A Case-Study of Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth:
Translating Portnoy’s Complaint with the aid of analysis
MA Thesis Translation Studies
Author: M. Wouters
Student Number: 3500764
December 2014
Dr. Cees Koster
MA Jan-Jaap Spies
Second Reader: Prof. dr. A.B.M. Naaijkens
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Contents
1. Introduction .........................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................4
1.2 Philip Roth and Portnoy’s Complaint: An Introduction ..................................................................7
2. Style ................................................................................................................................................... 12
2.1Content and Style ......................................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Style: Definition and a Method for Analysis ................................................................................ 16
2.3 Stylistic Analysis: Leech and Short ............................................................................................... 19
2.3.1 Lexical categories ............................................................................................................ 20
2.3.2 Grammatical Categories .................................................................................................. 24
2.3.3 Figures of Speech, etc ...................................................................................................... 26
2.3.4 Context and Cohesion ...................................................................................................... 27
2.4 Style in Translation ...................................................................................................................... 28
3. Judaism.............................................................................................................................................. 32
3.1 Portnoy’s Complaint and Judaism ............................................................................................... 33
3.2 Judaism in Translation ................................................................................................................. 36
4. Culture Specific Items ....................................................................................................................... 40
4.1 Portnoy’s Complaint and Culture Specific Items ..................................................................... 41
5. Coarse Language and Taboos ........................................................................................................... 45
5.1 Portnoy’s Complaint and Taboos............................................................................................. 46
5.2 Taboos in Translation .............................................................................................................. 49
6. Portnoy’s Complaint Translated ....................................................................................................... 52
6.1 Annotated Translation Fragment 1 ......................................................................................... 53
6.2 Annotated Translation Fragment 2 ......................................................................................... 58
6.3 Annotated Translation Fragment 3 ......................................................................................... 62
6.4 Portnoy’s Klacht Compared ..................................................................................................... 67
7. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 72
7.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 73
8. Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................... 76
8.1 Bibliography............................................................................................................................. 77
9. Appendix ........................................................................................................................................... 80
9.1 Source Text Fragment 1 .......................................................................................................... 81
9.2 Source Text Fragment 2 .......................................................................................................... 83
9.3 Source Text Fragment 3 .......................................................................................................... 85
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Section 1: Introduction
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1.1 Introduction
A major issue when it comes to translation is the problem of stylistics. Literary works and their
specific style can, and often do, pose a problem when it comes to translation, as a novel’s specific
stylistic characteristics can be difficult to recreate in a target language. Portnoy’s Complaint, written
by critically acclaimed author Philip Roth, is no exception when it comes to stylistic problems (1969).
Portnoy’s Complaint was published in 1969 and quickly became a number one bestseller in America.
“By 1975, six years after the book’s publication, Portnoy’s Complaint had sold nearly half a million
copies in hardback in the United States, three and a half million in paperback” (Avishai). The novel
launched Roth’s career as a famous writer. “Twice Roth has been awarded the National Book Award
(1960, 1995), the National Book Critics’ Circle Award (1987, 1991), and the PEN/Faulkner Award
(1993, 2000). He is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts (1970), the Pulitzer Prize (1997), and
France’s Medici Foreign Book Prize (2000)” (Parrish, 1). The New York Times Book Review described
Portnoy’s Complaint as “a deliciously funny book, absurd and exuberant, wild and uproarious”
(Portnoy’s Complaint). Most of Roth’s novels have since been translated into Dutch and as a
consequence he has become relatively well known in the Netherlands. In this thesis different aspects
of Portnoy’s Complaint that give rise to specific translation problems will be discussed. The aim of
this thesis is to investigate the following:
“What kind of translation problems can occur when translating Portnoy’s Complaint from
English to Dutch, and what are the desirable approaches and solutions to these problems?”
When translating a text, translators typically apply different strategies in order to create a
translation that will comply with the expectations of the client. Professional translators who translate
literary works usually operate according to a contract, or another agreement, in order to ensure that
the end product adheres to both the stylistic and cultural guidelines the customer has set for the end
product. In the Netherlands literary translators have been provided with a standard contract by the
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Vereniging van Letterkundigen, which functions as a guideline for literary translators when it comes
to their translation activities. One of the most important guidelines included in the contract is the
one concerning style and content: “The translator agrees to deliver a flawless Dutch translation that
is faithful to both the content and the style of the original, and is created using the original work as a
direct source” (My translation). This guideline shows the general view on literary translation in the
Netherlands and the specific emphasis that is placed upon recreating the world of the literary text
(content) and the stylistics of the original novel (style), in order to create an equivalent text that can
function autonomously in the target language.
In sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 close readings of Portnoy’s Complaint will give insight into the
matters of content and style that can cause translation problems. Consequently, each translation
problem discussed will be provided with possible and desirable solutions. In translation studies, an
analysis of the source text that precedes translation is typically recommended in order to further
understanding of the text (Nord 1:2005). Analysis of a text is a useful tool in order to reveal possible
translation problems before the text is translated. Christiane Nord shows efficacy of this approach:
“Translation-oriented text analysis should not only ensure full comprehension and correct
interpretation of the text or explain its linguistic and textual structures and their relationship with the
system and norms of the source language. It should also provide a reliable foundation for each and
every decision which the translator has to make” (Nord 1: 2005). As can be concluded from this,
analysis not only reveals translation problems in a text, but can even be seen as an essential part of
the process of translation. Translation is a decision-making process and to avoid decisions that may
be undesirable full comprehension of the text is needed, which can only be achieved through a
thorough analysis. Solutions for the problems found during such an analysis can be found with the
help of specific translation strategies, which are mentioned by, among others, Holmes, Aixelá and
Grit. These strategies detail possibilities for how a translator can deal with a general or specific
translation issues arising from the cultural, stylistic, or grammatical differences between two
languages and target audiences. The choices a translator makes for resolving a certain problem will in
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turn influence how he or she deals with further issues from the same domain. In cases where
multiple solutions to a problem are possible it is up to the translator to decide which one is most
desirable, according to the terms agreed upon in the contract with the client, or their own
preferences.
The findings in the introductory chapters of sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be followed by the
translation problems found. The problems will be discussed and further expanded upon with
examples from my own annotated translation of three passages from Portnoy’s Complaint that
exemplify the problems highlighted in the introduction of each translation problem. The translated
passages will be preceded by a stylistic analysis in order to faithfully recreate Roth’s style in Dutch. In
section 6, the annotated translation of three passages of Portnoy’s Complaint will follow the sections
that focus on style, content and translation problems. On top of that, a comparison with the existing
Dutch translation will be provided in order to see if, and how, other translators have dealt with these
translation problems. Lastly, a conclusion, summarising the findings and any significant differences
will be included.
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1.2 Portnoy’s Complaint and Philip Roth: An Introduction
Philip Roth is a Jewish-American author and both Judaism and being an American have been of great
influence on his writing. Roth’s protagonists are typically Jewish men living in the U.S.A. and Judaism
is central to their storylines and the plots of his novels. The protagonists typically feel the constraints
and weight of their Jewish heritage as they try to assimilate into an American culture. Even though
Judaism is a dominant theme, Roth’s works have reached a broader audience. In an interview about
Portnoy’s Complaint Philip Roth mentions that he estimates his own audience to be half Jewish and
half non-Jewish:
“I’ve had two audiences, a general audience and a Jewish audience. I have virtually no sense
of my impact upon the general audience, nor do I really know who these people are. (…) Yet
an unknowable audience of 50,000 judicious readers whose serious, silent attention I freely
command is a great satisfaction.”
(Plimpton, Roth 3).
As this quote shows, Philip Roth is more aware of his Jewish readers, but he is also gratified that his
works have garnered a broader appeal. It is perhaps this broader appeal that has resulted in his
novels being translated into various languages, such as Dutch, German, and French, and it may have
played a part in the numerous awards and prices he has won outside of the Jewish community for his
works, such as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
Certain aspects of Roth’s novels can be said to closely resemble his personal life. Similarities
can be found between the author and his protagonists with relation to religion and the place of birth
of most of the protagonists. Philip Roth has confirmed this in an interview: “there is certainly a
personal element in the book” (Plimpton, Roth 10). Judaism, Newark and family are recurring themes
in Roth’s works and he writes in his autobiography that his storytelling is similar to that of his father:
“Narrative is the form that his [My father’s] knowledge takes, and his repertoire has never been
large: family, family, family, Newark, Newark, Newark, Jew, Jew, Jew. Somewhat like mine” (The
Facts, 16). In Portnoy’s Complaint some of the ways the author resembles the protagonist is the date
and place of his birth and the religion he practices, which are respectively: 1933, Newark, and
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Judaism. Judaism is a dominant theme in the novel and Yiddish is frequently used by protagonist
Alexander Portnoy. This actually poses a specific translation problem, which will be discussed in
section 3. Even though Roth said that parts of the novel resemble his personal life, he remains ever
mysterious as to what parts of his novels are fiction and which are essentially autobiographical nonfiction. In the essay ‘revisiting Roth’s Psychoanalysts’, Jeffrey Berman provides evidence that Roth
has been influenced in his writing by his own visits to a psychoanalyst when he wrote Portnoy’s
Complaint. Berman claims that he: “began to suspect, on the basis of reading Portnoy’s Complaint
and My Life as a Man that both novels dealt with Roth’s own psychoanalysis” (95). In his essay,
Berman draws parallels between the fictional Dr. Spielvogel and the real Dr. Kleinschmidt who,
allegedly, was Roth’s psychoanalyst. Berman compared ‘The Angry Act’, written by Kleinschmidt,
with Roth’s novels Portnoy’s Complaint and My Life as a Man and he found many similar statements
in the three works. One of those similarities is the sentence “It soon became clear that the poet’s
central problem here as elsewhere was his castration anxiety vis-à-vis a phallic mother figure” in My
Life as a Man and “It soon became apparent that his main problem was his castration anxiety vis-àvis a phallic mother figure” in ‘The Angry Act’ by Kleinschmidt (Berman, 96). To what extent Roth’s
personal life is incorporated in Portnoy’s Complaint remains unclear, as the author has not disclosed
any detailed information regarding this topic, but the way Roth describes the struggle of being a
Jewish man in America makes the novel come to life in a way that adds to the credibility of aspects of
an autobiographical nature being present. Whether the work is mostly fictional or autobiographical,
Roth has nonetheless created a novel that appears to have attracted attention and praise outside the
Jewish-American culture, even though the struggles he depicts within it are very specifically typical of
Jewish immigrants in America of a certain class and location.
The style in which Roth has written this particular novel is rather unique, when compared to
his other novels. In Roth’s words: “Portnoy’s Complaint is full of dirty words and dirty scenes; my last
novel, When She Was Good, had none” (Plimpton, 7). As a result this novel lends itself especially well
to a study in the field of translation. A typical element that is mentioned frequently when people
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discuss the novel is the language use by Alexander. He spends a good deal of the novel divulging his
deepest secrets and desires to a psychoanalyst, and uses a great deal of coarse language and breaks
several taboos in the process. As a consequence, the novel was perceived as rather obscene by
reviewers: “Portnoy’s Complaint is a stunner: a savage, shocking, wildly funny, and openly obscene
scream of defiance” (Portnoy’s Complaint). Nonetheless, it became a bestseller in America. Roth
himself spent years attempting to perfect Portnoy’s Complaint: “it took seven years and several
experimental narratives, as well as a play, for Roth to devise the final form of Portnoy’s Complaint.”
(Baumgarten, Gottfried 77). The thoughtfulness Roth has put in the novel exemplifies how much
attention the author himself spent on making the novel stylistically sound. It may be said that any
translator hoping to recreate this particular work should strive for an equal degree of thoughtfulness
in order to convey the literary and stylistic effects Roth spent so many years perfecting.
Even though Portnoy’s Complaint contains strong language, cultural specific elements, and a
protagonist who struggles with a religion that only an estimated group of 13.3 million people over
the world identify with, the novel has an appeal for both Jewish and non-Jewish readers and for both
American and non-American readers (Della Pergola). When Portnoy’s Complaint was published, it
was widely criticised by Jewish critics who claimed that Philip Roth was a self-hating Jew, as he
allegedly portrayed protagonist Alexander Portnoy as one (MacGowan 158). Alexander was seen as
confrontational towards his own identity as a Jew and Judaism and his language use if often coarse,
which were often cited as the two main reasons for him being a man who hated himself and his
identity. Alexander shouts that “why not spare us religion, if only in the name of our human dignity!
[...] Religion is the opiate of the people! And if believing that makes me a fourteen-year old
Communist, then that’s what I am, and I’m proud of it! I would rather be a Communist in Russia than
a Jew in a synagogue any day” (52). When asked if Roth thought if there would be Jews who would
be offended by this book, Roth mockingly answered: “I think there will even be Gentiles who will be
offended by this book.” (Plimpton, Roth 8).
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Before the novel officially begins the reader is presented with the definition of a disorder
called ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’:
“Portnoy’s Complaint (Pôrt’-noiz kəm-plɑ̃ nt’) n. [After Alexander Portnoy (1933 )] A
disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with
extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: ‘acts of exhibitionism,
voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the
patient’s “morality,” however, neither fantasy not act issues in genuine sexual gratification,
but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the
form of castration.’ (Spielvogel, O. “The Puzzled Penis,” Vol. XXIV p. 909.) It is believed by
Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the motherchild relationship.”
(Portnoy’s Complaint)
The quote describes Alexander Portnoy’s so-called condition and its consequences. Moreover, it is an
indirect warning of the novel’s sexually explicit nature. Several aspects of the disorder will remind
the reader of psychoanalysis, a term that was coined by the Jewish Dr. Sigmund Freud at the
beginning of the twentieth century that has been of great influence in psychology studies. He
believed that unresolved conflicts could be addressed by triggering the subconscious self of patients
that oppresses certain events that have lead to those conflicts (Erwin 213). In the novel, several
references to the psychoanalytic views of Freud can be found. Examples of this are the dread of
castration – Alexander is continuously afraid that his relationships with non-Jewish women will result
in castration and describes situations where his mother forces him to eat his food by standing over
him with a knife leading to him fearing for the loss of his manhood – and the underlying reason for
the resulting sexual disorder, the mother-child relationship, which in Alexander’s case is a direct
reference to the Oedipus complex. The Oedipus Complex is typically summarised as a phase: “when a
boy, from about two or three years old, enters upon the phallic phase of his libidinal development,
feels pleasurable sensation in his sexual organ and learns to procure these at will by manual
stimulation, he becomes his mother’s lover” (Hollitscher 34). Freud and his psychoanalysis theory are
dominant themes in the novel and are closely connected to the situations where the character
resorts to using coarse language.
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In conclusion, the main characteristics of the novel are Alexander Portnoy’s Jewish
background, being and American, and his struggle with the two that results in the way he speaks,
causing his usage of coarse language. The main translation problems that can be found in the novel
can be connected to these characteristics. Therefore, the next sections will focus on Style, Judaism,
Culture Specific Items and Coarse Language Use. Those four elements will be separately analysed and
discussed with relation to the translation problems they cause.
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Section 2: Style
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2.1 Content and Style
Alexander’s character is given colour by his unique monologue that will be discussed in this chapter
and the reasons why Alexander grew up to be a frustrated man will be given. In the case of Alexander
Portnoy, his frustrations with religion and sexuality exemplify his need to use coarse language as a
way to express himself. He feels oppressed and for the first time he can relieve himself by talking
divulging his deepest secrets and fears. Alexander’s sexual fixations can be explained with the help of
Dr. Sigmund Freud’s theories that will be mentioned in this chapter as well. Character analysis will
provide the translator with insight into the connection between content and style. The findings of the
analysis will provide help during the translator’s decision-making process, since choices will be based
on information about the character and style.
As mentioned in the introduction, Portnoy’s Complaint contains strong language, which is
used as an important stylistic device throughout the novel. The story is set at psychoanalyst Dr.
Spielvogel’s office and Alexander talks to him about his life, from his childhood memories to recent
events. On the second page of the novel Alexander refers to him as ‘Doctor,’ which clarifies the
setting. Alexander speaks directly to Dr. Spielvogel, who only has one line in the novel, the last line:
“So [said the doctor]. Now vee may perhaps to begin. Yes?” (195). After he has ranted about his life
for hours, Spielvogel’s line suggests that Alexander has a long way to go before he is relieved from his
internal conflicts. Alexander addresses Dr. Spielvogel infrequently, thus inviting the reader to take
place in the doctor’s chair and analyse Alexander. This effect is strengthened when he uses ‘you’ to
talk to the Doctor, for example when he says “Disaster, you see, is never far from my mind” (13). This
literary effect is reminiscent of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Pinsker claims with regard to
Portnoy’s Complaint and The Catcher in the Rye that “not since Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye had a
novel been so readable, so ‘right’ for its time and place” (56). However, there is a difference between
Alexander Portnoy and Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye: “If Holden was
the perfect embodiment of the innocent fifties, Alexander Portnoy was a prime candidate to be
celebrated in the sexy sixties” (56).
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Alexander’s mother is partly responsible for the frustrations and obsessions Alexander grows
up with. She tries to control his life, from what he should eat and his hobbies to the college he should
attend. Even as an adult, his mother wants to know if he eats kosher. Alexander tries to explain his
sexual fixations and says: “Doctor, do you understand what I was up against? My wang was all I really
had that I could call my own” (Portnoy’s Complaint 23). Alexander tries to justify his behaviour by
blaming his parents, especially his mother, for being too hard on him. As a result, Alexander often
speaks about his mother during the therapy session: “She was so deeply imbedded in my
consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was
my mother in disguise” (1) is the first line of the novel. Alexander begins with his earliest memories,
but switches between memories in a rapid pace, sometimes even within two sentences. He talks
about his mother and how she taught him how to pee standing up when he was little, which is
followed by the story of him and his ex picking up a prostitute in Rome. The story is also an example
of his mother’s controlling nature. She wants him to pee like a big boy and tickles his testicles, but
instead this results in ejaculation. According to Freud a child goes through different stages in sexual
development: “The development of sexuality is a linear progression moving through the various
pregenital organizations of the libido – the oral, the anal, the phallic, in that order – and culminating
in the genital organization.” (Wollheim 124). When one of those stages is disturbed, it could result in
obsession or fixation. His mother disturbed his phallic development, which might be one of the
indirect events that lead to his sexual fixation on objects and the objectification of women later in
life.
Explaining Alexander’s sexual fixations can be done with the help of the Jewish Dr. Sigmund
Freud and his psychoanalytic theories that are embedded in the novel and play a dominant role.
Understanding Freud’s influence in Portnoy’s Complaint will provide insight in Alexander’s behaviour.
