ladysprite: (Default)
ladysprite ([personal profile] ladysprite) wrote2004-11-25 12:23 pm

Done!

It's finally done. It cost me a year and a half of work, nearly three mechanical pencils, and the regrowth of my writer's callus, but I have finally finished translating the entirety of Caroso's 'Il Balarino.' All four-hundred-mumble pages of it, every word.

For those of you who aren't intensive renaissance dance geeks (that would be nearly everyone except perhaps two hardcore co-nerds reading this), 'Il Balarino' is a sixteenth-century Italian dance manual. It's full of all sorts of wonderful instructions on how to perform certain steps, detailed descriptions of dances, confusing smarmy poetry, and snippy comments on how other, lesser dance masters do everything wrong, wrong, wrong. I've spent the last 18 months, give or take, trying to translate it, in spite of not having much background in Italian history or language. And now I have.

Of course, now it still needs to be typed up, and finessed from Italian-grammar-with-English-words into actual English, and there are all sorts of notes I want to take on what sort of details happen in which kinds of dances, and I really ought to put it on the web somewhere so that it can actually be useful to the other three dance geeks in the world. And then there's the question of what other translating projects to work on next, since off the top of my head I can think of a Commedia dell'Arte book, a cookbook, and a gaming article that are all waiting to be worked on. But for now, I'm going to sit here and stare at the huge stack of scribbled-up paper that I have created and feel momentarily smug and useful.

[identity profile] antoniseb.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 09:30 am (UTC)(link)
Take a break, and when you're up to it, lets revisit the Spavento Papers.
tpau: (Default)

[personal profile] tpau 2004-11-25 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
mmm, i am doign my book translation onteh laptop, to avoid the need to transcribe. butit is in need of actual english phrasing...

[identity profile] ladysprite.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 10:09 am (UTC)(link)
I like translating with pencil onto paper first - it means that if there's a word that's questionable, or might have multiple meanings, I know exactly which word it is in the primary language as well as the translation, and can go back to look it up that much more easily.

I'm working on Scappi right now, and it's being challenging for exactly that reason - I only have the facsimile, and I don't want to go through the nuisance of transcribing it, so I'm just trying to do facing-page translation. I know i can do it, but it's a bit like riding a bike for the first time without training wheels.

[identity profile] wcg.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 09:53 am (UTC)(link)
Wow! That is one heck of an accomplishment! Congratulations!

I feel sure this will be welcome in SCA dance circles everywhere, and I suspect outside the SCA as well.

[identity profile] jadasc.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 10:09 am (UTC)(link)
Magnificent! I'm quite proud.

[identity profile] cyan-blue.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 10:15 am (UTC)(link)
Awesome!
ext_29896: Lilacs in grandmother's vase on my piano (Default)

[identity profile] glinda-w.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
Wow. Just... wow.

--g, really, REALLY impressed

[identity profile] catalana.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 02:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Very very cool. You might see if Greg Lindahl will put it up on the SCA dance page when you're done...

[identity profile] tafkad.livejournal.com 2004-11-25 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Congratulations! I remember how excited and daunted you were in the early stages. Now you're a real live translator who brought some culture and history to the world. Quick! Learn those dances for your first anniversary party! :-)

[identity profile] jiggliusceasar.livejournal.com 2004-11-26 05:51 am (UTC)(link)
That's pretty cool. Want to post some smarmy poetry for us?

AWESOME!

[identity profile] spectoria.livejournal.com 2004-11-26 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
This is a major accomplishment and I think worthy of some attention!

[identity profile] evcelt.livejournal.com 2004-11-26 09:56 am (UTC)(link)
Congrats! Having completed something similar in the past year, I know what a feeling of accomplishment it can bring you...

[identity profile] janetmiles.livejournal.com 2004-11-26 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm very impressed! Congratulations!

[identity profile] mrlogic.livejournal.com 2004-11-26 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Congratulations!

Is this something that might be of wide enough interest, perhaps, to be published?

[identity profile] vettecat.livejournal.com 2004-11-28 07:15 am (UTC)(link)
Wicked awesome cool! Enjoy the accomplishment, and I hope you get to share the final product with others who would enjoy it.