Re: Riddles (was: Lateral Thinking)

From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Wed Jan 03 2001 - 22:45:25 MST


> Amara wrote:
> > I discovered recently that [Hofstadter] translated a version of
> > Evgenij Onegin by Pushkin.
>
> hibbert@netcom.com wrote:
>
> I don't know why he did *this* translation since I'm not familiar with
> Pushkin, but it's worth pointing out that Hofstadter is fascinated with the
> idea of translation. In Particular, see his "Le Ton Beau de Marot: In
> Praise of the Music of Language" in which he collects multitudes of
> different translations of a single 16th century French poem.)

Not just that, but he manages to translate Le Ton out of French in
which it has rhythm and rhyme, into English in such a clever way that
it still has rhythm and rhyme.

Hoftadter astounded me when I actually met him at nerdstock last
May at Stanford: he is a small thin guy. I guess I was expecting him
to be about 8 feet tall, or at least have the imposing physical presence
of someone like Greg Burch. Still, that one book makes him a
giant... spike



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