A technique used in psychoanalysis is ‘Free Association.’ Erwin states in The Freud Encyclopedia that
“Freud came to believe that patients were better able to verbalize psycho dynamically relevant
information when (paradoxically) they relaxed their efforts to recall unconscious material directly,
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and simply spoke about whatever thoughts, feelings or ideas happened to enter their mind at the
moment” (213). To achieve Free Association, it was believed that the psychoanalyst should have as
little contact with the patient as possible, as the presence of another person could be a distraction.
The patient would ultimately talk about events that lie deeper in his consciousness and that may
have caused trauma. For this reason, the analyst often remained in the background, as Dr. Spielvogel
does.
Even though Alexander reflects upon his life, it is not a coming of age story. Alexander looks
back at situations with an already developed and fixed view and during this single session he hardly
gains any new insight in his life. Alexander is an intelligent man and he refers to Freud multiple times.
Therefore, it is possible that he is aware of the psychoanalytic techniques Freud used. Alexander
confesses everything he can think of as if he expects this will “cure” him. He forces Free Association
on himself, but it does not give him any new insights, which can be read in the final line of the novel.
Shostak claims “Dr. Spielvogel’s suggestion that the end of Portnoy’s story is the beginning of the real
work of analysis seems to discount Portnoy’s insights and accusations” (83). Alexander believes he
will be blessed with manhood when he breaks free from the nice Jewish boy he pretends to be
towards his parents. Roth, however, tells that “The joke on Portnoy is that for him breaking the
taboo turns out to be as unmanning in the end as honoring it. Some joke” (Roth, Conversations with
Philip Roth 38).
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2.2 Style: Definition and a Method for Analysis
As mentioned in the introduction, style and stylistics (the study of style) are important elements to
be aware of as a translator in order to faithfully translate the source text. In this chapter, the term
style will be exemplified and the necessity of a method to analyse style will be discussed, with regard
to its importance in translation studies.
The quality of a translation partly depends on its readability in the target language and to what
extent it is faithful to the source text. The translation should function in the target language as an
autonomous text. It should be noted that style is a term that is not easily defined. Literary works
have specific styles, which makes every novel unique. In Portnoy’s Complaint, Alexander is the only
speaker and his speaking voice has many different aspects to it that form his idiolect. Style is “what is
unique to a text and it relies on choices, made consciously or unconsciously by the author of the
source- or target-text” (Boase-Beier 73). More concrete, style can be any element in a literary text
that catches the reader’s attention, or does not catch the reader’s attention. On top of that, “for the
linguistics-stylistic domain, the parameters include items such as: grammar, punctuation, syntax,
style, format, register, coherence, cohesion, fluency. Each of those parameters can be subdivided
down to the lowest level of granularity applicable” (Gouadec 271). Short and Leech attempt to define
style and have come up with the following statements:
-
-
Style is a way in which language is used
Therefore style consists in choices made from the repertoire of the language
A style is defined in terms of a domain of language use
Stylistics has typically been concerned with literary language
Literary stylistics is typically concerned with explaining the relation between style and
literary or aesthetic function
Style is relatively transparent or opaque: transparency implies paraphrasability; opacity
implies that a text cannot be adequately paraphrased, and that interpretation of the text
depends greatly on the creative imagination of the reader
Stylistic choice is limited to those aspects of linguistic choice which concern alternative
ways of rendering the same subject matter
(31)
Style is inextricably bound up with language; therefore, the target language can become restrictive
when translating style. Boase-Beier mentions that “translation is closely connected with stylistics
because stylistics aims to explain how a text means rather than just what it means, and knowing how
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texts mean is essential for translation. Stylistics explains the fine detail of a text such as why certain
structures are ambiguous or how a metaphor works” (Boase-Beier 153). As this quote shows, style
and meaning should be analysed to create a translation that is of good quality. Roth spent years to
create a speaking style that is rampant, lively and obscene, and still shows intellect. Consequently, a
translator is a creator of a text and needs to rely on his or her creativity, competencies, and insight to
convey style. It is important for the translator to be aware of different layers in the text in order to
convert not only words and content, but emotion and atmosphere as well. As mentioned in the
introduction, it is often expected of Dutch translators of literary texts to translate according to the
conditions as mentioned in the standard contract for translators of literature, the first condition
being: “The translator agrees to deliver a flawless Dutch translation that is faithful to both the
content and the style of the original, and is created using the original work as a direct source” (My
translation). The aim is to create an autonomous text that functions in the target language and
conveys literary and stylistic effects of the original. It is important to be aware of stylistic devices the
author used in order to prevent the target text from deviating too much from the source text.
In order to conduct a thorough stylistic analysis, a research method is needed. Describing
style and pinpointing what exactly makes a novel unique can be an exhaustive task, as many different
elements need to be taken into account, as well as subtle aspects of the text: “the style of a text also
includes those elements which are neither deviant, nor unusual, nor particularly noticeable, and will
include such things as sentence length, use of passive or active, and so on.” (Boase-Beier 74).
Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short developed an extensive method to analyse style in the form
of a checklist called the “checklist of linguistic and stylistic categories” (61). They came up with an
apparatus that is created to analyse style in literature. The checklist consists of questions and the
answers to those questions should result in a detailed description of style of a particular prose text.
The checklist is divided into four general headings: Lexical categories, Grammatical categories,
Figures of speech, and cohesion and context. It focused on every aspect of prose texts Leech and
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Short could imagine and suffices as a method to analyse style, which will be executed in the next
chapter.
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2.3 Stylistic Analysis: Leech & Short
In this chapter, stylistic analysis of Portnoy’s Complaint will be executed with the help of Leech and
Short. From the previous chapter, it has become clear Alexander’s feeling of oppression has
influenced his speaking style. “Roth demonstrates his mastery of the surface of the comedian’s
patter, representing its flow so effectively that what comes through is not so much the meaning of
particular events as the qualities of Portnoy’s speaking voice” (Baumgarten, Gottfried 78). This
chapter aims to describe Alexander’s speaking voice and what creates his patter. Alexander’s
speaking voice is of great quality that should be preserved and recreated in the target text. It could
be a challenge for translators to recreate this patter. To be better prepared, stylistic analysis is
recommended to provide insight in Alexander’s speaking voice. Overlap may occur between the
general categories. Besides, the number and wide scope of all subcategories also cover stylistic
means that were not used in Portnoy’s Complaint. The Lexical and Grammatical categories are the
lengthier ones compared to Figures of Speech and Cohesion and Content that focus on phonological
schemes such as alliteration, assonance, and on tropes such as violations of the linguistic codes.
Those elements either did not appear in the novel or are discussed in another category.
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2.3.1 Lexical Categories
The issues Alexander has oppressed for decades come out in a stream of consciousness way: he
starts to divulge his deepest secrets and does not stop. Stream of consciousness is “the unbroken
flow of perceptions, memories, thoughts, and feelings in the waking mind” (Abrams, Harpham 345).
Alexander recollects memories and switches between them at a rapid pace. He is the only narrator
and speaks in first person. He talks about situations that are both embarrassing and ironic at times,
as well as important learning moments. For example, he talks about the time he masturbated while
his mother speaks to him from the other side of the bathroom door. Usually “characters talk to
themselves to learn who they are, what they think, what multiple positions they occupy, and how
they are trapped in their own self-consciousness” (Shostak 3). However, Alexander does not talk to
himself, but to an audience, whether that audience is Dr. Spielvogel or actually the reader, we get to
learn who he is. A setting as in Portnoy’s Complaint with a psychoanalyst and his patient enables the
protagonist to be brutally honest. This resulted in obscene and humiliating passages, often
generating feelings of shame and embarrassment in its readers. They are stories that in any other
setting would never be told, as they are Alexander’s sexual desires and deepest secrets, most of
which are viewed upon as taboos since societal norms commonly restrict conversations about
masturbation and what inanimate objects are used during masturbation such as milk bottles, cored
apples or even pieces of liver. We hear all Alexander’s troubles and honest opinions that give this
book its vulgar, yet sincere, character.
A remarkable aspect about Alexander’s speech is that his vocabulary switches from
sophisticated to coarse language, or to language that is a combination of the two. An example of the
articulate Alexander who talks about masturbation is the following sentence: “Through a world of
matted handkerchiefs and crumpled Kleenex and stained pajamas, I moved my raw and swollen
penis, perpetually in dread that my loathsomeness would be discovered by someone stalling upon
me just as I was in the frenzy of dropping my load” (12). Even though Alexander talks about the
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taboo subject masturbation, the sentence sounds somewhat poetical. Alexander talks freely about
masturbation and uses a wide range of synonyms to describe genitalia. A quick glance on a few pages
may give a gist of the synonyms that are used: The silky monster, cock, putz, prick (90), shvantz (93),
cunt (90), snatch, twat (91), and pussy (93). Most of those synonyms are used multiple times on
those four pages. Eloquence can be found in Alexander’s speech as well: “earlier even than the era of
the cavemen and lake dwellers that I have studied in school, a time when above the oozing bog that
was the earth, swirling white gasses choked out the sunlight, and aeons passed while the planet was
drained for Man” (34). However, this eloquence is interrupted by coarse language in the sentence
that follows: “I lose touch instantaneously with that ass-licking little boy who runs home after school
with his A’s in his hand, the little over-earnest innocent endlessly in search of the key to the
unfathomable mystery, his mother’s approbation” (34). The events he recalls are often combined
with the emotions that went along the experience. He talks about his social life, his parents and
sister, his childhood friends, and his relationships with gentile women. The culture specific items
mostly refer to American brands or Jewish tradition, and will be discussed later in this thesis.
Notable is the frequent use of Yiddish throughout the novel. Alexander uses Yiddish words as
if they were English and this does not slow down the pace of his speech. He does not stop his train of
thought in order to find the right English term. Yiddish is frequently used in Alexander’s Jewish
surroundings and it does not interfere with his use of English grammar – which is flawless. While
using Yiddish, he mostly uses nouns. Occasionally, he uses English suffixes to force Yiddish words to
adhere to English grammar rules. For example, Alexander asks himself “is this what this screaming
and shrying is all about” (61). He conjugated the Yiddish verb according to the English language by
adding the suffix –ing, as is done in English, to conjugate the stem of the verb, shry, into a
continuous. Alexander’s English grammar is flawless and his word choices show he is a well-educated
man, but Alexander’s Jewish heritage is important for the character and is strengthened through his
speech. It functions as a constant reminder of his Jewish background. Occasionally, Alexander’s
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speech becomes informal to such an extent his American accent can be heard. He would, for
example, say ain’t instead of isn’t. However, this rarely happens.
Adjectives are not frequently used: the novel lacks an omniscient narrator and surroundings
are mostly left aside. Alexander hardly ever describes his surroundings, which is why the reader does
not know whether Alex lies on a sofa or sits on a chair at the psychoanalyst’s office. In addition, the
reader hardly receives information about Alexander’s house. It is likely that Alexander does not want
to focus on information he believes has had no valuable influence on him as he grew up. Adjectives
seem carefully chosen by Roth and there are no dry enumerations. However, when Alexander does
use adjectives it is mostly when he is angry: “What kind of shit-eating remark is that supposed to be!
Are you another heartless bastard too?” (113). He expresses his emotions and strengthens the image
by using adjectives, which are often coarse.
When Alexander is talking to Dr. Spielvogel he uses stative verbs, but Dr. Spielvogel is
addressed infrequently and only for short moments. Sometimes Alexander recalls memories as if he
experiences them again, which is why he often speaks in present tense even though Alexander is
talking about his past: “Okay, I say, if that’s how you feel! (For I have the taste for melodrama too – I
am not in this family for nothing.) I don’t need a bag of lunch!” (9). However, past tense is more
frequently used in his memories: “She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first
year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise”
(Portnoy’s Complaint 1). When Alexander uses future tense, it is to show that the events still trouble
him as an adult. At such moments, he uses future tense to clarify that he is still troubled by the
events and the effects, as the following fragment shows: “the key to what determined my character,
what causes me to be living in this predicament” (94).
Alexander shares stories he expects should reveal why he is troubled and unable to find the
right woman, or why he does not live up to the expectations of his parents. Most of the verbs refer to
movements, physical speech acts and activities. The verbs are used to refer to Alexander himself and
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therefore are intransitive (I stood, so I could see, I was, I got), which show Alexander’s self-centred
character and his dominance.
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2.3.2 Grammatical Categories
The second category of the Leech & Short checklist is grammar, which focuses on complexity,
structure, type of sentences, clauses, and phrases.
Sentence length is a literary device to create Alexander’s individual patter: he switches
between lengthy and short sentences. At times he thinks about what he is going to say next and at
other times it seems he is not able to stop talking. On the first page of the first fragment that has
been translated for this thesis, the average sentence length is 41 words with the longest sentence
being 77 words and the shortest 18. The second page of the fragment is differently arranged with an
average sentence length of 18 words, which is considerably less than on the first page. Some
sentences cover almost entire paragraphs and short sentences are often as little as two words, which
results in fragmented speech. However, when his enthusiasm or frustration grows his sentences
become longer and they are often interrupted by dashes. Short sentences are mostly used when
Alexander interrupts his own train of thought. Words that are stressed are usually preceded by the
same, unstressed, word: “Cancer. I had given myself Cancer.” At times, short sentences are more
frequently used, but that only happens when Alexander reaches the point where he becomes so
frustrated that he utters a few words that are close to the bone. Those sentences often end in an
exclamation mark. When Alexander becomes enraged he starts to shout. This is stylistically carried
out with the help of capitals and italics (typography): “BECAUSE YOU FUCKING JEWISH MOTHERS ARE
JUST TOO FUCKING MUCH TO BEAR! [...] this big smothering bird beating frantic wings about my face
and mouth so that I cannot even get my breath. What do we want, me and Ronald and Leonardo? To
be left alone!” (86). Roth switches between sentence length and he uses parataxis, sentences
without subordinating conjunctions, to make Alexander’s speech lively and diverse. He also begins
sentences with coordinating conjunctions such as ‘And’ or ‘But’ to recreate informal and natural
speech patterns, even though this is grammatically incorrect, since coordinating conjunctions follow
or elaborate on previous statements and should be placed in the same sentence as the statement.
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Slightly longer sentences are often interrupted with a dash, which shows Alexander speaks freely and
to sometimes to indicate he switches between memories. Consequently, Alexander’s stops speaking
in the middle of sentences, comments on another topic, and picks up where he left. When Alexander
rants, he only stops to catch his breath or to change the subject. Every now and then Alexander asks
questions to Dr. Spielvogel who is not given the opportunity to respond, as Alexander answers the
questions himself. Alexander is a dominant speaker and the questions he asks are rhetorical, thus
eliminating the need for an answer by Dr. Spielvogel – or the reader. Alexander tries to discover what
events caused him to be the troubled man he is today. Clauses where explanatory words are
embedded are often used in that context. Words as what, why and where function as explanatory
words. He tries to figure out how a certain event could have affected him: “this may well be the piece
of information we’ve been waiting for, the key to what determined my character, what causes me to
be living in this predicament.” The infinitive clauses indicate that Alexander is talking about a
moment in his life that has forged his character, therefore he speaks in both past tense and in future
tense: “the key to what determined my character, what causes me to be living in this predicament”
(94) as mentioned in the previous chapter.
A notable element visible in Alexander’s speech is the objectification of women. He hardly
ever uses the real names of his exes. Instead, he gives them nicknames that he mostly uses
mockingly during the therapy session. Most women Alexander talks about are non-Jewish, except for
his mother and sister. He has used his non-Jewish girlfriends to fulfil his sexual desires, but his
intellectual desires remained unfulfilled with these women. An example of the objectification of a
non-Jewish woman is when he is telling the story of a shikse – Yiddish for non-Jewish, or gentile, used
mockingly – who came over for dinner: “I do recall one that my father brought home,” in which one
refers to a shikse. What is even more striking is that Alexander refers to the piece of liver he used as
a masturbatory object as she. He monitors himself and quickly corrects his mistake and refers to the
liver as it, which directs even more attention to the fact that he used a personal pronoun to refer to
an object (94).
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2.3.3 Figures of Speech, etc.
The third category, figures of speech, focuses on remarkable use of grammar and lexicon,
phonological schemes and tropes. Many notable elements of Portnoy’s Complaint have already been
discussed in the previous chapters. For example the use of Yiddish and personifying objects. This
chapter will elaborate on remaining remarkable elements.
An important aspect of Alexander’s unique speaking style is his ability to use endless
synonyms for masturbation and genitalia. The various synonyms for masturbation can be found
throughout Portnoy’s Complaint. A few examples in six connected sentences are: “firing my wad,”
“splat,” “flying fist,” “a world of matted handkerchiefs and crumpled Kleenex and stained pajamas,”
“moved my raw and swollen penis,” “the frenzy of dropping my load,” “keeping my paws from my
dong once it started the climb,” “beat off standing up,” “squirting my seed,” and “fall upon the orifice
of the fruit” (11). Repetition on word level also happens when Alexander interrupts himself with a
train of thought whilst talking: “My father . . . and a shikse? Can’t be. Was beyond his ken. My own
father – fucked shikses? I’ll admit under duress that he fucked my mother . . . but shikses?” (59). The
word shikses is stressed and it is continuously used mockingly by Alexander and his family. Repetition
also occurs through a nickname that is frequently used by Alexander’s parents and by himself when
he is older: Big Boy. When Alexander is little the nickname Big Boy is used to show affection, but
when he grows older his parents use it to belittle him. Big Boy alliterates on the first letters and they
are one-syllable words, thus a nickname that is easy to pronounce.
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2.3.4 Context and Cohesion
Content has been discussed during literary analysis and in this sub-chapter, outcomes of previous
analyses will be briefly mentioned and their interrelation will be discussed.
Two important themes that are incorporated in the novel are Judaism and Americanism and
the struggle between the two. Alexander feels suffocated by his Jewish parents and as a result he
struggles between the choice to break free from Judaism or to embrace it. As the chapter of Freud
showed, Alexander expresses himself sexually, because different events in his childhood and
adolescence resulted in internal conflicts and fixation. He feels guilty that he does not live up to the
expectations of his parents and for his relationships with shikses. Alexander is the centre of his
mother’s attention, which can be felt throughout his monologue: he is a dominant and self-centred
speaker. He addresses the doctor and asks questions, but he does not expect answers to be provided
by the doctor and through never-ending monologues he tries to answer the questions himself.
Alexander’s endless monologue does not become monotone, as his speech is lively and he varies
between different uses of language. When Alexander recalls childhood stories, he often portrays his
parents as caricatures: they are always too concerned, too intrusive, too naïve. It is likely that
Alexander adapted the stories to argue that his behaviour is justified or that he is a victim.
Consequently, he gains no new insight during his first therapy session.
