A.M. Klein as Pimontel: The Risks of Diasporic Translation

Type of resource
Authors/collaborators
Title
A.M. Klein as Pimontel: The Risks of Diasporic Translation
Abstract
The author examines the literary production of Montreal author A. M. Klein (1909-1972), the first Canadian writer to construct a Jewish body of work in English. Klein provided a link between the past of the Yiddish language and culture and the present of Canadian literature. Acutely aware of his historical role and significance, Klein took the translator's vocation very seriously: himself a translator (of numerous Yiddish texts, among others), he also assigned key roles to translators in his fiction, both in The Second Scroll and in his unfinished work "Pimontel". Klein's conclusion that translation is, in a certain sense, impossible, is based not on conventional reasons (in his view, Yiddish is perfectly translatable), but on the idea that the diasporic situation calls for an aesthetic of unfinished translation, a fragmentation and stratification of memories and languages.
Book Title
New Readings of Yiddish Montreal/Traduire le Montréal yiddish/Taytshn un ibertaytshn Yiddish in Montreol
Place
Ottawa
Publisher
Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press
Date
2007
Pages
65-71
Language
en
Notes

Article translated into French by Claudine Hubert as: "A.M. Klein. Pimontel et les ratés de la traduction." Voix et Images. Vol. 30, no. 3 (90) (printemps 2005: 31-41. https://www.erudit.org/revue/vi/2005/v30/n3/011855ar.pdf

Citation
Simon, Sherry. “A.M. Klein as Pimontel: The Risks of Diasporic Translation.” In New Readings of Yiddish Montreal/Traduire Le Montréal Yiddish/Taytshn Un Ibertaytshn Yiddish in Montreol, edited by Pierre Anctil, Norman Ravvin, and Sherry Simon, 65–71. Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press, 2007.
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