14 The Linguist Vol/56 No/2 2017
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When Will McMorran co-translated The 120 Days of Sodom
he struggled to stay faithful to the author's offensive text
T
he Marquis de Sade's earliest work of
fiction, The 120 Days of Sodom, is
also his most extreme. It tells the story
of four libertines – a duke, a bishop, a judge
and a banker – who lock themselves away in
a castle with an entourage that includes two
harems of teenage boys and girls. Four
ageing prostitutes, appointed as storytellers,
each tell of 150 'passions' or perversions
over the course of a month. The libertines
enact the passions they hear described, and
as these become more violent, the narrative
builds to a murderous climax. Though Sade
never finished his novel, and the last three
parts are in note form only, it remains a
uniquely disturbing work.
And, therefore, uniquely challenging to
translate. Perhaps this was the reason no
one had attempted a new translation since
the one first published by Austryn Wainhouse
in 1954 (and revised with Richard Seaver in
1966). In any case, Thomas Wynn and I felt
a new version was long overdue, and, much
to our surprise, Penguin Classics agreed.
Dealing with the violence was not the
only challenge we faced: The 120 Days is
also Sade's most obscene work of fiction.
Over the course of three years, this indeed
was the issue that prompted the most
discussion and debate between us. How
exactly were we to translate the various
rude words of the original French? Was
a vit a 'prick', 'dick' or a 'cock'? Were tétons
'boobs', 'tits' or 'breasts'? Was a derrière
a 'behind', a 'backside' or, indeed, a
'derrière'? Was a cul a 'bum' or an 'arse'?
While Wainhouse adopted an eccentric
idiom that could be best described as
mock-Tudor, we decided to try as far as
possible to use sexual slang that was still
in use today – as long as it did not sound
gratingly contemporary.
As crude as Sade
©
ALAMY