The setting of the novel enables Alexander to talk freely about his life. Alexander is frustrated
to such an extent that he expresses himself through coarse language. Alexander is brutally honest
and he often describes obscene acts. When Alexander switches between subjects, it may seem that
the connections he makes are illogical. However, with knowledge of psychoanalysis it can be
explained: the sub consciousness of Alexander links different events together. All events that
Alexander describes have played dominant roles in his character formation and as a result he feels he
needs professional help to overcome his internal conflicts.
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2.4 Style in Translation
In the previous stylistic analysis the most important aspects of style were discussed. The role style
plays in the translation process will be discussed in this chapter, with the exception of the use of
Yiddish and coarse language, which will be tackled in separate sections. In order to be faithful to the
style of source text, translation strategies are recommended. The style in Portnoy’s Complaint is both
coarse and intellectual, which is an interesting and challenging combination to translate. In this
chapter, the translation of style will be discussed.
Alexander’s patter changes from rants to signs of intellectualism. Sometimes Alexander
shouts and screams about his life, and at other times he conveys his message calmly. As a result his
sentence length, register and pace vary. He shows creativity when he talks by using many different
metaphors and synonyms for masturbation and genitalia. The translator will often have several
options when translating the differences in register to convey the literary effect. He or she will have
to choose the most desirable option to recreate the stylistic effects of the original. When translating
this text, decisions need to be made as to which synonym conveys the same tone as the original
term. For example, if Alexander would talk about his private parts, translating that with lul would not
have the same effect on the reader, as lul is commonly used to offend people and viewed upon as a
more coarse word in Dutch than private parts is in English. Translation is a decision-making process
and there are often various options in a target language to translate specific words or sentences from
the source text. In these cases, the translator should choose an option that would suit the guidelines
of the contract or his or her own preferences, and is based on stylistic analysis. Portnoy’s Complaint
is often obscene, and taboo subjects are mentioned by Alexander as if he is talking about the
weather. However, critics raved over Portnoy’s Complaint as well. The translator needs to find the
perfect means to recreate the thoughtfulness Roth has put in the character in order to avoid
Alexander coming across as more or less obscene or intelligent than he is in the original. It also
happens that sentences start with but or and, because Alexander is constantly talking, and spoken
language is different from written language. When spoken language is recreated through writing, it
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happens that sentences start with conjunctions. With this knowledge, the same strategy can be used
in the translation to show Alexander’s lively speech. The longer sentences consist of subordinate
clauses, which could create difficulties when translating this novel into Dutch; not only because
Dutch sentence structure is different from English sentence structure, but mostly because long
sentences can become complicated or even incomprehensible when not carefully translated.
References may be wrong or ambiguous, and subordinate clauses may need to be moved to the end
of the sentence to augment readability. The aim is to “deliver a flawless Dutch translation that is
faithful to both the content and the style of the original, and is created using the original work as a
direct source.” The target text should be an autonomous text in the target language as well, and a
linguistic tool to achieve a lively patter and endless rants is the use of pragmatic particles. “Pragmatic
particles indicate various types of non-propositional, modal information” (Iwasaki, Ingkaphirom 187).
They appear more in Dutch language than in English language. A natural flow of speech can be
achieved in Dutch with the help of those particles. The translator could add them to increase natural
flow and reading speed of a text and to make the target text have a more authentic feel to it; as if the
original language is Dutch instead of English. Different tenses and their function were discussed in
the previous chapter. The translator should be aware of different tenses that were used and remain
faithful to the source text. The text world of the original could shift in a translation when the correct
cause and effect are not carefully conveyed. If the continuous in the sentence “the key to what
determined my character, what causes me to be living in this predicament” (94) has a different tense
in the translation, the effect of Alexander’s point he wants to prove may be not as strong as in the
source text. However, Dutch language can be restrictive when translating –ing forms (present
continuous), since Dutch lacks that specific verb form. However, different tools can be used to ensure
the reader is presented the same information about cause and effect. Pragmatic particles can be
used, for example Dutch variants of still or nowadays.
Other stylistic elements are punctuation and typography. Punctuation and typography are
important, because they strengthen Alexander’s speech. Words are, for example, stressed with the
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help of italics or capitals. Roth uses dashes occasionally to show that Alexander switches between
topics within sentences. The liveliness of Alexander’s speech is determined by the role punctuation
and typography play. It is important to know what their effect is in the text world of the original.
Usually, stress is marked with the help of acute or grave accents in Dutch writing. However, many
fragments in Portnoy’s Complaint entail multiple stressed words within a few sentences. I chose to
copy stress as Roth put stress in the original: with italics and capitals. I did this, because the
multitude of accents created a cluttered-looking text.
Alexander Portnoy speaks to the Doctor who has a passive role. Consequently, it seems as it
Alexander is addressing the reader. When he addresses Dr. Spielvogel, for example in the sentence
“Disaster, you see, is never far from my mind” (Portnoy’s Complaint 13), he could choose to use the
formal Doctor (as he sometimes does) or perhaps even sir. The subjects Alexander talks about are
informal: he talks about his personal life and his sexual needs. This leaves the translator with the
choice to use either an informal form of address, or a formal one. You can be used for both in English,
but in Dutch there are two different translations: u or jij/je. The fact Dr. Spielvogel is a psychoanalyst
and certified Doctor would suggest a formal form of address is desirable, but the subjects that are
discussed and the way it often seems as if Alexander has a light-hearted chat suggest that the
informal form of address is preferred. It is important to note the addressee remains the same
throughout the novel, therefore consistency is necessary. A different approach is needed when
Alexander recalls a memory. The relationship Alexander has with his parents, sister, and friends are
important to help determine whether a formal or informal form of address is desirable. The way
Alexander shouts at his parents as a teenager suggest an informal form should be used. Alexander is
often disrespectful towards his parents and a well-mannered, formal form of address would not
match those situations. The most difficult decision remained how Dr. Spielvogel should be addressed.
Eventually, I chose to use the informal jij/je, because I wanted to close the distance between the
reader and Alexander. Even though he speaks to the Doctor, it often feels as if he addresses the
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reader: he talks to an audience. Informal topics such as masturbation suggest that Alexander does
not feel the necessity to conform to social norms in front of Dr. Spielvogel.
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Section 3: Judaism
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3.1 Portnoy’s Complaint and Judaism
In this chapter the importance and literary effect of Judaism will be discussed. It is clear that Judaism
is part of Alexander’s character, as Yiddish is often used. On the second page, Alexander uses Yiddish
words such as “bonditt” and “goy” and he is being compared to the Jewish Albert Einstein. The
dominant role Judaism plays gives the novel its culture specific character, which a translator has to
take into consideration. How Judaism is incorporated in the novel will be discussed in this chapter
and its consequences for a translator will be discussed in the following chapter.
Judaism largely functions as a comic effect in Portnoy’s Complaint. His parents are hysterical
and naïve. Whenever Alexander or his father complains about physical pain, they assume they have
some chronic illness. This hysteria about illnesses resulted in Alexander’s fear of cancer to punish him
for his ‘sins.’ Alexander believed excessive masturbation caused cancer in his penis. The Jewish Ruth
Wisse published a book on Jewish humour and he cites a joke that, according to him, portrays the
stereotypical Jew:
Four Europeans go hiking together and get terribly lost.
First they run out of food, then out of water.
“I’m so thirsty,” says the Englishman. “I must have tea!”
“I’m so thirsty,” says the Frenchman. “I must have wine.”
“I’m so thirsty,” says the German. “I must have beer.”
“I’m so thirsty,” says the Jew. “I must have diabetes.”
(1)
Only the Jewish man assumes he must have an illness, the others draw the logical conclusion that
they are thirsty because they ran out of water. Jews are often portrayed as paranoid and neurotic,
or, as Alexander claims: hysterical. Comedy and Judaism are combined and strengthen each other.
Alexander resents his religion, as mentioned in the introduction, but he continues to struggle with
Judaism. Many Jewish readers were shocked how Roth portrayed a Jewish protagonist and called
both Roth and Portnoy “self-hating Jews.” MacGowan writes that “The stories in the book that had
earlier received serial publication had already been denounced by some influential rabbis as the work
of a ‘self-hating Jew.’ The charge was renewed with the appearance of the book, and marked the
beginning of many accusations, particularly in response to books published in the early part of Roth’s
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career, that he was anti-Semitic in his portrayal of Jewish characters and culture.” When Portnoy’s
Complaint was published it “brought further condemnation from the synagogues” (158). The reader
is constantly reminded of Judaism, as Alexander uses Yiddish frequently. For the non-Jewish reader,
context could clarify what is meant. Specific Jewish tradition and delicacies may be new information
to a non-Jewish reader. Alexander mostly uses Yiddish when he recalls childhood memories, since his
family and friends (who lived in a Jewish neighbourhood) all used Yiddish. Consequently, he tends to
use more Yiddish when he talks about his childhood memories than when he talks about his nonJewish exes.
Alexander is aware of Anti-Semitism and feels the constant threats, which greatly influences
him. Alexander is the oldest and only son of his Jewish parents who have set high expectations for
him, but Alexander feels as if his life is a Jewish joke and he sees Jewish traits as negative traits,
which becomes apparent in the following citation that reveals Alexander’s thoughts on Judaism:
Doctor Spielvogel, this is my life, my only life, and I’m living it in the middle of a Jewish joke. I
am the son in the Jewish joke – only it ain’t no joke! Please, who crippled us like this? Who
made us so morbid and hysterical and weak? (…) Doctor, what do you call this sickness I
have? Is this the Jewish suffering I used to hear so much about? Is this what has come down
to me from the pogroms and the persecution? from the mockery and abuse bestowed by the
goyim over these two thousand lovely years? Oh my secrets, my shame, my palpitations, my
flushes, my sweats! The way I respond to the simple vicissitudes of human life! Doctor (…)
bless me with manhood! Make me brave (…) enough being a nice Jewish boy”
(Portnoy’s Complaint 25)
Alexander does not identify himself as a stereotypical Jew who, according to him, is morbid,
hysterical and weak. Centuries of persecution has resulted in a collective suffering amongst Jewish
people. Alexander does not want to inherit this collective heritage and instead wants to break free
from Jewish oppression. He wants to break free from Judaism, and his parents who belittle him and
cross his personal development. Instead, it is expected of Alexander to conform to his parents’ plans
for him, but Alexander does not entirely live up to those expectations. He does become a lawyer, but
fails to find a Jewish wife. Instead he dates non-Jewish women, who are referred to as shikses or
gentile women.
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Alexander struggles between the acceptance and resentment of his Jewish heritage.
Alexander refers to himself as an atheist and believes that being and American and being Jewish
cannot be combined. Alexander feels that he is “living in the middle of a Jewish joke!” (Portnoy’s
Complaint, 25). It is impossible to deny that Judaism greatly influences his life.
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3.2 Judaism in Translation
It has been mentioned various times that Judaism is a dominant theme in Portnoy’s Complaint. As a
consequence, Judaism and Yiddish can become very specific translation problems. Judaism and
Yiddish in translation will be discussed in this chapter and will be preceded by a short discussion on
Yiddish as it appears in English and Dutch. Throughout the novel, Yiddish is a frequently used means
to express Alexander’s Jewish identity through his speech. It is an important aspect of his character
and functions as a constant reminder of Alexander’s Jewish background. For this reason, the use of
Yiddish is unmistakably important for the text world that Roth created and should be preserved in
the translation.
Yiddish is a dialect spoken by Jews and mostly exists in Middle and Eastern Europe. It is a
mixture of Hebrew, German, and entails Slavic elements. When Jews immigrated to the United
States, they used Yiddish and Hebrew to communicate with one another in Jewish neighbourhoods.
The source language of Portnoy’s Complaint is mostly English and the target language of the
translation is mostly Dutch. However, when Alexander uses Yiddish, the source language/dialect
becomes Yiddish. As a consequence, the target language/dialect should become Yiddish as well in
order to remain faithful to the stylistic shift in language that is connected to the religion of the
protagonist. Even though both dialects are referred to as Yiddish, the use of Yiddish in America is
different from the use of Yiddish in the Netherlands. Similarities exist between the two, because the
origin of the language is the same. However, Yiddish used in the Jewish neighbourhoods of the
United States consequently developed differently than Yiddish in Europe. Over the course of the
years an American version of Yiddish started to develop that differs from Yiddish in Europe. Besides,
Yiddish is not commonly used in the Netherlands. It is used as it is in America: within certain circles of
Jewish communities that are mostly small communities. On top of that, the Dutch community is even
smaller than the American community. Not much elaborate information can be found about Yiddish
influence on the Dutch language, but one of the books that does is Jofel Jiddisj by Marissa van der
Valk. The book comments on and exemplifies the etymological influence of Yiddish in the Dutch
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language. Van der Valk tries to refute stereotypical views of Jews in the Netherlands and says Yiddish
was not just used by thieves and rascals, but has had various influences on the Dutch language. For
example, words that are used every day that originate from Yiddish are schorriemorrie, mesjogge and
gozer. Another source of information about Yiddish in the Dutch language is the dictionary Koosjer
Nederlands. In the dictionary, compiled in 1954, it is claimed that the best sources of Yiddish in Dutch
come from the years 1905-1935. After that period, not much information has appeared about the
use of Yiddish in the Netherlands and no other dictionary has been compiled, but Koosjer Nederlands
is published again every other five years. These books can be a source of information if the
competency of Yiddish of the translator is inadequate.
In order to translate Yiddish words, it is required to know their definitions in English, since
equivalence can only be achieved when meaning is conveyed. When the definitions are determined it
is time to go in search for a translation. In an ideal situation, a Yiddish word would exist in both
English-Yiddish and Dutch-Yiddish. However, not much information is available about the few
speakers of Yiddish in the Netherlands and this may cause translation problems. As mentioned in the
stylistic analysis, most Yiddish words Alexander uses are proper and concrete nouns that do not need
conjugation and should be easily translated with the help of a dictionary, if such a sufficient
dictionary would exist. The words that can be conjugated should be conjugated according to Dutch
grammar rules. The most challenging aspect of translating Yiddish terms was finding the correct
Yiddish Dutch terms. I was able to find the definition of Yiddish words that are used in Portnoy’s
Complaint, but most of the time I was unable to find their translations. The online dictionary of Van
Dale gives translations or definitions of some Yiddish words, but it is not always deciding. For
example the word shkotzim, which has an entry in the online Van Dale, only has a description and
not a translation. Consequently, the Van Dale is not a satisfactory tool to translate Yiddish terms. Not
many books or dictionaries have been written on Yiddish and the most elaborate one is Koosjer
Nederlands: Joodse woorden in de Nederlandse Taal compiled by Justus van de Kamp and Jacob van
der Wijk. However, this dictionary is only Yiddish-Dutch, therefore cannot be used to search for the
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definition and translation of a Dutch word. Luckily, some words are similar and were easily found,
even though the dictionary is Yiddish-Dutch. For example kosher, which is koosjer in Dutch. Besides,
Alexander only uses Yiddish words: he does not use complete sentences in Yiddish, which would
make the translation of Portnoy’s Complaint more difficult, since it would require the translator to
develop competency of Yiddish grammar. On top of that, it is important to be aware of spelling. The
word goy that can be spelled as goj or gooj in Dutch. For various Yiddish words, different forms of
spelling are acceptable. The translator should choose one form of spelling and stay consistent
throughout the novel.
It does occur that Alexander conjugates verbs according to English grammar by adding a
suffix as is done in English. For example, shtupping, of which shtup is the stem and –ing was added to
create a continuous. In Dutch, the translator should conjugate the verbs according to Dutch verb
conjugation to create a similar stylistic effect. In Dutch, Yiddish words are differently spelled or
simply do not have a registered Dutch-Yiddish equivalent. It proved to be quite an exhaustive task to
find a Yiddish word for sexual intercourse in Dutch to serve as a translation for shtupping. It should
be noted that Alexander uses more Yiddish when talking about his parents and his childhood, or
when he is angry. The use of shtupping is carefully chosen by Roth for Alexander to use, because not
only does he use Yiddish often in that passage, he stresses shtupping, he conjugates it and he repeats
it several times.
Yiddish is used to stress Alexander’s Jewish background, but not every passage lends itself to
the use of Yiddish. As was revealed during analysis, Alexander is more likely to use Yiddish when he
talks about his childhood and his parents. He used Yiddish in conversations with his friends and
family, therefore Yiddish is more close to mind when he talks about those times. Even though not
every reader understands Yiddish, Roth has implemented Yiddish in such a way that context suggests
what is meant. In the Netherlands, Yiddish seems to have influenced the Dutch language to such an
extent that Dutch people would not realise Yiddish is being used. Yiddish has German influences,
which is closer to Dutch than it is to English. For example bandiet, which is a translation of bonditt.
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Both terms originate from Yiddish, but it has a stronger exoticising effect in English than it has in
Dutch, since bandiet is used in everyday Dutch. The literary effect is less apparent in Dutch than it is
in English. The translator could choose to insert a few more Yiddish terms in the target text, to
recreate the text world of the original. This can be done with the help of Yiddish words that have
found its way in everyday speech, but are still reminiscent of its Yiddish origins. For example
mesjogge, schlemiel, or schorriemorrie. If no direct translation can be found for English-Yiddish, the
translator could choose to use appropriate Yiddish words in the translation, keeping in mind that
some passages lend themselves to adding Yiddish and some do not. Another approach is to use
another Yiddish word as a translation for an English word, if no Dutch-Yiddish equivalent can be
found. An example from my annotated translation is when Alexander’s father claims that Anne
dresses in shmattas. Shmattas are rags; pieces of cloth. I could not find a direct translation of
shmattas, but instead of translating it to the Dutch vodden, which conveys meaning but not style; I
preserved the use of Yiddish in the translation. As a solution, I used the adjective sjofel, which is
Yiddish. The translation is now “en haar kleding ziet er sjofel uit.” When Alexander speaks about his
father, his father often uses Yiddish. It was more important to convey the same effect than to
translate shmattas into any Dutch word. This was done to recreate the text world and literary effect
of the original.
Yiddish is unmistakably important in Portnoy’s Complaint, but proved to be difficult to
translate. The most important cause is that Yiddish is not a commonly used dialect in the
Netherlands. To convey Yiddish aspects of the original, the translator can use his or her knowledge of
words that originate from Yiddish and incorporate them into the target text. If that knowledge is
insufficient, different tools can be used to gather information about Yiddish.
