Talk:An Iceland Fisherman

English translations of "Pêcheur d'Islande"

The following list of English translations of "Pêcheur d'Islande" is based on http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/vi.htm :

1. An Iceland Fisherman, 1888 (Clara CADIOT, alias Claire de Pratz, 1866–1934) Images: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hxq4vj;view=1up

The translator: Zoé Clara Solange Cadiot was born in London in 1866, the eldest child of Emmanuel-Horace Cadiot and Philothea Rosin de Pratz. She received her early education in England, but the family home was French-speaking. Her mother, a professor of French literature at Queen's College, died in 1881, and her father, a businessman, moved to Paris, possibly taking the rest of the family. She graduated from the Sorbonne and became a teacher of English (Lycée Racine, Lycée Lamartine) and a journalist (Westminster Gazette, Daily News, Contemporary Review, Athenæum, Petit Parisien, La Fronde, Revue Bleue. Soon after she translated "Pêcheur d'Islande", an article by her on the subject of Loti was published in "Woman's World", which was under the editorship of Oscar Wilde. She later became acquainted with Wilde during his final years in Paris. Under the name Claire de Pratz, she wrote a number of books in English, both fiction and non-fiction (Eve Norris, 1907; French Dishes for English Tables, 1908 — later retitled French Home Cooking; Elisabeth Davenay, 1909; The Education of Jacqueline, 1910; France from Within, 1912; Pomm’s Daughter, 1914; A Frenchwoman's Notes on the War, 1916). She died on 27 March 1934.

1: Civil record of marriage, 1865; birth, 1866; English census of 1871 and 1881
2: "France from Within", author's introductory notes, xi–xv (https://archive.org/stream/francefromwithin00pratiala)
3: Dictionnaire de biographie française sub Cadiot
4,10: Guillot de Saix, L’Européen, 8 mai 1929 (http://www.oscholars.com/RBA/thirty-seven/37.13/epoque.htm)
5,12: Who Was Who
6: Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, 44 No 1, 1937, 147–160
7: Raymond G Carroll, "Paris Day by Day," New York Evening Post, Tue 6 Jan 1925
8: Cadiot de Praz, "Pierre Loti and his works," Woman's World, July 1889, 490–494
9: New York Times, 28 July 1889 (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9403E5DC1030E633A2575BC2A9619C94689FD7CF)
11: British Library catalogue (http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vl(freeText0)=claire+de+pratz&fn=search)

2. An Iceland Fisherman, 1896 (Helen Bennett DOLE, 1857–1944) Images: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwddu2;view=1up

The translator: see the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Haskell_Dole
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Woman's_who's_who_of_America,_1914-15.djvu/240

3. An Iceland Fisherman, 1899 (Anna Farwell de KOVEN, 1862–1953) Images: http://archive.org/stream/anicelandfisherm00loti

The translator: see the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_de_Koven
http://www.digitalhistoryproject.com/2011/09/mrs-reginald-de-koven-author-and.html
"Well known daughters of famous men", Evening Telegram (New York), Thu 31 July 1910
http://mms.newberry.org/html/McClurg.html

4. An Iceland Fisherman, 1901 (H A MELCON, 1839–1910) Images: http://www.archive.org/stream/anicelandfisher01lotigoog

The translator: Melkon Asdvadzadourian (1839–1910) was a native of Kharpert (Harput) in the Turkish part of Armenia; either he or his identically-named father (born c1775) adopted "Melcon" as a surname and abbreviated "Asdvadzadourian" to its initial, thus: Melcon A Melcon. He began teaching at an American Protestant missionary school in Kharpert in 1855. He then studied at Bebek (Constantinople) and at Basel (Switzerland), and possibly at Heidelberg. He was back in Armenia by 1862, and continued to teach and proselytize. Around 1870, he married Takouhi Casparian (1856–1928), and they were to have twelve children. For several years he taught in Ispahan, but by 1879 he had moved back to Kharpert, to Euphrates College. Some of his sons emigrated to the US, one in 1885, one in 1894 and one in 1896. The parents and the four other surviving children joined them in Boston in 1898. At various times between 1897 and 1902, all moved to the San Joaquin valley in California where they became prosperous farmers until losing their wealth in the Great Depression. Melcon A Melcon died at Kingsburg in 1910. His widow died there in 1928; she never learned to speak English despite spending 30 years in America. Although the initials do not match, family members are firmly of the opinion that Melcon A Melcon was the translator. He also translated "Heidi" from German to English (New York, 1901), and (as M A Melk'on) "Faust" from German to Armenian (San Lazzaro, Venice, 1913), among other English and German classics.

