I translate too!

Rabassa's book (read the post below if you haven't yet) came into my life at a particularly serendipitous moment.

A couple weeks ago, Michael and I were treated to a free screening of the Russian blockbuster Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch) - now at a theatre near you. It's fun, and if you see it, let me know and we can talk about it more.

(By the way, it's based on a trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko, whose novels are available through the LA Public Library, but apparently only in Russian. And there seems to be a new fourth novel, possibly titled "Last Watch.")

But I digress. On New Year's Day, the follow-up, Dnevnoi Dozor (Day Watch - careful of the link, there's a spoiler alert!) opened in Moscow. And the third (Dusk Watch) will be filmed in English, rumor has it. I hope that I am revealing little enough to keep myself and others out of trouble, but Michael and I have come into possession of a copy of this film - sans subtitles - thanks to a friend with a thing for the Watch. My new hobby - and the point of this post: to translate the film for said unnamed friend.

And so many of the things Rabassa writes in his book really echoed my experience, although I am clearly lacking in his talent and facility. In an old issue of the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik wrote that we "breathe in our first language and swim in our second." And yet the gap between Rabassa's fluid stroke and my manic dog paddle is wide indeed.