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Section 4: Culture Specific Items
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4.1 Culture Specific Items and Portnoy’s Complaint
Throughout the history of translation, expectations were raised for translators that changed over the
course of the centuries. A more recent development in translation studies with regard to target
audience can be explained with the help of Holmes’ description of the naturalising and exoticising
strategies. In short, naturalising means that the translator omits, replaces or explains culture specific
items from the original. Exoticising means the opposite: culture specific items are preserved in the
source text, although the reader may not be familiar with the items. To preserve culture specific
items might have a negative effect on readability, which is the main reason translators would choose
to adapt them. Before the 1980’s, translators would more often choose naturalising strategies when
translating novels from English to Dutch. However, from the 1980’s a cultural turn was visible: “it
placed equivalence within a target-oriented framework concerned first and foremost with aspects
of target cultures rather than with linguistic elements of source texts”(Leal 43). Instead of bringing
the text towards the reader, the reader is now brought closer towards the text. A general view upon
exoticising is that the reader will learn about items he or she is not familiar with; to show the reader
different cultures. However, whether a text should be naturalised or exoticised often depends on the
wishes of the employer and the target audience.
Translations enable people to discover a world that is different from the cultures and
countries they grew up in, even though they do not speak the language. The language is brought
closer to the target audience, but the question remains whether culture specific items (CSI) should be
brought closer to the reader by translating or adapting them, or that the reader should be brought
closer to the culture by preserving culture specific items. Although no general consensus is achieved
about translating culture specific elements from English to Dutch because every text is unique, this
chapter will aim to describe possible solutions to handle culture specific elements in the specific case
of Portnoy’s Complaint consequently. Firstly, a definition of culture specific items will be given.
Secondly, the reason culture specific items are viewed upon as translation problems will be
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discussed. Lastly, desirable solutions for translating culture specific items into Dutch will be discussed
with examples from Portnoy’s Complaint.
Culture specific items are discussed by Aixelá in his article ‘Culture-Specific Items in
Translation.’ Translating those items have long been the centre of discussion in the field of
translation. Culture specific items are words, phrases or other forms of expression that are bound to
a specific language and culture. From wordplay to brands to expressions and everything in between.
Aixelá says that “there is a common tendency to identify CSI with those items especially linked to the
most arbitrary area of each linguistic system – its local institutions, streets, historical figures, place
names, personal names, periodicals, works of art, etc – which will normally present a translation
problem in other languages” (Aixelá 57). CSI pose translation problems when they do not exist in the
target language. The items function as a stylistic means, for example to make the speech of a
character idiomatic or to hint that the story is set in a certain country or culture. The author uses
idiomatic expressions, rhyme or refers to local products to create a world that can be recognised by
the reader, thus creating a common ground between the reader and the text. The main purpose of
translating a literary text is to enable people to read stories created outside their language and
culture. The translator recreates the text world of the original in another language: equivalence is a
key element when translating literary texts. For Portnoy’s Complaint it is established in the previous
chapters that equivalence should be achieved by staying true to the source text. However, familiarity
is what is achieved by culture specific elements, but preserving those elements would result in
estranging the reader from the text, as those elements are often new to the reader. “[E]ither the
translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him, or he
leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him” (Lefevere 74).
Not many translation problems are as universal as translating culture specific elements and
expressions, Diederik Grit writes in his article ‘De vertaling van realia’ (Grit, 189). CSI that are used in
Portnoy’s Complaint are references to American or Jewish culture. They function as references to the
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ethnic background of Alexander Portnoy. Alexander struggles between Judaism and Americanism
which is an important theme in the novel and the translator should bear that in mind.
Throughout the history of translations, opinions have varied on what to do with culture
specific items in translation. A translator can use different strategies to deal with CSI, the most
common strategies described are to preserve them, to preserve them but provide an explanation,
omit them or replace them with an equivalent term from the target culture. When translating literary
texts from English to Dutch, translators are commonly required to stay true to style and content.
Therefore, Culture Specific Items are often preserved as changing them would alter the geographical
setting of a text1 and in Portnoy’s Complaint, Americanism and Judaism are important themes that
should be preserved in translation in order to adequately convey content.
For my translation of Portnoy’s Complaint, I preserved the Cultural Specific Items to produce
a translation that stays true to the atmosphere of the novel. The Jewish elements are connected to
the character Alexander and omitting this would alter the text world to such an extent that the
literary effect of the original would disappear. Its effect is the struggle of a Jewish boy to become a
Jewish man. Cultural references are part of the atmosphere of a novel and are specifically chosen by
the author and changing them would create a different text-world from the original. However, when
many Cultural Specific Items were used in only a few sentences, I chose a different strategy to
decrease the exoticising effect. For example, when Alexander talks his first year in High School: the
American school system is different from the Dutch school system. If I would use a naturalising
strategy and change high school to middelbare school, I would change the entire American school
system. However, a Dutch sentence that is as follows is not desirable in Dutch with regard to
idiomatic language use: ‘Aan het eind van mijn eerste jaar aan high school’. What I want to achieve is
to preserve the American and Jewish references, but to avoid sentences that are exoticising to such
an extent that is distracts the reader and decreases readability. Eventually, I chose to be more
specific and use the name of the school: ‘Aan het eind van mijn eerste jaar aan Weequahic High.’
1
For example when someone in New York goes to visit the Amsterdam Arena, which would mean that the
translator has to change New York into Amsterdam.
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When culture specific elements are adapted or omitted, the atmosphere of the original shifts. For
Portnoy’s Complaint, Americanism or Judaism would be less present throughout the novel, which are
key elements to the struggle of the protagonist. The culture specific elements are preserved to
present to the reader the text world that Roth has created in the original.
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Section 5: Coarse language and Taboos
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5.1 Portnoy’s Complaint and taboos
Philip Roth mentioned in an interview that “few people actually talk the way Portnoy does in this
book – this is a man speaking out of an overwhelming obsession: he is obscene because he wants to
be saved” (Plimpton, Roth 8). Alexander is oppressed by his religion, his parents, his sexuality and his
manhood. Oppression, in combination with free association, exemplifies the obscenities and coarse
language Alexander uses. In this first therapy session Alexander can finally speak freely. In his case, it
resulted in coarse language use. Alexander continuously talks about masturbation, which is regarded
as a taboo subject. Freud explains taboo as follows: “the basis of taboo is a prohibited action, for
performing which a strong inclination exists in the unconscious” (Freud, 38). Taboos exist within
every society and culture. In this chapter, Alexander’s strong language use will be discussed, as well
as the influence of free association on his speaking voice. In Portnoy’s Complaint breaking free from
oppression and using obscene language go hand in hand.
The definition of the condition called ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’ –page 4 of this thesis– is an
introduction to the vulgarity of the novel. It seems as if it is a warning that Portnoy’s Complaint
should not be read by the faint-hearted. The second chapter of the novel pays tribute to this warning
and is respectively called ‘Whacking off.’ It is a chapter that makes almost any reader uneasy.
Alexander speaks light-heartedly about the people he fantasises about while he masturbates and the
items he uses to do so. Alexander is at a therapy session and he talks freely about sexuality,
something he has kept a secret for his entire life. It should be noted that Alexander is more than a
shouting savage. He is an eloquent speaker, he is a successful lawyer and normally conforms to
societal behaviour norms. Until this therapy session he only cursed openly in front of his gentile
girlfriends. The strong language Alexander uses at Dr. Spielvogel’s office is a consequence of keeping
up appearances for so long. Alexander not only breaks taboos that involve sexuality: Alexander
resents his religion and he often curses when he recollects events. As a result, the novel was
prohibited in Australia from 1969 until 1971. However, Penguin books decided to import and sell the
novel and had 75,000 copies printed by August 1970. The novels were secretly distributed to
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wholesalers and within twenty-four hours all books, apart from two copies, were distributed. The
ban was finally lifted in 1971 (University of Melbourne). According to the American Library
Association the three main reasons to ban a book are because they are considered to be sexually
explicit, because they contain offensive language or when the material is regarded as unsuitable to
any age group. Portnoy’s Complaint can be labelled with all three of those criteria, for example the
when he describes the time he used a piece of liver as a masturbation tool. That passage is
commonly viewed as the most controversial part of the novel:
“I believe that I have already confessed to the piece of liver that I bought in a butcher shop
and banged behind a billboard on the way to a bar mitzvah lesson. Well, I wish to make a
clean breast of it, Your Holiness. That—she—it—wasn’t my first piece. My first piece I had in
the privacy of my own home, rolled around my cock in the bathroom at three-thirty-and then
had again on the end of a fork, at five thirty, along with the other members of that poor
innocent family of mine.”
(Portnoy’s Complaint 94)
He does not only talk about masturbation excessively, the masturbatory items he uses vary from milk
bottles to livers. He is aware of the abnormality of his excessive need to put his penis in any hole he
can think of, but nevertheless still does it. Sex, puberty and masculinity are important themes in the
novel: “Alex delivers a sexually frank account of his various relationships and masturbatory
obsessions. His moral rebellion against the expectations of Jewish identity, and the religious and
social rituals that accompany it” (MacGowan 300). Alexander cannot meet social and religious
expectations and he feels oppressed by them. Throughout his life the expectations continue to
frustrate or confuse him. Consequently, he expresses himself physically.
Alexander’s language use is reminiscent of a form of satire called carnivalesque: folk humor
from the Middle Ages (Bakhtin 17). Carnival was a Catholic event that lasted three days before
fasting. People were allowed to mock instances such as the church and their landlords. In those three
days, they would be relieved of their frustrations and it was believed that they would not feel the
necessity to rebel against their superiors for the rest of the year. When people are freed from
oppression, even if it is only for three days per year, it results in exuberant celebrations. Alexander
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has felt oppressed for decades and his visit to Dr. Spielvogel is the first time he can talk straight from
the shoulder, which results in an on-going rant about his life and he holds nothing back. Portnoy’s
Complaint is a story of guilt and confession. Alexander feels guilty for masturbating as he shouts:
“Imagine what my conscience gave me for all that jerking off! The guilt, the fears – the terror bred
into my bones!” (Portnoy’s Complaint 24 ). Alexander grew up to think that sexual needs are sins.
However, he has sexual needs and is torn apart between norms and his needs.
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5.2 Taboos in translation
The translation of taboos has long been debated in the field of translation. In the past, translators
from English to Dutch would sometimes choose to adapt a text if it could be inappropriate in the
target culture. Even to this day censorship is not uncommon throughout the world. Censorship or
adaptation is used when the target culture of the original maintains different societal values than the
target culture of the translation. However, breaking taboos is a literary device to force readers to
come out of their comfort zones. In Portnoy’s Complaint, Alexander talks openly about masturbation,
uses coarse language and is confrontational towards Judaism. Taboo could create an ethical dilemma
in a translator. Van Wyke claims that “an ethics of translation, then, necessarily addresses what is
considered the morally correct manner in which one should practice the task of rewriting a text in
another language” (111). However, a translator is different from a rewriter. This chapter will focus on
the taboos in Portnoy’s Complaint and what the consequences are in translation.
Over the past few decades it has become more accepted to be sexually explicit in novels
when it has other functions than an erotic one, especially after the Sexual Liberation during the
sixties in America (Escoffier 196). In Portnoy’s Complaint, vulgarity is used to give a strong speaking
voice to Alexander. Readers might relate to Alexander to some extent: people sometimes feel the
need to rant about personal conflicts without having to stay well-mannered and conform to societal
norms. Roth wanted to achieve this by a protagonist that shouts and shows signs of disrespect
towards his religion and parents. The particular struggle that is conveyed through Portnoy’s
Complaint is that of Alexander Portnoy and Philip Roth. It is the translator’s task to deliver that
message into Dutch and he or she should not get personally involved during translation. Any criticism
on the novel’s contents is aimed at the author instead of the translator. Besides, the example of a
contract for literary translators from the Vereniging van Letterkundigen guides the translator in a
preservative translation approach. The translation of Portnoy’s Complaint should be faithful to the
content and style of the source text. It is for that reason that the translation of Portnoy’s Complaint
should be as vulgar as the original. Taboo is used as a literary effect that is a central aspect of the text
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world Roth has created. On top of that, its controversy has gained this novel its popularity. Van Wyke
briefly summarises this preservative approach and states that “since translation has been understood
as a task in which one strives to reproduce the original as closely as possible, ethical behavior has
been simply posited as fidelity towards the original and its author” (111).
Even though views upon sexuality have changed over the course of the last decades, talking
about masturbation as freely as Alexander does has not become a topic for an everyday
conversation. Alexander is creative in his synonyms for masturbation. The literary effect is that it
enables Alexander to talk as excessively about masturbation as he masturbates, without using
repetitive words that would result in a monotonous text. The various synonyms for masturbation and
genitalia could become a translation problem. In this case, creativity is required of the translator with
the aim to be as vulgar as the original. Thus not using expressions that are too vulgar or euphemisms
that soften the strength of the source text. This can be a difficult task, as connotation and impact of a
(curse) word are often subjective. Some of the synonyms Alexander uses are listed below:
-
firing my wad down the toilet bowl,
splat,
doubled over my flying fist,
like a blast of Wild-root Cream Oil,
in a world of matted handkerchiefs and crumpled Kleenex and stained pajamas,
I moved my raw and swollen penis,
in the frenzy of dropping my load,
incapable of keeping my paws from my dong once it started the climb up my belly,
with ten or fifteen savage strokes, beat off standing up into a urinal,
squirting my seed,
fall upon the orifice of the fruit,
“Big Boy, Big Boy, oh give me all you’ve got,” begged the empty milk bottle,
“Come, Big Boy, come,” screamed the maddened piece of liver.
(11-12)
These are only some examples of the multitude of synonyms for masturbation that Alexander uses. It
is striking that the list only contains examples from merely two pages. They follow each other in a
rapid pace on those pages and they are all different. In translation, the translator should try to use as
many different synonyms as well. On top of that, the translator should estimate the level of
coarseness of the original in order to translate according to the coarseness of the original, instead of
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making the text too coarse or too bland. The use of an erotic dictionary, for example the Erotisch
Woordenboek by Hans Heestermans, will provide insight in the use of words that deal with sexuality.
Their connotations and uses are described and the translator will be able to make a well-informed
decision about which words to choose. The strategy is not to censor those taboo words. The main
goal should be to achieve the same effect as Portnoy’s Complaint had when it was first published, but
it is important to note that it is a difficult task as the shock factor that masturbation had in 1969 may
not be as intense today. However, when Alexander talks about men who wear hats so they can use
them to ejaculate in when they secretly masturbate, it still makes a reader uneasy. Especially when
he goes in detail about the men wearing those hats day in day out, even after they just masturbated
into them.
Alexander is confrontational towards Judaism and this shocked Roth’s Jewish readers. On top
of that, Alexander is an extremely dominant man that uses women for his own pleasure. He is seen
as a misogynist and the only woman he loves is the woman he hates the most at the same time: his
mother. When Portnoy’s Complaint was published it were different times in America and Europe.
Nowadays, gender equality and sexual openness are finding their way more and more in society. The
novel would probably be perceived as shocking if it was published today, with regard to the explicit
and uneasy sexual encounters of Alexander. On top of that, feminists would be outrageous when
they hear how Alexander uses women for his own pleasure. With regard to Judaism, it remains the
question whether Jews would be as offended by Portnoy’s Complaint as they were in 1969. However,
this is not up to the translator to decide. As mentioned before, it is expected of the translator to
remain objective and to recreate the original. Besides, criticism would again be aimed at the author,
not the translator. The only way to find out whether the novel would be as shocking today as it was
in 1969, is to translate and publish it again.
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Section 6:
Portnoy’s Complaint Translated
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6.1 Annotated Translation Fragment 1
RUKKEN
Toen kwam de puberteit – de helft van de tijd dat ik wakker was spendeerde ik achter de gesloten
badkamerdeur en schoot ik mijn kwakje in de toiletpot, of in de vuile kleding in de wasmand, of klets,
zo tegen de spiegel van het medicijnkastje omhoog, waar ik met mijn broek op mijn enkels tegenover
stond zodat ik kon kijken hoe het eruit ziet als het naar buiten2 komt. Of anders zat ik wel gebogen
over mijn sjorrende vuist, met dichtgeknepen ogen en mond wijd open, om die plakkerige saus van
karnemelk en Clorox3 op mijn eigen tong en tanden te nemen. Tevens gebeurde het maar vaak
genoeg dat het in mijn roekeloosheid en extase allemaal terecht kwam in mijn vetkuif4, alsof er een
uitbarsting van Wildroot Cream olie had plaatsgevonden. In een wereld die bestond uit matte
zakdoekjes, opgefrommelde Kleenex-doekjes en pyjama’s met vlekken, zat ik aan mijn schrale en
opgezwollen penis en was ik constant5 angstig dat mijn walgelijke gedrag ontdekt zou worden door
iemand die me toevallig van achter besluipt, nét wanneer ik als een waanzinnige mijn lading aan het
lozen ben6. Desalniettemin kon ik niet met mijn klauwen van mijn snikkel7 afblijven zodra die
omhoog begon te klimmen richting mijn onderbuik. Tijdens de les stak ik mijn hand op om mezelf te
excuseren en me door de gang te haasten richting de toiletten en rukte8 ik mezelf af in een urinoir
door tien tot vijftien keer woest te trekken. Tijdens de film op zaterdagmiddag liet ik mijn vrienden in
2
In this sentence ‘naar buiten’ was added in order to avoid a repetition of ‘eruit,’ which would have been used
twice if the sentence was translated as ‘zodat ik kon zien hoe het er uit ziet als het eruit komt.’ The lengthier
translation was the lexically varied one.
3
Culture Specific Items as ‘Clorox’ have been preserved in the Target Text, as specific American and Jewish
references are an important aspect of the novel.
4
At the time the novel was published, the pompadour haircut was popular amongst adolescent boys. For
reference: Elvis had a pompadour haircut. It is a specific haircut, that translating it with the general ‘kapsel’
would not suffice. Pompadour is a possible translation, but ‘vetkuif’ has become the more used and accepted
term for such a haircut.
5
Register is relatively high even though Alexander speaks of masturbatory acts, I chose ‘constant’ instead of
‘altijd’ as a translation of ‘perpetually,’ which is of higher register than ‘always’ as well.
6
In the Source Text the word ‘frenzy’ is used. Translating it directly into Dutch resulted in illogical sentence
structure that would obstruct the reader. For example: ‘wanneer ik in mijn waanzin mijn lading aan het lozen
ben.’ I decided to change ‘frenzy’ into a description by using a simile.
7
Alexander’s Jewish identity is established by the use of Jewish words, which is why I chose to translate ‘dong’
with ‘snikkel.’
8
Many synonyms for masturbation were used in the original text, as mentioned in the analysis, therefore is
was important to use as much variety as well in Dutch. However, sometimes the same synonym is used, but I
tried to avoid using them close to one another.
