André Dumoulin at the Panama Wave Conference 1

British humor

Blackadder

Rowan Atkinson

Monty Python

Reflextion on a world going out of control
http://blogs.prensa.com/periscopio/2014/08/08/reflexiones-sobre-un-mundo-que-se-sale-de-control/

A poem I wrote today:

Ne dites pas glose allie mais dites parlons ensemble.

De galère engloutie en de gluantes gloses
La verdeur de la nuit pénétra ma coquille
Si je voulais sentir la liberté bénie
Des amarres des ports il fallait imposer
Une rupture.

J’avais quitté mille fois mon pays bien-aimé
Croyant pour être heureux sortir de son emprise
Marcher vers des espaces sans être repéré
Pour revenir enfin contre le courant et la brise
Tel un saumon.

Et me voici au cœur des éveils des récifs
Sésame nous voici ouvre nous dont les portes
Dont je ris aux éclats car dans l’univers vide
Le hacker a appris à rire des serrures
Encore faudrait-il qu’il trouve un amour.

Friday September 19

Vendredi 19 septembre

Aujourd'hui qu'ai-je appris? What have I learned?

In the morning  I learned that Scotland has voted, by 55% "No" to breaking up the United Kingdom and becoming an independant country. Good for them. I will not eat any haggis, but this deserve maybe a good scotch whisky.

Then, before leaving our bed in the morning, I learned from my wife that a neighbor is selling cocaine. She told me she has seen him handling package to clients who then sniff the stuff in their car... We debate if denouncing or not...for now we decide not to but if things become worse...that decision could change.


Then I went to the swimming pool of Parque Omar, and met the writer Carlos Wynter.
He invited me to start translating his book "Pecados" - a thematic selection of narratives. We will start this tonight.

At work there was very little work...

So at lunch I could call my sister and talk about her possible decision of leaving her husband because he is addict to heavy drinking...

and on a website called "sossobriety.org", I found the following :

"Family and friends of alcoholics and addicts often suffer as much or more physically and 
psychologically as the addicts themselves. They can get caught up in the behavioural crises  of addicts in ways which then affect their own behaviour and physical and mental health. 
Moreover, their well-meaning actions may not work and they find that their actions are only further alienating the person and causing problems in their relationships. Living with an alcoholic and/or addict is incredibly stressful. The advice and support of other who have or continue to face this situation, as well as speaking to recovering alcoholics and addicts directly themselves, is critical to helping you help yourself and your loved one."

I was happy to talk with my sister...and in the afternoon I published a translation into spanish of a wikipedia article about the writer Joseph Malegue. At the request of a retired teacher in Belgium, Jose Fontaine...


So...what have I learned today? that a day like this is quiet and relax...ZERO STRESS...but still busy. 

Thursday September 11

What I have learned today. At lunch it was raining hard. I am happy in my cozy office at CIAT, and working on translation projects from students. This week, two novels are almost translated. One is of Rose Marie Tapia, and the other is of Ricardo Puello, both panamanian authors. In both cases, I was the director of thesis for the students who chose to translate them as a final project.

It's Thursday...in the morning, at the swimming pool, I talked briefly to a French visitor named Maximilien. He reminded me of how bad the political situation is in France, with a president rejected by 87% of the population. He told me that here in Panama he makes much less money than the average income in France but that his living standard is much better. I feel the same and feel always grateful to live in Panama.

Regarding the same French topic, I found on facebook an interesting literary contact named Veronique de M. She has published an open letter about a libellous book where an ex-lover of the present president describe her frustration at the break-up.

As an editor
She writes; “My job is to be an editor, I help to give birth to literature. I am a kind of midwife, and I know a lot about human desperation, through the drama of incest, vitriolic statements, alcoholism, depression, burnout, cheating, scams and fraud. I usually receive texts which perspire the suffering of those who wrote them. My work is to receive this magma of suffering and to change them into books. All my authors are in a state of post-traumatic disorders, as Valerie Trierweiler, shouting their pain and persuaded that only a book can alleviate their suffering. You probably know, no book alleviate suffering, it is just an element on a path to recovery. When I follow an author, my work is to change a navel-gazing, narcissist and childish manuscript (when we suffer we are always childish) into a text that explain, share, with background and without vain attacks, and with a convenient literary quality even if not talented. “

And this is nicely describing an editor's job, at least applied to non-fictional narrative.

If culture is turning suffering into stories...then suffering is not only redeemed by God but also by literature. Maybe.

It's defeinitely food for my thoughts. 

Orwell and writing rules

This is a BBC article where Orwell is considered as a Mediocrity, for the purpose of triggering the reader's attention, which worked perfectly with me.

Why Orwell was a literary mediocrity

Orwell, most known for his didactic novels "Animal Farm" and "1984", was a bulwark against totalitarian ideologies.
Orwell is extremely effective when translated.
His writing style makes him the most translated English author of the XXth century. Of course he's English, but any literary creation requires a specific cultural foundation. To consider him a mediocrity for the sake of cultural diversity is far-fetched and totally false because his rules for writing are not normative but, rather, set conditions for the effective translatability of the works.