Above information almost all based on personal communications from Jennifer Portz and Paul Melcon, greatgrandchildren of the translator.
See also:
• Obituary, Fresno Morning Republican, Sunday September 18 1910
• Obituary in the Armenian periodical Bazmavep (1910/12 pp 574–576).
  The following translation was kindly provided by Dr Harut Shahumyan.
     On September 16, one of the most experienced and knowledgeable Armenians
     Prof. M. A. Melcon passed away far from the motherland, at his home in
     Kingsburg, California. He was 72 years old, born in Balu on March 23,
     1839.  Prof. Melcon had a really productive life: he lectured for 28
     years continuously. He got his education first at Fr. Hamlin's Bebek
     school, and then at Basel University, where he studied six years.  He
     was fluent in German almost as much as in his native language.  He
     worked as a head teacher master at Kharberd Euphrates College for 18
     years, where he taught many Armenian youngsters. In addition to
     Armenian and German languages, he was fluent also in English, Turkish
     and Farsi.  Prof. Melcon was forced to move to America in 1898 when
     life in the country was impossible due to Hamidian brutalities.
     Prof. Melcon had an important role in the modern Armenian generation
     not only as a teacher, but also as a writer and especially as a
     translator of essential classic works. He has provided a valuable
     contribution to Armenian scrips. Some of his translations have been
     already published in the “Bazmavep” and should be familiar to our
     readers.
     Prof. Melcon has translated “Julius Cesar”, “Macbeth”, “Hamlet”,
     “Othello”, “Merchant of Venice” from Shakespeare, “Talisman” from
     Walter Scott; from German, “Faust” from Goethe, “Wilhelm Tell” from
     Schiller, as well as several poems from German and English. He has
     made his translations professionally, using the style of the original.
     He has translated Johanna Spyri’s “Heidi” from German to English,
     published in New York in 1901.
     Prof. Melcon has prepared an Armenian textbook on “Geometry”, which
     was used for many years in the high schools and colleges in Turkey.
     He has used English and German sources to compose a “Course on
     Psychology”.
     Many of the works of Prof. Melcon are in handwriting and his sons
     have begun to publish them: the “Aspares” weekly published in
     Fresno has started to publish “Julius Cesar”.
  Further pieces in “Bazmavep” may be found using the index
  (https://issuu.com/exarmal/docs/pasmaveb_1_-_par_ann_e),
  looking for M A Melkon as translater in the “Titre” column,
  and viewing the pages from the archive
  (http://tert.nla.am/mamul/Bazmavep/Table.html).
• WorldCat record for Goethe's “Faust”, translated into Armenian by M A Melkan 
(https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=no%3A20053426)
• Vahé Tachjian, "Harput (kaza) – Schools (Part I)"
(https://www.houshamadyan.org/mapottomanempire/vilayetofmamuratulazizharput/harputkaza/education-and-sport/schools-part-i.html)
• Prof M A Melcon, "The growth, influence and needs of Euphrates College", The Missionary Herald, Vol XCIX No 1 (Jan 1903), pp 13–15
(https://ia600401.us.archive.org/4/items/missionaryheral22missgoog/missionaryheral22missgoog.pdf)
• In Memoriam Rev Cyrus Hamlin, DD, LLD (Boston, 1903), address by A A Melcon [sic], pp 53–56
(https://ia600506.us.archive.org/10/items/inmemoriamrevcyr00hamlrich/inmemoriamrevcyr00hamlrich.pdf)

5. Iceland Fisherman, 1924 (W P BAINES, 1878–1933) Search text: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89104419122