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de steek om naar de snoepautomaat te gaan – en dan eindigde ik vervolgens op een afgelegen
balkonstoel waar ik mijn zaad in de lege verpakking van een Moundsreep spoot. Tijdens een familieuitje heb ik ooit het klokhuis uit een appel geboord en zag tot mijn grote verbazing (en met behulp
van mijn obsessie) waar het op leek en rende ik de bossen in om me op de holte van het fruit te
storten en dan deed ik alsof het koele en melige gat zich eigenlijk bevond tussen de benen van dat
mythische wezen dat me altijd Grote Jongen9 noemt wanneer ze me smeekt om hetgeen dat geen
enkele andere vrouw in de gehele geschiedenis10 ooit gekregen heeft. ‘O geef me een lekkere beurt,
Grote Jongen,’ riep de appel zonder klokhuis die ik sufneukte11 op die picknick. ‘Grote Jongen, Grote
Jongen, o geef me alles wat je hebt,’ smeekte de lege melkfles die ik verborgen hield in onze
opslagplaats in de kelder, zodat ik die helemaal gek kon maken na school met mijn stijve paal12.
‘Kom, Grote Jongen, kom,’ schreeuwde het woeste stuk lever dat ik, in mijn eigen krankzinnigheid op
een middag bij een slagerij kocht en dat ik, geloof me of niet, onteerde achter een reclamebord
onderweg naar een barmitswah13 les.
Aan het eind van mijn eerste jaar aan Weequahic High14, dat tevens mijn eerste jaar
masturberen was, ontdekte ik dat er aan de onderkant van mijn penis, net waar de schacht overloopt
op de eikel, een klein verkleurd stipje zat dat vanaf dat moment de diagnose ‘vlek’ kreeg. Kanker. Ik
had mezelf kánker gegeven. Al dat gesjor en geduw aan mijn eigen vlees, al die wrijving, had me een
9
In the Source Text Big Boy is used, which alliterates and are two 1-syllable words. It is both used as a pet
name and to mock him. In Dutch, both alliteration and using one-syllable words could not be recreated and I
chose to convey meaning and not form.
10
recorded history is an example of idiomatic language use in English. In Dutch recorded has been left out
intentionally to avoid a combination as in de vermelde geschiedenis or in de beschreven geschiedenis, which in
my opinion is covered by the word hele.
11
For banged silly I combined two words to create a new verb. That verb may not have an official entry in
Dutch dictionaries, it does show that Alexander is chatting without many pauses and making up words as they
best describe his acts. He does that more often in the novel when describing sexual acts, therefore it is an
acceptable translation for sentence.
12
In Dutch the words met mijn stijve vaseline would cause confusion, as vaseline cannot stand upright on itself.
Alexander is talking about his genitals, which is why I decided to delete vaseline and add a synonym for his
genitals. It was a possibility to preserve the word vaseline, but it would result in a lengthy sentence. Therefore,
I decided that omitting vaseline was better than to preserve it.
13
According to the Yiddish dictionary, this is the correct spelling for barmitzvah.
14
American and Dutch schooling systems are different, but as it is not idiomatic to use High School in a Dutch
sentence (Mijn eerste jaar aan de High School). Therefore I chose to be more explicit and use the name of the
school.
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ongeneeslijke ziekte gegeven. Ik was nog geeneens veertien! ’s Nachts als ik15 in bed lag rolden de
tranen over mijn wangen. ‘Nee!’ snikte ik. ‘Ik wil nog niet dood! Alsjeblieft, nee!’ Maar16 vervolgens,
aangezien ik toch binnen de kortste keren een lijk zou zijn, vervolgde ik mijn weg weer zoals
gewoonlijk en trok ik me af in mijn sok. Ik had er de gewoonte van gemaakt om mijn vuile sokken ‘s
nachts aan te houden, zodat ik er eentje net voor het slapengaan kon gebruiken om het op te vangen
en de ander was voor als ik wakker werd.
Kon ik het maar terugbrengen naar één keer rukken per dag, of voet bij stuk17 houden na de
tweede keer, of zelfs drie! Maar met het uitzicht op vergetelheid voor me, begon ik juist nieuwe
records te zetten voor mezelf. Voor maaltijden. Na maaltijden. Zelfs tijdens maaltijden. Dan sprong ik
op van de eettafel en greep ik tragisch naar mijn buik: Diarree! schreeuw ik uit, ik heb ineens hele
erge diarree! en eenmaal achter de gesloten badkamerdeur trek ik een slipje over mijn hoofd dat ik
gejat heb uit de lade van mijn zus en opgerold in een zakdoek bij me draag in mijn broekzak. Zó
opwindend is het effect van katoenen slipjes tegen mijn mond – zo opwindend is het wóórd ‘slipje’
alleen al18 – waardoor de baan van mijn ejaculatie opzienbarende hoogtes begint te bereiken: ik laat
mijn lid rechtop staan als een raket en het schiet gelijk richting de lamp boven mijn hoofd, waar het
tot mijn verbazing en verschrikking op terecht komt en aan blijft hangen. In eerste instantie bedek ik
verwilderd mijn hoofd en verwacht ik een explosie van glas, een steekvlam. Rampspoed, zie je, dat is
altijd het eerste waar ik aan denk. Vervolgens klim ik zo stilletjes mogelijk op de radiator en verwijder
ik de sissende19 kwak met een prop toiletpapier. Ik begin een nauwgezette zoektocht op het
douchegordijn, het bad, de tegels, de vier tandenborstels. God verhoede! en net als ik op het punt
sta om de deur van het slot te halen en denk dat ik mijn sporen heb uitgewist, stokt mijn adem bij
15
In English it is common for sentences to function without a subject. In Dutch this is grammatically incorrect,
which is why I added ik as a subject.
16
Sentence starting with a coordination is not according to Dutch grammer. However, Alexander often starts
talking mid-sentence and pauses for a longer time between sentences. I did not want to change Alexander’s
informal and lively speech pattern.
17
The idiomatic use of hold the line has been recreated by translating it with voet bij stuk houden.
18
I added a pragmatic particle (as is more often used in Dutch than in English) to create a lively and fluent use
of Dutch language.
19
His sperm landed on the radiator and as a result his sperm is vaporising, making a sizzling sound in the
process.
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het zien van wat er als snot aan het puntje van mijn schoen hangt. Ik ben de Raskolnikov van het
aftrekken, het plakkerige bewijs zit overal! Zit het ook op mijn mouwen? in mijn háár? mijn óór? Dit
vraag ik mij allemaal af zelfs wanneer ik me weer aansluit aan de keukentafel, nors en chagrijnig, om
zelfingenomen naar mijn vader te mopperen als hij zijn mond vol met gelatine opent en zegt, ‘Ik
begrijp niet waarom je die deur op slot moet doen. Dat begrijp ik echt niet. Wat is dit, een huis of een
Centraal Station?’ ‘. . . privacy . . . een mens . . . hier nóóit,’ antwoord ik, waarna ik mijn dessert aan
de kant schuif en roep: ‘ik voel me gewoon niet zo goed, kan iedereen me nou met rust laten?’
Na het dessert, dat ik wel opeet omdat ik toevallig van gelatine hou, ook al haat ik hen, ben ik
weer te vinden in de badkamer. Ik graai door de was van die week totdat ik een van de beha’s20 van
mijn zus tegenkom. Ik maak het ene schouderbandje vast aan de klink van de badkamerdeur en de
andere aan de knop van de linnenkast zodat deze als vogelverschrikker fungeert en meer fantasieën
opwekt. ‘O trek je dan af, Grote Jongen, trek eraan tot het helemaal vermalen is tot roodhete pulp –’
dwingen de kleine cups van Hannah’s beha mij, totdat een opgerolde krant tegen de deur aan
geslagen wordt, waardoor ik met mijn volle hand een paar centimeter van de wc-bril af kom. ‘Kom
op, laat iemand anders ook eens een keer op die pot21, wil je?’ zegt mijn vader. ‘Ik zit al de hele week
verstopt.’22
Ik herstel mijn evenwicht en schreeuw met een uitbarsting aan gekwetste gevoelens, want
dat is mijn talent.23 ‘Ik heb ontzettende last van diarree! Betekent dat niets meer in dit huis?’ en in
tussentijd ga ik weer verder met strelen en ik voer het tempo op zodra mijn met kanker
geïnfecteerde24 orgaan op miraculeuze wijze weer van binnen naar buiten begint te sidderen.
20
There is a wide array of words to choose from for brassieres which are BH, beha, bustier and brassière.
Eventually I chose the one that is most commonly used nowadays as I do not know what was most commonly
used in the sixties.
21
Alexander’s father wants to have a crack at that bowl. In order to convey the language use of the father I
translated bowl with pot as a means of slightly coarse language.
22
In the novel Alexander’s father complains that his stomach digests his food into concrete, which means he
has trouble is constipated. I translated bowel movement with ik zit al de hele week verstopt, because in Dutch
we do not move our bowels.
23
I changed the sentence structure in order to prevent that the reader thinks it is Alexander’s talent to recover
his equilibrium instead of pretending he has hurt feelings.
24
The word kanker is used as a curse word in Dutch and translating cancerous with another adjective would
have a different effect. It would say met mijn verkankerde orgaan which is as if Alexander is cursing.
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Op dat moment begint Hannah’s beha te bewegen. Hij schommelt op en neer! Ik knijp mijn
ogen samen en aanschouw! Lenore Lapidus! met het grootste paar van de klas, die naar de bus rent
na school met haar fantastische, ontastbare massa die zwaar op en neer beweegt in haar blouse, oh
ik wil dat ze eruit komen, eroverheen vallen, DE TIETEN VAN LENORE LAPIDUS, en25 tegelijkertijd
realiseer ik me dat mijn moeder hevig aan de deurklink trekt. Aan de deur die ik eindelijk ben
vergeten dicht te doen! Ik wist dat het ooit zou gebeuren! Betrapt! Zo goed als dood!
‘Doe open, Alex. Ik wil dat je nu direct de deur open doet.’
Hij zit op slot, ik ben níet betrapt! En26 te zien aan hetgeen dat levendig in mijn hand ligt ben
ik ook nog niet helemaal dood. Doorrukken dan! Rukken! ‘Lik me, Grote Jongen, lik me met een
lekkere hete lik. Ik ben de grote dikke voorgevel van Lenore Lapidus.’
‘Alex, ik wil dat je antwoord geeft. Heb je friet gegeten na school? Is dat waarom je zo ziek
bent?’
‘Nahhh, ahhh.’
‘Alex, heb je pijn? Moet ik de dokter bellen? Heb je nou wel of geen pijn? Ik wil precies weten
waar het pijn doet. Geef antwóórd.’
‘Jaaa, jaaaa…’
‘Alex, ik wil niet dat je de wc doortrekt,’ zegt mijn moeder streng. ‘Ik wil zien wat je daar
gedaan hebt. De geluiden die je maakt staan me helemaal niet aan.’
25
A comma is used before a conjunction which is grammatically incorrect, but it shows Alexander’s lively
speech patterns.
26
This sentence starts with en which is grammatically incorrect, but Alexander’s speech is a representation of
spoken language and it often happens that in spoken language sentences start with conjunctions. This happens
more often in the novel and in the fragments that were translated.
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6.2 Annotated Translation Fragment 2
Zo’n wezen, het is misschien overbodig om dit te zeggen, is nog nooit levend gekookt in ons huis. En
dan bedoel ik de kreeft. Een sjikse is sowieso nog nooit in ons huis geweest, punt, en het is dus een
kwestie van afwachten in wat voor staat ze27 de keuken van mijn moeder uit zal komen. De
schoonmaakster is natuurlijk wel een sjikse, maar dat telt niet want zij is zwart.
Ha ha. Een sjikse is nog nooit bij ons binnen geweest omdat ík er nog nooit eentje heb
meegenomen is wat ik bedoelde. Ik kan me nog die ene28 herinneren die mijn vader mee had
genomen voor het avondeten toen ik nog een jongen was: een dunne, gespannen, verlegen,
eerbiedige, zachtaardige, wat oudere caissière van zijn kantoor genaamd Anne McCaffery.
Dokter, kan het zijn dat hij het stiekem met haar deed? Ik lijk wel mesjogge!29 Maar ineens
komt het in me op. Zou het kunnen dat mijn vader deze vrouw er stiekem naast had? Ik kan me nog
herinneren dat ze naast me op de sofa zat en dat ze door haar nervositeit een lange uitleg gaf over
haar voornaam en hoe die gespeld diende te worden en ze wees me erop dat haar naam op een E
eindigde, wat niet altijd het geval was bij iemand met de naam Anne, et cetera, enzovoorts . . . en in
de tussentijd, ook al waren haar armen lang en dun met sproeten (Ierse armen, vermoedde ik) die
tot ver in haar gladde witte blouse reikten, kon ik zien dat ze mooie en ferme borsten had. Ik keek
stiekem ook naar haar benen. Ik was pas een jaar of acht, negen, maar zij had echt zulke fantastische
benen dat ik mijn ogen er niet vanaf kon houden, het type benen dat je zo nu en dan verrassen als je
ziet dat er één of andere bleke vrijster met een beknepen gezicht op rondloopt . . . Met die benen, ja,
natúúrlijk ketste30 hij met haar . . . Toch?
27
Alexander refers to the lobster with a personal pronoun, but when he talks about the shikse in the first few
sentences he refers to the shikse with one. On top of that, Alexander feels the need to explain that with
creature he is not talking about a shikse. This shows that Alexander sees a lobster as a she and a shikse as a
creature and one. This has been recreated in Dutch.
28
die ene refers to the shikse and to maintain the difference in addressing the lobster and the shikse I used a
pronoun that is not a personal pronoun.
29
I added a Jewish utterance, because Alexander uses Jewish in the original in the previous sentence.
30
It was difficult to find a Dutch-Yiddish word for sexual intercourse. I searched many word lists, but did not
find a usable term. However, I tried to preserve Yiddish by using Yiddish in other parts of his story, for example
stiekem, which is originally Yiddish.
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De reden dat hij haar mee naar huis nam was, als we hem moesten geloven, ‘voor een écht
Joods maal.’ Wekenlang was hij al aan het kleppen over de nieuwe gojse caissière (‘ze is zo’n
eenvoudig en doorsnee mens,’ zei hij, ‘en haar kleding ziet er sjofel31 uit’) en ze stopte niet met
zeuren – zo ging het verhaal dat hij maar bleef vertellen – om een echt Joods maal, al vanaf de dag
dat ze kwam werken op het kantoor van Boston & Northeastern. Uiteindelijk kon mijn moeder er niet
meer tegen. ‘Goed dan, neem haar maar mee, als ze het zo graag wil, dan kan ze het krijgen.’ Kwam
dit als een verrassing voor hem? We zullen het nooit weten.
Geloof me, een Joods maal is wat ze kreeg. Ik denk niet dat ik het woord ‘Joods’ ooit zo vaak
heb gehoord op één avond in mijn leven en ik kan je zeggen, als er iemand het woord ‘Joods’ vaak
gehoord heeft, dan ben ik het wel.
'Dit is echte Joodse gehakte lever, Anne. Heb je al eens eerder echte Joodse gehakte lever
op? Nou, mijn vrouw bereidt het zoals het hoort, daar kun je vergif op innemen. Kijk, je eet het met
een stuk brood. Dit is echt Joods roggebrood, met pitten. Goed zo, Anne, dat doe je erg goed, doet ze
het niet fantastisch, Sophie, voor haar eerste keer? Goed zo, neem maar een lekker stuk Joods
roggebrood en nu pak je een vork met een flink stuk Joodse gehakte lever’ en dat ging maar door,
helemaal tot aan de gelatine. ‘Dat klopt, Anne, de gelatine is ook koosjer, uiteraard, natuurlijk, dat
moet wel – oh nee, oh nee, nee geen melk in je koffie doen, niet na vlees, ha ha, hoorde je wat Anne
wilde doen, Alex?’
Nou, je kunt zoveel kletsen als je wilt, beste pa, maar er komt net een vraag in me op,
vijfentwintig jaar later (niet dat ik hier ook maar een greintje bewijs voor heb, tot op de dag van
vandaag kan ik me niet eens voorstellen dat mijn vader in staat zou zijn om ook maar geringste
schending te maken op het burgerlijke leven . . . maar aangezien schending me op een bepaalde
manier fascineert). In het publiek is een vraag ontstaan: waarom bracht je van álle dingen die je mee
31
The word shmattas does not have a direct Dutch equivalent and it did not have an entry in the Jiddisch-Dutch
dictionary. To preserve the use of Yiddish, I translated the meaning of the sentence – that her clothing is aal
too clean – and used a Dutch-Yiddish adjective to add the same meaning with the use of Yiddish.
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kon nemen, uitgerekend een sjikse mee naar huis? Omdat je er niet meer tegen kon dat een gojse32
vrouw door het leven zou moeten gaan zonder te ervaren hoe het is om Joodse gelatine te eten? Of
is het omdat je niet langer je eigen leven kon leiden zonder Joodse belijdenis? Zonder je vrouw te
confronteren met je zonde, zodat ze je kan beschuldigen, kastijden, vernederen, straffen en op die
manier je verboden lusten af kan pakken! Jazeker, een doodgewone Joodse bandiet33, die vader van
me. Ik herken het syndroom bijzonder goed. Kom dan, iemand, wie dan ook, zoek me op en
veroordeel me – ik heb het ergste gedaan dat je je maar voor kunt stellen: ik nam wat ik niet mocht
hebben! Ik verkoos mijn eigen genot boven de plicht die ik heb aan mijn geliefden! Alsjeblieft, betrap
me34, sluit me op, voordat, God verhoede, ik ermee wegkom en ik weer iets doe waar ik
daadwerkelijk plezier aan beleef!
En deed mijn moeder dat? Telde ze de twee tieten en twee benen bij elkaar op en kwam ze
uit op vier? Het lijkt erop dat ik tweeënhalve decennia nodig heb gehad om die moeilijke berekening
te maken. Oh, dit moet wel een verzinsel zijn. Mijn vader . . . met een sjikse? Dit kan niet waar zijn.
Dat gaat zelfs voor hem te ver. Mijn eigen vader, neukte sjikses? Onder dwang zou ik nog wel
toegeven dat hij mijn moeder neukte . . . maar sjikses? Hij zou nog eerder een tankstation overvallen.
Maar waarom schreeuwt ze dan zo naar hem, waarom vindt deze scène vol beschuldigingen
en ontkenningen plaats35, van kastijding en bedreiging en eindeloze tranen . . . waar gaat dit allemaal
over, behalve dan dat hij iets ergs heeft gedaan dat misschien wel onvergeeflijk is? De scène zelf is
net een zwaar meubelstuk36 dat vastzit in mijn gedachten en niet wil wijken, waardoor ik geloof, ja,
dat dit daadwerkelijk gebeurd is. Want kijk, mijn zus verschuilt zich achter mijn moeder: Hannah
houdt haar vast om haar middel en jammert, terwijl de overweldigende tranen van mijn moeder van
32
Gentile means a person who is not Jewish. Alexander uses gentile, sjikse and goyim when he talks about nonJewish people. In Dutch there are only two: sjikse and goj. Instead of choosing niet-Joods I decided to use one
of the two equivalent terms to preserve the use of Yiddish.
