James Joyce Autograph Letter Signed on the "Impossible" French Translation of Anna Livia Plurabelle
James Joyce discusses the French translation of Anna Livia Plurabelle, as George Moore declares it “impossible”
ALS in French, one page both sides, 5 x 8, Hotel Belgravia letterhead, April 29, 1931. Handwritten letter concerning the translation of a fragment from Finnegans Wake, in part (translated): "I spoke the other day with my neighbour here, Mr. George Moore (121 Ebury Street, Pimlico). He is very skeptical about a translation of A.L.P. [Anna Livia Plurabelle], especially into French. Indeed, with all the vigour of his 81 years, he protests that it is impossible. Please therefore send him a copy of the N.R.F. so that he may see with his own eyes and touch with his own fingers the wounds which the lances of the seventy have inflicted upon the supreme flank. I remain deeply touched and moved by the gracious kindness with which the great lady Anna Sequana seemed to listen to the baby-babble of the little Dublin girl." In fine condition, with a professionally repaired tear to the upper half of the letter.
James Joyce mentions the celebrated Irish writer, art critic, and dramatist George Moore (1852–1933), who was a friend of Édouard Manet. Anna Livia Plurabelle is the name of a character in Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake. A translation of this famous passage had just appeared in the Nouvelle Revue Française (no. 212, May 1931), thanks in part to the efforts of Joyce, Philippe Soupault, Samuel Beckett, Alfred Péron, and Eugène Jolas.
James Joyce discusses the French translation of Anna Livia Plurabelle, as George Moore declares it “impossible”
ALS in French, one page both sides, 5 x 8, Hotel Belgravia letterhead, April 29, 1931. Handwritten letter concerning the translation of a fragment from Finnegans Wake, in part (translated): "I spoke the other day with my neighbour here, Mr. George Moore (121 Ebury Street, Pimlico). He is very skeptical about a translation of A.L.P. [Anna Livia Plurabelle], especially into French. Indeed, with all the vigour of his 81 years, he protests that it is impossible. Please therefore send him a copy of the N.R.F. so that he may see with his own eyes and touch with his own fingers the wounds which the lances of the seventy have inflicted upon the supreme flank. I remain deeply touched and moved by the gracious kindness with which the great lady Anna Sequana seemed to listen to the baby-babble of the little Dublin girl." In fine condition, with a professionally repaired tear to the upper half of the letter.
James Joyce mentions the celebrated Irish writer, art critic, and dramatist George Moore (1852–1933), who was a friend of Édouard Manet. Anna Livia Plurabelle is the name of a character in Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake. A translation of this famous passage had just appeared in the Nouvelle Revue Française (no. 212, May 1931), thanks in part to the efforts of Joyce, Philippe Soupault, Samuel Beckett, Alfred Péron, and Eugène Jolas.
