JOYCE (James).
Autograph Letter Signed to Maurice Martin Du Gard.
JOYCE, IN 1922, ON TRANSLATING DESIRE
This letter, written 16 days before the publication of Ulysses, is addressed to the French publisher Maurice Martin Du Gard, who had commissioned the translation by Hélène du Pasqiuier of Joyce’s short story Araby (originally published in Dubliners). It was written to accompany the corrected proofs (now lost) and goes into considerable and revealing detail, both translating and amplifying the “especially poignant” (Gebler) sentence “All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: “O love! O love!” many times.”
It was the subject of an interesting essay by Richard J. Gerber in Joyce Studies Annual, 2012, which concludes “It is remarkable that Joyce took such care with the French translation … at the same time that he was most focused on the impending publication of Ulysses. As a result of his attention, and his letter to du Gard, we now have a clearer understanding of the intended meaning.”