33
The term bandiet is derived from the Yiddish bonditt.
34
I could choose to translate catch me with pak me which could have an ambiguous meaning: the meaning of
sexual intercourse would be added. Another translation, vang me, does not have that connotation, but to catch
also means that someone is caught in the act, which is conveyed through the verb betrappen.
35
I added the verb plaatsvinden to increase readability.
36
is like some piece of heavy furniture is not an official saying. Roth may have invented this image and it is a
striking simile. I decided to preserve this.
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haar wangen biggelen en op de linoleum vloer uiteen spatten. Tussen de tranen door schreeuwt ze
zó hard naar hem dat haar aders op knappen staan en ze schreeuwt ook naar mij, omdat ik, nu ik er
bij stilsta, me bedenk dat terwijl Hannah zich achter mijn moeder verschuilt, dat ik achter de dader
bescherming zoek37. Oh, dit is pure verbeelding, dit komt toch regelrecht uit het boekje? Nee, nee,
dat is niet de vader van iemand anders maar de mijne die met zijn vuist op tafel slaat en
terugschreeuwt, ‘Dat heb ik helemaal niet gedaan! Dat is een leugen en je hebt het mis!’ maar wacht
eens even, ík ben degene die schreeuwt ‘Ik heb het niet gedaan!’ Ik ben de dader! En de reden dat
mijn moeder huilt, is omdat mijn vader weigert om me een pak slaag te geven, een pak slaag dat zij
mij beloofd heeft, ‘en goed ook,’ toen hij erachter kwam wat voor vreselijks ík gedaan had.
Wanneer ik iets kleins doe dat stout en verdorven is, kan ze me zelf wel aan: ze hoeft, weet je
nog – ik weet dat ík het nog weet – me alleen maar mijn jas en overschoenen aan te trekken – oh wat
een leuk detail, Moeder, die overschoenen! – me buiten huis te sluiten (me buiten húis te sluiten!) en
door de deur aan te kondigen dat ze me nooit meer binnen zal laten, dus dat ik net zo goed kan
vertrekken en mijn eigen leven op kan bouwen. Ze hoeft enkel die simpele en snelle actie te
ondernemen om onmiddellijk een bekentenis in mij los te krijgen, een zelfverminking, en als ze dat
zou willen, een schriftelijke belofte dat ik voor de volle honderd procent puur en goed zal zijn voor de
rest van mijn leven, dit alles heb ik ervoor over als ik maar weer naar binnen mag, waar ze toevallig
mijn bed en mijn kleren en de koelkast hebben staan. Maar als ik écht verdorven ben, zo
kwaadaardig dat ze alleen nog maar haar armen in de lucht kan gooien en aan God de Almachtige
kan vragen wat ze in hemelsnaam gedaan heeft om zo’n kind te verdienen, op zulke momenten
wordt mijn vader opgetrommeld om me gerechtigheid op te leggen. Mijn moeder is daar zelf te
gevoelig voor, een te delicaat schepsel, zoals is gebleken, om lichamelijke straffen uit te delen: ‘Het
doet me pijn,’ hoor ik haar vertellen aan tante Clara, ‘meer dan dat het hem pijn doet. Zo’n soort
mens ben ik. Ik kan het gewoon niet, en daarmee uit.’ Ach arme Moeder.
37
Sentence length is relatively long throughout this page and I have tried to maintain sentence length to
convey Alexander’s rant from the original.
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6.3 Annotated Translation Fragment 3
Ik herinner me plotseling weer hoe mijn moeder mij geleerd heeft om staand te pissen!38 Luister, dit
is misschien wel de informatie waar we op zaten te wachten, de sleutel tot mijn karakterbepaling, de
reden dat ik me nu39 in dit lastige parket bevind en verscheurd40 wordt door lusten die onverenigbaar
zijn met mijn bewustzijn en door een bewustzijn dat onverenigbaar is met mijn lusten. Dit is het
verhaal van hoe ik leerde om in de pot te pissen als een grote kerel. Moet je eens horen!
Ik sta boven de cirkel met water met mijn kleintje41 dat schattig heen en weer bungelt,
terwijl mijn moeder naast het toilet zit op de rand van de badkuip, met de ene hand op de kraan van
het bad (waaruit een straaltje water komt dat ik moet imiteren) en met haar andere hand wriemelt
ze aan de onderkant van mijn piemel. Ik herhaal: gewriemel aan mijn piemel!42 Ik neem aan dat ze
denkt dat er op die manier iets uit de voorkant van dat ding gaat komen en ik kan je zeggen, die
vrouw heeft gelijk. ‘Doe maar een mooi plasje43, bubala44, doe maar een mooi plasje voor Mama,’ zo
zingt mijn moeder voor me, maar in feite sta ik daar en bepaalt zij met haar hand op mijn slurf in alle
waarschijnlijkheid mijn toekomst! Moet je nagaan! Hoe bespóttelijk! Het karakter van een man
wordt gevormd, een lot wordt geschapen…. Of, misschien ook niet…. In ieder geval, voor wat deze
informatie waard is, in de nabijheid van een andere man kan ik simpelweg niet urineren. Tot op de
dag van vandaag. Mijn blaas kan dan opgezwollen zijn tot de grootte van een watermeloen, maar
38
This is an example of Free Association.
nu is a pragmatic particle, added to show that he still struggles with this event.
40
I used present tense, because Alexander still struggles as a result of this event. It is important to realise that
using the wrong tense can change the content of a story.
41
In order to make the sentence grammatically correct I translated weeny with kleintje and made kleintje the
subject of the sentence by omitting baby’s.
42
The element of rhyme has been recreated in translation. I decided to stay true to content and rhyme.
However, prickling is used to indicate that it is indeed his little baby penis, but to make it rhyme I decided to
omit the diminutive.
43
Alexander’s mother sings to him and says sis to use simple language, the word also resembles the sound of
peeing. To recreate the way his mother speaks to him, which is probably very enthusiastically as well, I decided
to convey that tone in a way that people often talk to kids in Dutch: by using short sentences that are
grammatically simple/incorrect.
44
The pet name bubala is used by American Jews and there is no record of the pet name being used by Dutch
speakers of Yiddish. However, I thought it was better to preserve the pet name than to translate it to Dutch, as
it is a very specific pet name and it is placed in the middle of the sentence, between comma’s and in italics,
thus it can be concluded that it is an important aspect of his mother’s speech, that is often recited by Alexander
in a mocking way.
39
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zodra ik word verstoord door een andere aanwezigheid voordat de stroom is begonnen (dus je wilt
alles horen, goed dan, dan vertel ik alles)45 is dat in Rome, Dokter, De Aap en ik een ordinaire hoer
van straat hebben geplukt en haar met ons mee naar bed hebben genomen. Zo, dat is eruit. Dat
heeft geduurd.
De bus, de bus, wat weerhield mij ervan om niet over de arm van die slapende sjikse te
komen in de bus? Geen idee, gezond verstand zou je denken? Goed fatsoen? Mijn volle verstand,
zoals men dat noemt, dat in werking treedt? Nou, waar bleef dat volle verstand die middag dat ik
thuis kwam van school en mijn moeder was niet thuis en onze koelkast was bevoorraadt met een
groot, paarsig stuk rauwe lever? Ik geloof dat ik al had opgebiecht dat ik een keer een stuk lever
kocht in een slagerij en een beurt heb gegeven achter een reclamebord toen ik op weg was naar een
barmitswah-les. Nou, ik zal even schoon schip maken, Uwe Heiligheid. Dat zij46, het, niet mijn eerste
stuk was. Mijn eerste stuk nam ik in de privacy van mijn eigen huis, opgerold om mijn lul in de
badkamer om half vier en daarna nam ik hem weer aan het uiteinde van een vork, om half zes,
samen met de rest van die arme, onschuldige familie van me.
Dus. Nu weet je47 het ergste dat ik ooit gedaan heb. Ik heb het eten van mijn eigen familie
geneukt.
Behalve als je de opvatting van De Aap deelt dat de meest gruwelijke misdaad die ik ooit
begaan heb, is dat ik haar heb achtergelaten ik Griekenland. Één-na-gruwelijkste: ik heb haar verleid
tot dat driemanschap in Rome. Volgens háár opvatting – en wat voor een opvatting! – ben ik en
alleen ik verantwoordelijk voor die ménage-a-trois48, omdat ik de meer morele en sterkere aard heb
van ons beiden. ‘De Geweldige Filantroop!’ huilt ze. ‘Wiens werk het is om de arme mensen te
beschermen tegen hun huisbazen! Jij, die me de U.S.A. gaf om te lezen! Jíj bent de reden dat ik een
45
In this sentence Alexander switches between stories. It is an abrupt change that I wanted to preserve in the
Target Text, therefore I did not interfere by adding comma’s or full stops.
46
Alexander personifies the piece of liver in the original as well.
47
In Dutch, the personal pronoun you can be either translated with a formal or informal pronoun. In order to
close distance between reader and Alexander I chose the informal pronoun. Besides, Alexander is not talking to
the doctor as if he looks up to him, as he uses swear words and speaks freely about taboo subjects.
48
I wanted to preserve the use of French, as Alexander occasionally uses French in the novel that functions as a
way to show his intelligence. I decided to use the full French term instead of only ménage.
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sollicitatieformulier heb aangevraagd bij Hunter! Jíj bent de reden dat ik mezelf door allerlei bochten
wring om meer te zijn dan alleen maar iemands stomme en domme stoot! En nu behandel je me
alsof ik niets meer ben dan een stuk vlees, om te gebruiken – te gebruiken voor elk pervers en bizar
experiment dat je wilt doen en dan ben jíj zogenaamd de superieure intellectuele! Die verdomme in
educatieve49 programma’s te zien is!
Snap je, in de opvatting van de Aap was het mijn taak om haar uit diezelfde bodemloze put
van lichtzinnigheid en verval te redden, van perversiteit en onstuimigheid en lust50, waarin ik mezelf
juist tevergeefs heb proberen te laten zakken – ik moet haar zogenaamd redden van diezelfde
verleidingen waar ik voor heb gevochten om mezelf juist in te kunnen verliezen. In haar opvatting
draagt zij geen verantwoordelijkheid voor het feit dat zij zelf tussen de lakens fantaseerde over deze
regeling, net zo koortsachtig als ik. Dokter, ik vraag je, wie opperde dit als eerste?51 Vanaf de avond
van onze ontmoeting, wie heeft nou precies wie verleid met het vooruitzicht van nog een vrouw in
ons bed? Geloof me, ik probeer er niet onderuit te komen, ik probeer er juist in te komen! Maar ik
wil dat het volkomen duidelijk is, voor jou en mij en al dan niet voor haar, dat deze hopeloze
neurotische vrouw, deze zielige botergeile hillbillykut nauwelijks míjn slachtoffer genoemd kan
worden. Ik zal simpelweg niet buigen voor dat slachtoffergejammer! Nu is ze dertig en wil ze trouwen
en moeder worden, ze wil fatsoenlijk zijn en in een huis wonen met een echtgenoot (vooral nu de
hoogtijdagen van haar glansrijke carrière praktisch over lijkt te zijn), maar het is gewoon niet logisch
dat, alleen maar omdat ze zichzelf inbeeldt als een uitgebuit en beroofd slachtoffer (wat op zich wel
zo zou kunnen zijn, als je naar haar hele leven kijkt), dat ik degene ben die ze daarvan gaan
beschuldigen. Het is niet míjn schuld dat ze dertig en nog single is. Ík heb haar niet opgepikt uit de
mijnstreken van West Virginia en haar onder mijn hoede genomen. En ik heb haar al helemaal niet in
bed gestopt met die tippelaarster! De waarheid is dat De Aap zelf, met haar decadente Italiaans, uit
49
In Dutch, channels can be informative or educational, but saying educatieve televisie is not specific enough.
Therefore, I decided to change the more general television to programma’s, which can be preceded with an
adjective in Dutch to indicate what sort of programme she is talking about.
50
Register is relatively high compared to language use in the previous paragraph. I tried to recreate that
difference to remind the reader that Alexander is an intelligent man.
51
The question Alexander asks is rhetorical and he proceeds to answer the question himself.
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onze huurauto hing en aan de hoer uitlegde wat we wilden en hoe veel we daarvoor wilden betalen.
Ik zat daar alleen maar achter het stuur, met mijn voet op het gaspedaal, als de bestuurder van de
vluchtauto52… en, geloof me, toen die hoer op de achterbank klom, dacht ik nee. En bij het hotel,
waar het ons lukte om haar alleen naar onze kamer te sturen, langs de bar, dacht ik weer nee. Nee!
Nee! Nee!
Ze was niet lelijk, die hoer, een beetje rond en plomp, maar nog begin twintig met een
aangenaam en vriendelijk gezicht… en gewoonweg prachtige tieten. Daarom hadden we haar ook
uitgekozen toen we langzaam over de Via Veneto reden en het uitgestalde koopwaar hadden
bekeken. De hoer, genaamd Lina, deed haar jurk uit in het midden van de kamer. Daaronder droeg ze
een Merry Widow korset, waaruit de borsten aan de ene kant uitpuilden en de wat ruimere dijen aan
de andere kant uitbolden. Ik was verbaasd over de kleding en het theatrale gehalte ervan – maar op
dat moment verbaasde alles mij, maar bovenal, dat we door hebben gezet na al die maanden erover
gepraat te hebben en het eindelijk gedaan hebben.
De Aap kwam uit de badkamer in haar korte hemdje (normaal gesproken werd ik van dat
zicht alleen al opgewonden, dat crèmekleurige zijden hemdje met een prachtige Aap erin), en ik trok
in de tussentijd al mijn kleding uit en ging naakt aan het voeteneind van het bed zitten. Dat Lina geen
woord Engels sprak maakte het gevoel alleen maar intenser dat tussen De Aap en mij begon te
vloeien, een soort ingetogen sadisme: wij konden met elkaar praten, geheimen en plannen delen
zonder dat de hoer het begreep – zoals zij en De Aap in het Italiaans konden fluisteren zonder dat ik
wist wat ze zeiden, of planden . . . Lina was de eerste die sprak en De Aap vertaalde het. ‘Ze zegt dat
je een grote hebt.’ ‘Dat zegt ze zeker tegen alle kerels.’ Toen stonden ze daar in hun ondergoed en ze
keken mijn kant op – afwachtend. Maar ik wachtte ook af. Mijn hart ging tekeer. Het ging eindelijk
gebeuren, twee vrouwen en ik . . . dus wat nu? Want nog steeds, zie je, zeg ik tegen mezelf Nee!
‘Ze wil weten,’ zei De Aap, nadat Lina voor de tweede keer had gesproken, ‘waar de signore
graag wil dat ze begint.’ ‘De signore’, zei ik, ‘wil graag dat ze begint bij het begin . . .’ Oh, erg scherp
52
getaway driver has a more lengthy equivalent in Dutch, as it is a bestuurder van een vluchtauto.
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geantwoord, erg nonchalant hoor53, behalve dan dat we daar bewegingloos blijven zitten, ik met mijn
stijve, helemaal naakt en ik heb nergens anders verplichtingen. Uiteindelijk is het De Aap die onze
lusten uitvoert. Ze begeeft zich richting Lina, boven wie ze uittorent (o God, is ze niet genoeg? is zij
alleen al niet voldoende om aan mijn behoeften te voldoen? hoe veel lullen heb ik?) en ze stopt haar
hand tussen de benen van de hoer. We hadden van tevoren alle mogelijkheden al besproken,
droomden het nu al maanden hardop en toch sta ik perplex bij het zien van de middelvinger van De
Aap die in de kut54 van Lina verdwijnt.
De staat waar ik vervolgens in verkeerde kan ik het beste beschrijven als hevige drukte. Man,
wat had ik het druk! Ik bedoel, er was gewoon zo veel te doen. Jij gaat hierheen en dan ga ik
daarheen – oké, nu ga jij hier en ik ga daar – goed, nu gaat zij daar naar beneden, terwijl ik naar
boven kom en als jij nou hieromheen een soort van halve draai maakt . . . en zo ging het, dokter,
totdat ik voor de derde en laatste keer kwam. Tegen die tijd was het De Aap die met haar rug op het
bed lag en ik degene met mijn reet naar de kandelaars (en de camera’s, dacht ik vluchtig55) en in het
midden, met haar tieten die ze in de mond van mijn Aap stopte, lag onze hoer. In wiens gat, in wat
voor een gat, ik mijn laatste lading dumpte is volledig een kwestie van speculatie. Het kan zo zijn dat
ik uiteindelijk een of andere vochtige, stinkende combinatie van soppend Italiaans schaamhaar,
vettige Amerikaanse kont en absoluut ranzig beddengoed heb geneukt. Toen stond ik op, liep naar de
badkamer en, dit zal jullie goed doen, dat mijn avondeten weer naar boven kwam. Mijn Kishka’s56,
Moeder – spuugde ze zo uit in de toiletpot. Ben ik geen brave jongen?
53
Alexander seems to be mocking his response (very nonchalant indeed) by using indeed. A specific intonation
is created through his speech and using zeker at the end of the translation could become a more questioning
tone or it may sound as if Alexander is seeking confirmation.
54
For cunt I chose a word that is equivalent to the coarseness of the original.
55
This shows Alexander’s paranoia towards getting caught while doing something his parents would not
approve of.
56
As soon as Alexander refers to his mother, he uses Yiddish again. It was important to preserve that in the
Dutch translation.
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6.4 Portnoy’s Klacht Compared
Portnoy’s Complaint was translated into Dutch shortly after the original was published. In 1969, Else
Hoog’s translation of Portnoy’s Complaint – Portnoy’s klacht – appeared in stores and its popularity
was most likely underestimated, as it had already been printed three times within two months of
publication. Portnoy’s Complaint was analysed and translated for this thesis. The existing translation
can provide insight in the decisions that professional translator Hoog has made. It should be noted
that my translation of Portnoy’s Complaint has been created before the existing translation of the
three passages were analysed, to prevent my translation becoming a copy of Hoog’s translation.
After the completion of my translation it proved interesting to compare the translated passages to
the Hoog’s translation and to the source text. One of the main incentives to compare the passages
was to see whether Leal was correct about the cultural turn in the 1980’s, mentioned in chapter 4.1.
In short, the cultural turn is a more preservative approach towards culture specific items in the target
language, other than naturalising those items. Other interesting translation strategies in Portnoy’s
klacht will be discussed in this chapter as well, strategies that either differ or are similar to that of my
approach. Finally, living languages change over time. An extreme view is that “living languages
change so fast that each translation needs to be reviewed every thirty years” (Doney 18). This quote
is with regard to the publication of the Bible, but the Bible is published in various languages; the
same languages that novelists publish in. It is interesting to research to what extent the language in
Portnoy’s klacht has changed over the past 45 years and whether it is ready for retranslation.
