The Fabulous Artificer, the Architect, and the Roadmender: On Re-Translating Aloys Skoumal's Czech Ulysses
2020
Abstract
In 2012, on the 90th anniversary of its publication by Sylvia Beach, the appropriately named Argo Press - a prominent publisher of world fiction - republished Aloys Skoumal's translation of James Joyce's Ulysses. Published in 1976 by Odeon and accompanied by his afterword and annotations, Skoumal's lifelong work is the crowning achievement of a fruitful career.
Skoumal's Odysseus' faithful rendering of the many obscurities of the original's labyrinthine intentions continues to impress. Still, in 2012, it was felt that "over the years Skoumal's freeway has shown a few potholes in need of mending," as Martin Pokorný, the translation editor, has put it.