[Sca-cooks] C.A. translation and organization questions

lilinah at earthlink.net lilinah at earthlink.net
Sat Nov 2 13:00:58 PDT 2013


As you know, i've translated all the recipes Shirvani added to his mid-15th c. translation of al-Baghdadi and they will be coming out as a Compleat Anachronist in maybe a year (long editing process). He also altered many al-Baghdadi recipes - some slightly, some more, but that isn't the part i'll be presenting to the editors of the C.A.

I have a couple questions about translation. No, i'm not asking anyone to help me with the Turkish, although i could use some. Rather, my questions are about something we've discussed on this list from time to time: how faithfully should a translation follow the original?

I have previously stated my preference for a closer following, even when it may be stilted or a little awkward, because, to me, it retains a flavor of times past.

In this case, most of the recipes are written in the passive voice - "Fatty sheep meat small is chopped". A long list of ingredients... "to the pot are added". As a modern American i have a preference for an active voice - "Chop fatty sheep meat small" "Add" ...a long list of ingredients... "to the pot". What do people think? Should i leave the recipes in the passive voice? Or should i alter all to the active voice?

Second, i will need to interpolate some words into the recipes - such as, after a long sequence of processes, "and" before the final one. In his French translation, Stephane Yerasimos frequently move the periods - making the last sequence of one sentence to become the first of the next sentence - he did it to make better sense, but i prefer to leave the original order. However, for a modern reader, some sentences could really use that "and". What do you think? [if you don't understand, i can post some examples]

Third, should i present the recipes in the exact order they are in the book or should i group them as meat, savory, sweet, beverage, etc., as i have done for my personal use. Arabic cookbooks tend to group them by cooking process or by certain dominant flavors, but Shirvani's recipes are in no particular order.

Finally, i will be adding a certain number of worked-out recipes. Should the worked out recipes be in a separate section after the translations, or should each worked out recipe follow the original? I will be checking with the CA editors about this, but i wanted your opinions.

Thanks for you feedback.

Urtatim



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