Firstly, the cultural turn Leal mentioned will be researched. The translation of Culture Specific
Items in my translation and that of Hoog will be compared. As mentioned in chapter 4.1, the
translation of culture specific items can be labeled as a translation problem. The struggle between
understandability of the target text and the preservation of source text elements will remain a
problem for translators. In Portnoy’s klacht, the tendency that is visible is that Hoog decided to
preserve Culture Specific Items in her translation. At first, it seems her approach was to deliver a
translation that stays true to content. Examples are the preservation of Clorox, Wildroot Cream Oil,
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Raskolnikov, U.S.A., Hunter, Boston & Northeastern. However, a closer look suggests that this was
not the only strategy used when translating Culture Specific Items.
Another strategy towards the translation of culture specific items is visible in Else Hoog’s
translation as well. Next to an exoticising strategy, which is the preservation of Culture Specific
Terms, Else Hoog has used naturalising approaches for some culture specific items as well. The
translation of Mounds Bar is Marsreep. The specific brand used by Roth has no significant meaning,
explaining why Hoog decided to use the name of a candy bar Dutch readers are familiar with. The
term merry widow corset is translated according to a similar approach as described above. It is
translated as vrolijke weeuwtjes corset. Another example of a naturalising strategy is the translation
of high school in the sentence “It was at the end of my freshman year of high school.” Hoog chose to
adapt high school to middelbare school, which is different from an American High School. I previously
discussed that changing the school system would result in a different text world of the target text as
was created in the original, which is why I did not use middelbare school.
What I found remarkable is that Hoog did not translate Central Station into Centraal Station,
something I did in my translation, especially because Hoog often used a naturalising approach when
a culture specific item was most likely considered too culturally specific to be understood in the
target culture. I decided to translate Central Station, because Alexander’s father says a Central
Station instead of the Central Station, which means he is not talking about a specific station. In the
Netherlands, the name Centraal Station was first given to Amsterdam in the twentieth century. The
term already existed in the Netherlands when Hoog translated Portnoy’s Complaint. The reason for
me to use Centraal Station was because no specific station is mentioned in the source text and the
Dutch term carries the same meaning as the English term, thus omitting the use of an English term in
a Dutch text, without having to change content or style of the original.
Stylistic analysis showed that Yiddish is used as a means to convey the influence of Judaism in
Portnoy’s Complaint. However, Alexander uses significantly less Yiddish when he recollects events
with his exes who are non-Jewish women, but as soon as he talks about his parents or childhood,
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Yiddish is connected to those memories. As a consequence, Alexander uses Yiddish more frequently
in situations involving other Jewish people. The use of kishkas in the sentence “My kishkas, Mother–
threw them right up into the toilet bowl. Isn’t that a good boy?” implies a sneer directed to
Alexander’s mother. Hoog decided to use a naturalising strategy for the translation of kishkas and
replaced it with avondeten, which is back-translated to dinner. The Jewish element disappears in
Hoog’s translation, even though it is stylistically remarkable in the source text. In my opinion, the
word kishkas seems carefully placed by Roth. It would have made Alexander sound less hateful
towards his mother had he said the English word dinner. This specific passage, passage 3 of my
translation, shows that Alexander uses less Yiddish when he speaks of his ex. However, when his
mother is mentioned in the story, he immediately uses Yiddish. In my translation, I preserved kishkas.
Even though the reader may not know what kishkas are, it should be clear from context that it refers
to Jewish food. With that strategy I preserve both the use of Jewish and the sneer from the source
text.
A more subjective part of the comparison between my translation and Hoog’s translation is
word choice. Portnoy’s klacht is 45 years old and contains words that seem old-fashioned in my
opinion. However, age and language knowledge of a reader are important factors when it comes to
determining whether language use is ‘old-fashioned.’ Readers in their sixties may experience the
translation differently than readers in their twenties. The aim is to remain as objective as possible
when comparing the translated passages.
As mentioned previously, Alexander’s register switches, as well as his choice of can rapidly
switch from religion to masturbation. Alexander speaks about subjects as masturbation as if it is an
everyday topic to him. However, he is a well-educated man and he uses high register words to
describe events, almost making them sound poetical in the process. Hoog has added difference in
register as well by the usage of exaggerated expressions that prove he is eloquent. Hoog was most
likely aware of the stylistic differences in Alexander’s speech. In Hoog’s translation, some words are
used that could be considered outdated nowadays. A few examples from Portnoy’s klacht are
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sentences as “nu vermoed ik ineens dat het woord ‘morgen’, zoals hij dat gebruikt, specifiek
refereert aan de uren tussen acht uur des morgens en twaalf uur des middags” (226) and “ze was de
vervulling van mijn liederlijkste puberdromen” (109). The words ‘des morgens’ and ‘liederlijkste’ are
combinations that are used less frequently in Dutch nowadays. However, it is equally possible that
Hoog used the specific words to show eloquence in Alexander’s speech, as the terms have a
sophisticated air about them. Hoog’s strategy could have been to use words of a higher register to
convey the same effect Alexander’s speech has in the original. The difference in register shows both
sides of Alexander: the calm intellect and the screaming savage. Besides, it does not automatically
mean the reader is unfamiliar with a specific word if that word is not frequently used in everyday
speech. Though it could mean, and in this specific case it does, that a retranslation of a literary work
contains more contemporary language use. Other examples of words and phrases in Hoog’s
translation that would be differently translated nowadays are: filmmatinee, in de ganse boekstaving
der geschiedenis, het geijkte patroon, ik omfloers mijn ogen, ongenaakbare vracht, jegens,
booswicht, mijn ganse loopbaan. As mentioned before, it seems as if Hoog deliberately chose those
forms of expression, like ganse boekstaving and souterrain, to create a difference in register.
However, the distance between those high register words and everyday speech is now greater than it
was 45 years ago.
A striking difference in the interpretation of the source text can be found in the second
passage. Alexander mentions that his father is more likely to knock over a gas station than to commit
adultery. “My own father–fucked shikses? I’ll admit under duress that he fucked my mother . . . but
shikses? I can no more imagine him knocking over a gas station” (59). Hoog interpreted knock over in
the sense of an accident: he accidentally hit a gas station with his car. However, in my opinion,
Alexander does not intend to use knock over in the accidental sense of the word. Knock over could
also mean an armed robbery, which is a deliberate act instead of an accident. In order to be sure that
the connotative meaning of knock over was indeed an armed robbery in the time Roth wrote the
novel I consulted The Cassel’s Dictionary of Slang. The first entry for knock over is: ‘[1920s+] [US
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Police] an armed robbery.’ When Portnoy’s Complaint was published, knock over was already used in
the sense of a robbery. In my opinion, it is more likely for Alexander to draw a parallel between the
deliberate act of adultery and the deliberate act of robbing a gas station. In that case, knock over is
used as a simile for adultery. Translation is a decision-making process, and decisions are based on the
interpretation of the source text by the translator. Especially when different interpretations are
possible, the translator should analyse the text in order to choose from various options to translate
the text.
In conclusion, the comparison between Hoog’s translation and my translation showed
similarities as well as differences. Hoog attempted to recreate Roth’s style in the target language by
varying between high and low register words and phrases, as I have attempted to do in my
translation. The difference in translation approach of culture specific elements shows that the
cultural turn Leal mentions is partly visible in Hoog’s translation. Hoog switched between naturalising
and exoticising strategies to translate culture specific items. In my translation, I decided to maintain
consequent with the translation of those items and chose to exoticise in order to preserve the
content of the original. The question whether a retranslation is necessary of a literary translation
depends on the quality and readability of that translation today. Consequently, it is different for each
translation. Portnoy’s klacht remains readable for a varied audience, even though it contains
infrequently used words in today’s Dutch. Retranslation every three or four decades would be an
exhaustive task. However, in a retranslation different translation strategies would be applied for
culture specific items. In the three compared passages, only one example of different interpretation
was found. On top of that, Hoog decided to replace the Yiddish kishkas with dinner and omits an
important stylistic element. If these differences are a trend that is visible throughout the novel, a
retranslation may be considered.
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Section 7: Conclusion
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7.1 Conclusion
In this thesis different aspects of Portnoy’s Complaint and their relation to translation have been
discussed. In section one, Philip Roth and Portnoy’s Complaint were introduced and a thesis question
was formulated. That question that guided this thesis was:
“What kind of translation problems can occur when translating Portnoy’s Complaint from
English to Dutch, and what are the desirable approaches and solutions to these problems?”
In chapter 1.2 it was concluded that the most prominent possible translation problems were style,
Jewish influences, culture specific items and coarse language use. Each possible problem has been
separately discussed in sections 2, 3, 4 and 5. The translation process of Portnoy’s Complaint was
completed in different stages: with the help of an analysis to detect possible translation problems,
consequently tackling those problems by finding desirable solutions and approaches, and lastly, the
translation of three passages of Portnoy’s Complaint was created. In order to complete that process,
information was gathered about the novel and the author to gain insight in the text world of the
novel.
The method of Leech and Short was chosen as a device to analyse style. Their checklist
contains about every imaginable stylistic device that has been used in literature. With the aid of the
checklist I investigated a multitude of stylistic devices: the most prominent ones as well as subtle
shifts in style. When the translator is aware of stylistic devices that characterise the novel, he can
attempt to recreate them in the target language and can only hope to come anywhere near the style
of Portnoy’s Complaint.
The frequent use of Yiddish caused a translation problem that was not easily solved.
Different approaches were necessary to recreate the style of the source text, consequently
remaining faithful to style and content. If no equivalent Yiddish term was found in Dutch, I resorted
to adding Yiddish in other places in the text. Besides, if a Yiddish word did not have the similar
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exoticising effect as the Yiddish term in the original, I decided to add Yiddish elements. However, this
is not a desirable approach in passages where Alexander talks about his ex-girlfriends: passages in
which he refrains from the use of Yiddish himself.
In section 4, culture specific items were discussed. They are often seen as a translation
problem. However, recent views on translation, guide the translator in a naturalising direction. On
top of that, in order to translate according to the example of a contract – to create a flawless Dutch
translation that is faithful to both the content and the style of the original – a preservative approach
is recommended. Else Hoog used different strategies to translate culture specific items. She switches
between naturalising and exoticising approaches, which shows no consistent strategy.
The final element that could cause translation problems is the novel’s sexually explicit
nature. The translator should be aware of the impact of coarse words. The translator should
determine which Dutch coarse word is faithful to both meaning and stylistic effect of the source text.
Creativity is also necessary for the translation, to recreate the various ways Alexander describes
sexual acts. The same synonyms should not be used too often in one passage, as the text could
become monotonous.
The collective aim of sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 was to tackle translation problems that could
appear in Portnoy’s Complaint, before these would reveal themselves during translation. Problems
might not have been revealed at all, had the text not been analysed. For example the subtle increase
in use of Yiddish when Alexander talks about his childhood. The translation of literary texts is a
decision-making process and with the help of analysis the translator is better prepared. As a result
the translator can make decisions based on knowledge of the source text. The translator has tested
his or her competencies that are needed to translate Portnoy’s Complaint. If one or more
competencies are insufficient and the translator is aware of that insufficiency, he or she can consult
other resources to become competent. During the translation of Portnoy’s Complaint, personal
incompetency regarding Yiddish was revealed. However, after I gathered information about Yiddish
in general and Yiddish as it is used by Jews in the Netherlands I became aware of various resources to
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consult. Translating Yiddish from English to Dutch is a specific translation problem that has hardly
been discussed in translation studies. It can be said that it is a specific translation problem of
Portnoy’s Complaint.
In order to determine what translation strategies were desired to solve those problems the
contract from the Vereniging van Letterkundigen played a large role. In general, the translator of a
literary text “agrees to deliver a flawless Dutch translation that is faithful to both the content and the
style of the original, and is created using the original work as a direct source.” A conscientious
translation approach is needed to convey content and style as it was created in the original. In order
to adequately translate it is important to be aware of the characteristics of the novel and the unique
writing style of the author. In short: a close reading of the source text revealed possible translation
problems. It showed the delicate combination between coarse language use and intelligent language
use of the protagonist. It revealed the importance of the struggle between being and American and
being a Jew, and how this is portrayed in the novel. The possible problems were discussed to find a
solution in order to prevent mistakes. Hopefully, analysis and the discussion of translation problems
have resulted in well-considered choices for my translation of Portnoy’s Complaint. The translation
should function autonomously in the target culture and should be faithful to both the content and
style of the original.
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Section 8: Bibliography
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8. Bibliography
Abrams, M.H. Harpham, Geoffrey. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston, USA: Wadsworth Cengage
Learning, 2005. Print
Aixelá, Javier Franco. “Culture-Specific Items in Translation.” Translation, Power, Subversion.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1996. 52-78. Web. October 2014. Ed. Álvarez, Román. Vidal,
M. Carmen-África.
American Library Association. “About Banned & Challenged Books.” Web. May 2014.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and his World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1968. Web. July
2014.Trans. Hélène Iswolsky.
Baumgarten, Murray. Gottfried, Barbara. Understanding Philip Roth. South Carolina: University of
South Carolina Press. 1990. Print.
Bassnett, Susan. Reflections on Translation. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2011. Print.
Berman, Jeffrey. “Revisiting Roth’s Psychoanalysts.” The Cambridge Companion to Philip Roth.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 94-110. Print.
Boase-Beier, Jean. “Stylistics and Translation.” The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 2011. 71-82. Ed. Malmkjær, K. Windle, K. Print.
Della Pergola, Sergio. “World Jewish Population 2002.” American Jewish Year Book. New York, 2002.
Web. May 2014.
Doney, Meryl. How the Bible Came to Us: The Story of the Book That Changed the World. Oxford,
England: Lion Pub., 1997. Web. October 2014.
Erwin, Edward. The Freud Encyclopedia: theory, therapy and culture. New York: Routledge. 2002.
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Escoffier, Jeffrey. ‘Fabulous Politics.’ The world the sixties made: politics and culture in recent
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Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1950. Web. July 2014.
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Gouadec, Daniel. ‘Quality in Translation.’ Handbook of Translation Studies Volume 1. Amsterdam:
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Green, Jonathon. Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang. London: Cassell & Co. 2002. Print.
Grit, Diederik. ‘De vertaling van realia,’ Denken over Vertalen. Nijmegen: Uitgeverij VanTilt, 2010.
189-196 Print. Trans. Cornelie van Rinsum and Henri Bloemen. Ed. Naaijkens, Ton et al.
Heestermans, Hans. Erotisch Woordenboek. Utrecht: Het Spectrum. 1980. Print.
Hollitscher, Walter. Sigmund Freud: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1947. Web. June 2014.
Avishai, Bernard. ‘Why is ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’ Such an Enduring Novel?’ New York: Huffington Post.
2012. Web. December 2014.
Iwasaki, S. Inkapiromu, P. A reference grammar of Thai. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2005.
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Lambert, Joshua. Unclean Lips: Obscenity and Jews in American Literature. New York: NYU Press.
2013. Web. June 2014.
Leal, Alice. ‘Equivalence.’ Handbook of Translation Studies Volume 3. Ed. Gambier, Doorslaer.
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Leech, Geoffrey. Short, Mick. Style in Fiction. A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional
Prose. London: Longman, 2007. Print.
Lefevere, André. Translating Literarute: The German Tradition. Assen: Van Gorcum & Comp B.V.
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MacGowan, Christopher. The Twentieth-Century American Fiction Handbook. New York: Random
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Nord, Christiane. “Tekstanalyse en de moeilijkheidsgraad van een vertaling.” Denken over Vertalen.
Nijmegen: Uitgeverij VanTilt, 2010. 145-152. Print. Trans. Cornelie van Rinsum and Henri
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Nord, Christiane. Text Analysis in Translation: theory, methodology, and didactic application of a
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Parrish, Timothy. “Introduction: Roth at mid-career.” The Cambridge Companion to Philip Roth.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 1-8. Print.
Pinsker, Sanford. The Comedy That ‘Hoits’ : an essay on the fiction of Philip Roth. Columbia:
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Plimpton, George. Roth, Philip. “On Portnoy’s Complaint.” Philip Roth’s PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT. Ed.
Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. 5-10. Print.
Roth, Philip. The Facts: A Novelist’s Autobiography. New York: Vintage Books, 1988. Print.
Roth, Philip. Searles, George. Conversations with Philip Roth. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,
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Roth, Philip. Portnoy’s Complaint. New York: Bantam Books, 1969. Print.
Roth, Philip. Portnoy’s klacht. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1969. Trans. Else Hoog. Print.
Shostak, Debra. Philip Roth – Countertexts, Counterlives. Columbia: University of South Carolina
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University of Melbourne. “Banned Books in Australia.” July 2010. Web. May 2014.
Valk van der, Marissa. Jofel Jiddisj: van achenebbisj tot zwansen. Amsterdam: L. J. Veen. 2003. Print.
Vereniging van Letterkundigen. ‘Modelcontract voor de uitgave van een vertaling van een literair
werk’. Web. November 2014.
Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013. Web.
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Wollheim, Richard. Sigmund Freud. New York: Viking Press. 1971. Print.
Wyke, Ben v. “Ethics and Translation.” Handbook of Translation Studies Volume 1. Ed. Gambier,
Doorslaer. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V. 2010. Print.
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Section 9: Appendix
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9.1 Source Text Fragment 1 Pages 11 – 14
WHACKING OFF
Then came adolescence–half of my waking life spent locked behind the bathroom door, firing my
wad down the toilet bowl, or into the soiled clothes in the laundry hamper, or splat, up against the
medicine-chest mirror, before which I stood in my dropped drawers so I could see how it looked
coming out. Or else I was doubled over my flying fist, eyes pressed closed but mouth wide open, to
take that sticky sauce of buttermilk and Clorox on my own tongue and teeth–though not
infrequently, in my blindness and ecstasy, I got it all in the pompadour, like a blast of Wild-root
Cream Oil. Through a world of matted handkerchiefs and crumpled Kleenex and stained pajamas, I
moved my raw and swollen penis, perpetually in dread that my loathsomeness would be discovered
by someone stealing upon me just as I was in the frenzy of dropping my load. Nevertheless, I was
wholly incapable of keeping my paws from my dong once it started the climb up my belly. In the
middle of class I would raise a hand to be excused, rush down the corridor to the lavatory, and with
ten or fifteen savage strokes, beat off standing up into a urinal. At the Saturday afternoon movie I
would leave my friends to go off the candy machine–and wind up in a distant balcony seat, squirting
my seed into the empty wrapper from a Mounds bar. On an outing of our family association, I once
cored an apple, saw to my astonishment (and with the aid of my obsession) what it looked like, and
ran off into the woods to fall upon the orifice of the fruit, pretending that the cool and mealy hole
was actually between the legs of that mythical being who always called me Big Boy when she
pleaded for what no girl in all recorded history had ever had. “Oh shove it in me, Big Boy,” cried the
cored apple that I banged silly on that picnic. “Big Boy, Big Boy, oh give me all you’ve got,” begged
the empty milk bottle that I kept hidden in our storage bin in the basement, to drive wild after school
with my vaseline upright. “Come, Big Boy, come,” screamed the maddened piece of liver that, in my
own insanity, I bought one afternoon at a butcher shop and, believe it or not, violated behind a
billboard on the way to a bar mitzvah lesson.
