Thus I made a point of consulting Joyce on every doubtful point, of ascertaining from him the exact associations he had in mind when using proper names, truncated phrases or pe-Ĭuliar words, and never "passing" the French text unless I was sure we had the meaning of each word and passage quite clear in our minds. One begins with a close analysis, and only when the implications of the original are fully unravelled does one start looking for approximations in the other language.
This applies especially when the texture of the work to be translated is intricate, or the meaning elusive. In making a translation the first essential is thoroughly to understand what one is translating any vagueness or uncertainty in this respect must lead to failure. Auguste Morel and Valery Larbaud in the translation of Ulysses into French that the project suggested itself to me. Thus it may be of some interest if I describe briefly the circumstances leading up to the writing of this book and those under which it was written. Obviously the value of such a work as this depends on its authenticity, and "authenticity" in the present case implies that the ideas, interpretations and explanations put' forward in these pages are not capricious or speculative, but were endorsed by Joyce himself. These are amongst the reasons why I have decided not to change the ground-plan of this book, and have retained the extracts and summaries which precede the analysis of each episode and my comments on it. And, in any case, a commentary sprinkled with page numbers referring the reader back to 'the original involves him in vexatious huntings up of the passages in question, during which he may well lose the thread of the argument.
If my book is to be used in this manner, as an introduction to that memorable experience, a first reading of Ulysses, it is desirable that this commentary should be complete in itself and give not a mere analysis of the leading themes, Homeric references, etc., but a panoramic view of Joyce's epic as a whole. relation of the episodes each to each and the concatenation of the events narrated, they found it relatively easy and usually exhilarating reading. When, however, they returned to it, after reading this commentary and understanding the thematic structure, the. Up, as making too great demands on their attention, memory and endurance. For one thing, I have been told by a surprisingly large number of people that they attempted to read Ulysses and gave it However, after careful thought, I decided to retain them, for several reasons. altogether, as being superfluous, now that Ulysses itself was, presumably, in my readers' hands.
As a result of this happy change I was caIIed on to make a decision regarding the somewhat lengthy excerpts from the text of Ulysses prefixed to each of the eighteen chapters of commentary proper. But, on the credit side, we have the fact that Ulysses is now accessible to all. I have therefore quoted freely from the text, so that those who are unable to make their voyage Ithaque, otherwise to the sign 'of Shakespeare & Co., Paris, and acquire the original, may, despite the censorial ban, become acquainted with Mr joyce's epic work." To the regret of many who are, like the author of this book (and as was Joyce himself during the last twenty years of his life )-to use the fiscal formula -"domiciled in Paris, France", the sign of Shakespeare no longer hangs in the little Rue de l'Odeon. In the original Preface to my book I said: "In writing this commentary I have borne in mind the unusual circumstance that, though Ulysses is probably the most discussed literary work that has appeared in our time, the book itself is hardly more than a name to many. of Ulysses into the English-speaking countries. PREFACE Twenty years have passed since the appearance of the Study of Ulysses of which this is a new, revised and slightly enlarged edition, and, amongst the many notable events of these two decades one of the most interesting, from the literary point of view, was the lifting of the ban on the admission.
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