The translators of the thousand and one nights. (When words don't fail).Jorge Luis Borges's 1936 essay "The Translators of the Thousand and One Nights," an improbable tale of language, difference, and violence, offers an equally improbable antidote antidote Remedy to counteract the effects of a poison or toxin. Administered by mouth, intravenously, or sometimes on the skin, it may work by directly neutralizing the poison; causing an opposite effect in the body; binding to the poison to prevent its absorption, in the face of the us-versus-them rhetoric one hears from too many corridors. The tragic and vicious heroes are all translators--Galland, Lane, Burton Lane, Burton orig. Burton Levy (born Feb. 2, 1912, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 5, 1997, New York City) U.S. songwriter. Lane worked in Tin Pan Alley, where he came to the attention of George Gershwin. . Each member of this "hostile dynasty" renders the text anew to kill the previous translator. Borges's parable parable, the term translates the Hebrew word "mashal"—a term denoting a metaphor, or an enigmatic saying or an analogy. In the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition, however, "parables" were illustrative narrative examples. Jewish teachers of the 1st cent. A.D. gives us little immediate hope or solace, but it does rid us once and for all of the idea of an easy, clean division between internally harmonious communities. Nobody hates an Arabist more than another Arabist. Daniel Birnbaum is director of the Stadelschule art academy and the Portikus gallery in Frankfurt and a contributing editor A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. of Artforum. |
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