It was at the end of my freshman year of high school–and freshman year of masturbating–
that I discovered on the underside of my penis, just where the shaft meets the head, a little
discolored dot that has since been diagnosed as a freckle. Cancer. I had given myself Cancer. All that
pulling and tugging at my own flesh, all that friction, had given me an incurable disease. And not yet
fourteen! In bed at night the tears rolled from my eyes. “No!” I sobbed. “I don’t want to die! Please–
no!” But then, because I would very shortly be a corpse anyway, I went ahead as usual and jerked off
into my sock. I had taken to carrying the dirty socks into bed with me at night so as to be able to use
one as a receptacle upon retiring, and the other upon awakening.
If only I could cut down to one hand-job a day, or hold the line at two, or even three! But
with the prosper of oblivion before me, I actually began to set new records for myself. Before meals.
After meals. During meals. Jumping up from the dinner table, I tragically clutch at my belly–diarrhea!
I cry, I have been stricken with diarrhea!–and once behind the locked bathroom door, slip over my
head a pair of underpants that I have stolen from my sister’s dresser and carry rolled in a
handkerchief in my pocket. So galvanic is the effect of cotton panties against my mouth–so galvanic
is the word “panties”–that the trajectory of my ejaculation reaches startling new heights: leaving my
joint like a rocket it makes right for the light bulb overhead, where to my wonderment and horror, it
hits and it hangs. Wildly in the first moment I cover my head, expecting an explosion of glass, a burst
of flames–disaster, you see, is never far from my mind. Then quietly as I can I climb the radiator and
remove the sizzling gob with a wad of toilet paper. I begin a scrupulous search of the shower curtain,
the tub, the tile floor, the four toothbrushes–God forbid!–and just as I am about to unlock the door,
imagining I have covered my tracks, my heart lurches at the sight of what is hanging like snot to the
toe of my shoe. I am the Raskolnikov of jerking off–the sticky evidence is everywhere! Is it on my
cuffs too? in my hair? my ear? All this I wonder even as I come back to the kitchen table, scowling
and cranky, to grumble self-righteously at my father when he opens his mouth full of red jello and
says, “I don’t understand what you have to lock the door about. That to me is beyond
comprehension. What is this, a home or a Grand Central Station? “. . . privacy . . . a human being . . .
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around here never,” I reply, then push aside my dessert to scream, “I don’t feel well–will everybody
leave me alone?”
After dessert–which I finish because I happen to like jello, even if I detest them–after dessert
I am back in the bathroom again. I burrow through the week’s laundry until I uncover one of my
sister’s soiled brassieres. I string one shoulder strap over the knob of the bathroom door and the
other on the know of the linen closet: a scarecrow to bring on more dreams. “Oh beat it, Big Boy,
beat it to a red-hot pulp –” so I am being urged by the little cups of Hannah’s brassiere, when a
rolled-up newspaper smacks at the door. And sends me and my handful an inch off the toilet seat. “–
Come on, give somebody else a crack at that bowl, will you?” my father says. “I haven’t moved my
bowels in a week.”
I recover my equilibrium, as is my talent, with a burst of hurt feelings. “I have a terrible case
of diarrhea! Doesn’t that mean anything to anyone in this house?”–in the meantime resuming the
stroke, indeed quickening the tempo as my cancerous organ miraculously begins to quiver again from
the inside out.
Then Hannah’s brassiere begins to move. To swing to and fro! I veil my eyes, and behold!–
Lenore Lapidus! who has the biggest pair in my class, running for the bus after school, her great
untouchable load shifting weightily inside her blouse, oh I urge them up from their cups, and over,
LENORE LAPIDUS ACTUAL TITS, and realize in the same split second that my mother is vigorously
shaking the doorknob. Of the door I have finally forgotten to lock! I knew it would happen one day!
Caught! As good as dead!
“Open up, Alex. I want you to open up this instant.”
It’s locked, I’m not caught! And I see from what’s alive in my hand that I’m not quite dead yet
either. Beat on then! Beat on! “Lick me, Big Boy–lick me a good hot lick! I’m Lenore Lapidus big fat
red-hot brassiere!”
“Alex, I want an answer from you. Did you eat French fries after school? Is that why you’re
sick like this?”
“Nuhhh, nuhhh.”
“Alex, are you in pain? Do you want me to call the doctor? Are you in pain, or aren’t you? I
want to know exactly where it hurts. Answer me.”
“Yuhh, yuhhh –”
“Alex, I don’t want you to flush the toilet,” says my mother sternly. “I want to see what
you’ve done in there. I don’t like the sound of this at all.”
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9.2 Source Text Fragment 2 Pages 58 - 61
Such a creature, needless to say, has never been boiled alive in our house–the lobster, I refer to. A
shikse has never been in our house period, and so it’s a matter of conjecture in what condition she
might emerge from my mother’s kitchen. The cleaning lady is obviously a shikse, but she doesn’t
count because she’s black.
Ha ha. A shikse has never been in our house because I have brought her there, is what I mean
to say. I do recall one that my father brought home with him for dinner one night when I was still a
boy: a thin, tense, shy, deferential, soft-spoken, aging cashier from his office named Anne McCaffery.
Doctor, could he have been slipping it to her? I can’t believe it! Only it suddenly occurs to me.
Could my father have been slipping it to this lady on the side? I can still remember how she sat down
beside me on the sofa, and in her nervousness made a lengthy to-do of spelling her first name, and of
pointing out to me how it ended with an E, which wasn’t always the case with someone called Anne–
and so on and so forth . . . and meanwhile, though her arms were long and skinny and freckled (Irish
arms, I thought) inside her smooth white blouse, I could see she had breasts that were nice and
substantial–and I kept taking peeks at her legs, too. I was only eight or nine, but she really did have
such a terrific pair of legs that I couldn’t keep my eyes away from them, the kind of legs that every
once in a while it surprises you to find some pale spinster with a pinched face walking around on top
of . . . With those legs–why, of course he was shtupping her . . . Wasn’t he?
Why he brought her home, he said, was “for a real Jewish meal.” For weeks he had been
jabbering about the new goyische cashier (“a very plain drab person,” he said, “who dresses in
shmattas”) who had been pestering him–so went the story he couldn’t stop telling us–for a real
Jewish meal from the day she had come to work in the Boston & Northeastern office. Finally my
mother couldn’t take any more. “All right, bring her already–she needs it so bad, so I’ll give her one.”
Was he caught a little by surprise? Who will ever know.
At any rate, a Jewish meal is what she got all right. I don’t think I have ever heard the word
“Jewish” spoken so many times in one evening in my life, and let me tell you, I am a person who has
heard the word “Jewish” spoken.
This is your real Jewish chopped liver, Anne. Have you ever had real Jewish chopped liver
before? Well, my wife makes the real thing, you can bet your life on that. Here, you eat it with a
piece of bread. This is real Jewish rye bread, with seeds. That’s it, Anne, you’re doing very good, ain’t
she doing good, Sophie, for her first time? That’s it, take a nice piece of real Jewish rye, now take a
big fork full of the real Jewish chopped liver”–and on and on, right down to the jello–“that’s right,
Anne, the jello is kosher too, sure, of course, has to be–oh no, oh no, no cream in your coffee, not
after meat, ha ha, hear what Anne wanted, Alex - ?”
But babble-babble all you want, Dad dear, a question has just occurred to me, twenty-five
years later (not that I have a single shred of evidence, not that until this moment I have ever
imagined my father capable of even the slightest infraction of domestic law . . . but since infraction
seems to hold for me a certain fascination), a question has arisen in the audience: why did you bring
a shikse, of all things, into our home? Because you couldn’t bear that a gentile woman should go
through life without the experience of eating a dish of Jewish jello? Or because you could no longer
live your own life without making Jewish confession? Without confronting your wife with your crime,
so she might accuse, castigate, humiliate, punish, and this bleed you forever of your forbidden lusts!
Yes, a regular Jewish desperado, my father. I recognize the syndrome perfectly. Come, someone,
anyone, find me out and condemn me–I did the most terrible thing you can think of: I took what I am
not supposed to have! Chose pleasure for myself over duty to my loved ones! Please, catch me,
incarcerate me, before God forbid I get away with it completely–and go out and do again something I
actually like!
And did my mother oblige? Did Sophie put together the two tits and the two legs and come
up with four? Me it seems to have taken two and a half decades to do such steep calculation. Oh, I
must be making this up, really. My father . . . and a shikse? Can’t be. Was beyond his ken. My own
father–fucked shikses? I’ll admit under duress that he fucked my mother . . . but shikses? I can no
more imagine him knocking over a gas station.
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But then why is she shouting at him so, what is this scene of accusation and denial, of
castigation and threat and unending tears . . . what is this all about except that he has done
something that is very bad and maybe even unforgivable? The scene itself is like some piece of heavy
furniture that sits in my mind and will not budge–which leads me to believe that, yes, it actually did
happen. My sister, I see, is hiding behind my mother: Hannah is clutching her around the middle and
whimpering, while my mother’s own tears are tremendous and fall from her face all the way to the
linoleum floor. Simultaneously with the tears she is screaming so loud at him that her veins stand
out–and screaming at me too, because, looking further into this thing, I find that while Hannah hides
behind my mother, I take refuge behind the culprit himself. Oh, this is pure fantasy, this is right out of
the casebook, is it not? No, no, that is nobody else’s father but my own who now brings his fist down
on the kitchen table and shouts back at her, “I did no such thing! That is a lie and wrong!” Only wait a
minute–it’s me who is screaming “I didn’t do it!” The culprit is me! And why my mother weeps so is
because my father refuses to potch my behind, which she promised would be potched, “and good,”
when he found out the terrible thing I had done.
When I am bad and rotten in small ways she can manage me herself: she has, you recall–I
know I recall!–only to put me in my coat and galoshes–oh, nice touch, Mom, those galoshes!–lock
me out of the house (lock me out of the house!) and announce through the door that she is never
going to let me in again, so I might as well be off and into my new life; she has only to take that
simple and swift course of action to get instantaneously a confession, a self-scarification, and, if she
should want it, a signed warranty that I will be one hundred percent pure and good for the rest of my
life–all this if only I am allowed back inside that door, where they happen to have my bed and my
clothes and the refrigerator. But when I am really wicked, so evil that she can only raise her arms to
God Almighty to ask Him what she has done to deserve such a child, at such times my father is called
in to mete out justice: my mother herself is too sensitive, too fine a creature, it turns out, to
administer corporal punishment: “It hurts me,” I hear her explain to my aunt Clara, “more than it
hurts him. That’s the kind of person I am. I can’t do it, and that’s that.” Oh poor Mother.
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9.3 Source Text Fragment 3 Pages 93 - 97
I suddenly remember how my mother taught me to piss standing up! Listen, this may well be the
piece of information we’ve been waiting for, the key to what determined my character, what causes
me to be living in this predicament, torn by desires that are repugnant to my conscience, and a
conscience repugnant to my desires. Here is how I learned to pee into the bowl like a big man. Just
listen to this!
I stand over the circle of water, my baby’s weeny jutting cutely forth, while my momma sits
beside the toilet on the rim of the bathtub, one hand controlling the tap of the tub (from which a
trickle runs that I am supposed to imitate) and her other hand tickling the underside of my prick. I
repeat: tickling my prickling! I guess she thinks that’s how to get stuff come out of the front of that
thing, and let me tell you, the lady is right. “Make a nice sis, bubala, make a nice little sissy for
Mommy,” sings Mommy to me, while in actuality what I am standing there making with her hand on
my prong is in all probability my future! Imagine! The ludicrousness! A man’s character is being
forged, a destiny is being shaped . . . oh, maybe not . . . At any rate, for what the information is
worth, in the presence of another man I simply cannot draw my water. To this very day. My bladder
may be distended to watermelon proportions, but interrupted by another presence before the
stream has begun (you want to hear everything, okay, I’m telling everything) which is that in Rome,
Doctor, The Monkey and I picked up a common whore in the street and took her back to bed with us.
Well, now that’s out. It seems to have taken me some time.
The bus, the bus, what intervened on the bus to prevent me from coming all over the
sleeping shikses arm–I don’t know. Common sense, you think? Common decency? My right mind, as
they say, coming to the fore? Well, where is this right mind on that afternoon I came home from
school to find my mother out of the house, and our refrigerator stocked with a big purplish piece of
raw liver? I believe that I have already confessed to the piece of liver that I bought in a butcher shop
and banged behind a billboard on the way to a bar mitzvah lesson. Well, I wish to make a clean
breast of it, Your Holiness. That–she–it–wasn’t my first piece. My first piece I had in the privacy of my
own home, rolled round my cock in the bathroom at three-thirty–and then had again on the end of a
fork, at five-thirty, along with the other members of that poor innocent family of mine.
So. Now you know the worst thing I have ever done. I fucked my own family’s dinner.
Unless you share with The Monkey her contention that the most heinous crime of my career
was abandoning her in Greece. Second most heinous: leading her into that triumvirate in Rome. In
her estimation–some estimation, that!–I am solely responsible for making that ménage, because
mine is the stronger and more moral nature. “The Great Humanitarian!” she cries. “The one whose
job it is to protect the poor poor people against their landlords! You, who gave me that U.S.A. to
read! You’re why I got the application blank to Hunter! You’re why I’m killing myself to be something
more than just somebody’s dumb and stupid piece of ass! And now you want to treat me like I’m
nothing but just some hump, to use–use for every kinky weirdo thing you want to do–and like you’re
supposed to be the superior intellectual! Who goes on educational fucking television!
You see, in this Monkey’s estimation it was my mission to pull her up from those very abysses
of frivolity and waste, of perversity and wildness and lust, into which I myself have been so vainly
trying all my life successfully to sink–I am supposed to rescue her from those very temptations I have
been struggling all these years to yield to! And it is of no consequence to her whatsoever that in bed
she herself has been fantasying about this arrangement no less feverishly than I have. Doctor, I ask
you, who was it that made the suggestion in the first place? Since the night we met, just who has
been tempting whom with the prospect of yet another woman in our bed? Believe me, I’m not trying
to slither out of my slime–I am trying to slither into it!–but it must be made absolutely clear, to you
and me if not to her, that this hopelessly neurotic woman, this pathetic screwy hillbilly cunt, is hardly
what could be called my victim. I simply will not bend to that victim shit! Now she’s thirty, wants to
be married and a mother, wants to be respectable and live in a house with a husband (particularly as
the high-paying years of her glamorous career appear to be just about over), but it does not follow
that just because she imagines herself victimized and deprived and exploited (and may even be,
taking a long view of her life), that I am the one upon whom they are going to pin the rap. I didn’t
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make her thirty years old and single. I didn’t take her from the coal fields of West Virginia and make
her my personal charge–and I didn’t put her in bed with that streetwalker either! The fact is that it
was The Monkey herself, speaking her high-fashion Italian, who leaned out of our rented car and
explained to the whore what it was we wanted and how much we were willing to pay. I simply sat
there behind the wheel, one foot on the gas pedal, like the getaway driver that I am . . . And, believe
me, when that whore climbed into the back seat, I thought no; and at the hotel, where we managed
to send her up alone to our room, by the way of the bar, I thought no again. No! No! No!
She wasn’t bad-looking, this whore, sort of round and dumpy, but in her early twenties with a
big pleasant open face–and just stupendous tits. Those were what we’d picked her out for, after
driving slowly up and down the Via Veneto examining the merchandise on parade. The whore, whose
name was Lina, took her dress off standing in the middle of the room; underneath she wore a “merry
widow” corset, from which the breasts bubbled up at one end, and the more ample thighs rippled
out at the other. I was astonished by the garment and its theatricality–but then I was astonished by
everything, above all, that we had gone ahead after all these months of talking, and finally done it.
The Monkey came out of the bathroom in her short chemise (ordinarily a sight that made me
very hot, that cream-colored silk chemise with a beautiful Monkey in it), and I meanwhile took off all
my clothes and sat naked at the foot of the bed. That Lina spoke not a word of English only
intensified the feeling that began to ebb and flow between The Monkey and myself, a kind of
restrained sadism: we could speak to one another, exchange secrets and plans without the whore’s
understanding–as she and The Monkey could whisper in Italian without my knowledge of what they
might be saying, or plotting . . . Lina spoke first and The Monkey turned to translate. “She says you
have a big one.” “I’ll bet she says that to all the boys.” Then they stood there in their underwear
looking my way–waiting. But so was I waiting too. And was my heart pounding. It had to come to
pass, two women and me . . . so now what happens? Still, you see, I’m saying to myself No!
“She wants to know,” said The Monkey, after Lina had spoken a second time, “where the
signore would like her to begin.” “The signore,” said I, “wishes her to begin at the beginning . . .” Oh,
very witty that reply, very nonchalant indeed, only we continue to sit there motionless, me and my
hard-on, all undressed and no place to go. Finally it is The Monkey who sets our lust in motion. She
moves across to Lina, above whom she towers (oh God, isn’t she enough? isn’t she really sufficient
for my needs? how many cocks have I got?), and puts her hand between the whore’s legs. We had
imagined it beforehand in all its possibilities, dreamed it all out loud for many many months now,
and yet I am dumbstruck at the sight of The Monkey’s middle finger disappearing up into Lina’s cunt.
I can best describe the state I subsequently entered as one of unrelieved busy-ness. Boy, was
I busy! I mean there was just so much to do. You go here and I’ll go there–okay, now you go here and
I’ll go there–all right, now she goes down that way, while I head up this way, and you sort of half turn
around on this . . . and so it went, Doctor, until I came my third and final time. The Monkey was by
then the one with her back on the bed, and I the one with my ass to the chandelier (and the cameras,
I fleetingly thought)–and in the middle, feeding her tits into my Monkey’s mouth, was our whore.
Into whose hole, into what sort of hole, I deposited my final load is entirely a matter for conjecture. It
could be that in the end I wound up fucking some dank, odoriferous combination of sopping Italian
pubic hair, greasy American buttock, and absolutely rank bedsheet. Then I got up, went into the
bathroom, and, you’ll all be happy to know, regurgitated my dinner. My kishkas, Mother–threw them
right up into the toilet bowl. Isn’t that a good boy?
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