis Galantière Award from the American Translators Association. Quotes Good writers are an editor's stock in trade (...) You have to treasure them and treat them right. https://www.editorsforum.org/forum_index_articles/work_support_04-17-01.php How to Survive the Dot-Com Meltdown Rachel Markowitz April 17, 2001 Bay Area Editors' Forum https://web.archive.org/web/20240827052441/https://www.editorsforum.org/forum_index_articles/work_support_04-17-01.php 2024-08-27 live I hope this collection [of short stories from French authors] does justice to that variety [of distinctive literary voices]. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad, a few are mysterious. The excerpts may seem to end too soon, but that's all to the good. These pieces are neither bonbons nor full-course meals. They're more like hearty appetizers. You're at a bountiful buffet, and you should feel free to come back for more. William Rodarmor William Rodarmor Anna Livia Anna Livia (author) France: A Traveler's Literary Companion Preface ix-xii 2008 Whereabouts Press United States 9781883513184 Food makes history in France, in legend and in fact. (...) But when Charles de Gaulle radioed the French underground that the D-Day invasion was imminent, his message included the key phrase les carottes sont cuites. Literally, this means "the carrots are cooked," and metaphorically "it's all over." What other nation marches to war in the glow of beta carotene? William Rodarmor French Feast: A Traveler's Literary Companion 2011 Whereabouts Press William Rodarmor Preface: An Amuse-Bouche from the Editor xi-xii United States 9780982785218 Translating a big book is like getting married: You’re going to spend a long time together. You may put in months weighing each word, often more carefully than the author." https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ William Rodarmor on 2021 Albertine Prize Finalist ‘And Their Children After Them’ Miriam Bridenne November 9, 2021 Albertine Books https://web.archive.org/web/20240827043901/https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ 2024-08-27 live thumb|1971 photograph William Rodarmor in fisherman’s cap aboard Tiki in the South Pacific. Like most translators, I’m a ventriloquist, and I work hard to make people sound like themselves, and not like me. https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ William Rodarmor on 2021 Albertine Prize Finalist ‘And Their Children After Them’ Miriam Bridenne November 9, 2021 Albertine Books https://web.archive.org/web/20240827043901/https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ 2024-08-27 live [Literary translation work] has all the pleasures of creative writing, and you never have writer’s block. https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ William Rodarmor on 2021 Albertine Prize Finalist ‘And Their Children After Them’ Miriam Bridenne November 9, 2021 Albertine Books https://web.archive.org/web/20240827043901/https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ 2024-08-27 live My loyalty as a translator is to both the author and the reader, but in a pinch, I try to help the reader. Rodarmor William Pow! Right in the Eye! Wiley 2022 VII-IX Translator's Note – Wrestling with Weill 9780470443842 https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226814537-002 The sex scenes were the toughest to translate. Sex is notoriously hard to write about, and no easier to translate. My prose probably falls somewhere between puritanical and pornographic. Maybe sex is just better in French. https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ William Rodarmor on 2021 Albertine Prize Finalist ‘And Their Children After Them’ Miriam Bridenne November 9, 2021 Albertine Books https://web.archive.org/web/20240827043901/https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ 2024-08-27 live Like it or not, a translator has to take liberties. How many depends on closely the translator hews to the words of the text. I’m on the side of the reader, so I’d never produce a literal, word-for-word translation, however faithful. My goal is always to produce a text so smooth that the reader isn’t aware it’s a translation. It should read like a book that Mathieu would have written if he were more fluent in English. So I occasionally take liberties, especially with jokes, slang, and idioms. But thanks to email, I can run my textual sins by the author before committing them to paper. Even after some forty books and screenplays, I still love doing translations. https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ William Rodarmor on 2021 Albertine Prize Finalist ‘And Their Children After Them’ Miriam Bridenne November 9, 2021 Albertine Books https://web.archive.org/web/20240827043901/https://www.albertine.com/william-rodarmor-on-2021-albertine-prize-finalist-and-their-children-after-them/ 2024-08-27 live (Speaking about his translation work of a diary by Berthe Weill) When it comes to typographical style, Berthe Weill is happily inimitable. She doesn't waste time on line breaks, so passages with a lot of dialogue look like sheets of mud. And she never met an ellipsis she didn't like. French writers use ellipses fairly often, but we avoid them in English because they... look vague... In my early drafts, I eliminated most of the ellipses, but I restored many of them later. That's because Weill's prose rhythm is closer to Machine Gun Kelly than Marcel Proust, and I realized that the ellipses help smoooth out her darting leaps from topic to topic. Rodarmor William Pow! Right in the Eye! Wiley 2022 VII-IX Translator's Note – Wrestling with Weill 9780470443842 https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226814537-002 Jokes [are] the bane of every trasnlator's existence. Rodarmor William Pow! Right in the Eye! Wiley 2022 VII-IX Translator's Note – Wrestling with Weill 9780470443842 https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226814537-002 Quotes about William Rodarmor Rodarmor's translation is seamless, rendered with that appearance of effortlessness that only the most gifted and painstaking translators can accomplish. Nancy R. Cirillo 2008 Reviewed Work: Diasporas by Stephanie Dufoix, William Rodarmor Symplokē 16 1/2 338–341 University of Nebraska Press https://www.jstor.org/stable/40550835 My grown-up novels have been translated into several languages, but my relationship with my translators has always been limited to a few e-mails to clear up some point or other. With William Rodarmor, all that changed! He started by telephoning me to introduce himself, and we very quickly built a relationship of trust. And he got passionately involved with the text, wanting to know everything about everything, including somewhat remote elements of the historical context that would better enable him to understand this or that detail. He literally bombarded me with messages and sometimes tracked me to my lair, because he wound up knowing the book better than I did! And he managed it all with great humor. http://www.childrenslit.com/childrenslit/mai_prevost_guillaume.html Q&A with Guillaume Prévost Guillaume Prévost Children's Literature 2007 March 7, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20080720094150/http://www.childrenslit.com/childrenslit/mai_prevost_guillaume.html 2008-07-20 dead As a writer de Villiers had a serious shortcoming: The man could not write. (...) Indeed his French prose is so mechanical, so flat and so replete with Franglais. (...) William Rodarmor's English translation of Madmen is actually better than the original. Book Review: 'The Madmen of Benghazi' by Gérard de Villiers – A sex-packed soap opera full of hard-headed political realism Edward N. Luttwak https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-madmen-of-benghazi-by-gerard-de-villiers-1407536490 The Wall Street Journal August 8, 2014 11 subscription live External links Profile of Rodarmor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Category:Translators from the United States Category:1942 births Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:People from New York City Category:Living people