The translator: William Peter Baines translated many of the works of Pierre Loti into English between 1909 and 1929, and also Abbé Félix Klein's "Jésus et ses apôtres" in 1932. He is the probable author of an article entitled "The Stonyhurst Rubens." He was born at West Derby, Liverpool in 1878, the eldest of ten children of Thomas Baines and Margaret Anne Roche, who married in 1877. The family moved to London, and were found in Streatham in 1891 and Putney in 1901 and 1911. William Peter attended Tooting College, and entered the Post Office in 1894. He married Kathleen Elizabeth Frances Medhurst in 1906; they were living at Richmond in 1911, with their daughter Catherine Margaret ("Peggy", 1907–1916); other children were Barbara (1915–), Dolores (1916–1987), and Peter (1922–). William Peter served in the postal section of the Royal Engineers in France during WWI, and was awarded the rank of Major on completion of service in 1919. He rose to be Assistant Controller of the London Postal Service, and in April 1932 was appointed Postmaster-Surveyor of Birmingham. He died in Birmingham on 1933/02/10, aged 55.

13. W P Baines, "The Stonyhurst Rubens," The Month (October 1909), 375–384
14. Civil register of births, marriages and deaths (through http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ );
    Diana M Scarisbrick, My Dear Ralph (1994) ( http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/document/9501/7662 );
    Peter Nash, "Dodo Henderson, an account of her life" (1988) — unpublished, 25 typescript pages. Page 2 contains the following:
       "Dodo's father, William (1873–1932) was the eldest, a position of
       relative responsibility, and he was hardworking by nature.  He entered the
       General Post Office at executive grade, when he left Wimbledon School.
       There were however streaks in his heritage which were either scholarly or
       artistic.  William had both; in fact he was ripe for a university, but such
       a career was beyond the reach of his family — those days were different from
       ours.  He used to write poetry, and until he married at the age of 33 to
       sketch as well.
       When World War I broke out he enlisted in the army, serving on the
       general staff.  In this capacity he was behind the lines and therefore
       seeing a great deal more of the French people than those doing the actual
       fighting.  This probably accounts for his taking a particular interest in
       French culture and language, for it was at about this time that he took to
       translating from French into English; and eventually a number of his
       translations of novels by Pierre Loti were published by T Werner Laurie,
       whose business manager later became the second husband of William's wife.
       William was probably attracted as much by Loti's simplicity of style as by
       his romantic content.  Dodo had a number of these translations on her
       shelves at the time of her death."
    Thanks to Bob Nix, a grandson of WP's sister Dora, for this reference and for other information.
15. English census of 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911.
16. http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/general_register_part_3.pdf
17. Ancestry.com, "British Postal Service Appointments 1737–1969"
18. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details/C1101108?descriptiontype=Full&ref=WO+339/47220 
19. "Postmaster-Surveyor's Death", Western Daily Press, Sat 11/02/1933, page 7

6. An Iceland Fisherman, 1931 (Samuel Guy ENDORE, 1900–1970)

The translator: see the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Endore

In the 1902 editions published by Appleton and by Collier, images http://archive.org/stream/icelandfisherman00lotiuoft, the translation is often attributed to Jules-Martin Cambon (1845–1935), who wrote the introduction. The translation however is that of Cadiot, with only light modification.

Endore comments (1931, p 12): "Particularly in English, the book has never had the careful rendering it deserved. I say nothing of style, which is always a debatable matter; the reader can at least expect accuracy and completeness. Unfortunately the various translations that have so far appeared in English are lacking even in these elementary aspects. Those I have seen are both generously expurgated and grossly inaccurate. And the delicacy of the original so readily becomes ridiculous by careless rendering."

Richard M Berrong (https://web.archive.org/web/20140425200144/http://www.et.kent.edu/faculty/rberrong/as61000/loti/Iceland_Fisherman.pdf) was also unhappy with the Cambon text which he "substantially revised, edited, and, starting with Part III, Chapter XII, [remade] from scratch."

95.146.108.0 (talk) 22:39, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

References