Her given name definitely means miracle. Something to wonder at. You may read her family name as the Arab personal name meaning sacred.
Sacred Miracle. That would be holy communion. I have not noticed that Mireille Gansel is especially Catholic but neither is she an especially materialist socialist.
She is best known as the translator of Nelly Sachs, a witness to the extermination of the Jews of Europe. Mireille’s name recalls to me the words of a Jewish martyr,
“where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” She works with collaborators in communion with the creator.
Traduire comme transhumer
When a French speaker translates, she leads across. The second part of the word is the same as in duke, a leader, and educate, to lead out. As, for instance, leading the flock to the highland from the valley and back again.
In French transhumer is just another verb for a still-living practice of the traditonal world. What everyone is doing at all times in the Hebrew scriptures. Here in the United States we don’t.
In the first centuries of settlement we grazed pigs and poultry at large then drove them to market, a one-way trip. From our last civil war through our first European one we exterminated the transhumant bison then drove cattle to the fattening pens one last time before we started making movies about it.
In English transhumance is an anthropologist’s word for something moderns don’t do, like slash and burn agriculture. Try to forget your English. Note that this photograph is from 2017.
I don’t know who is leading, traduire, this transhumance up that switchback to cross a ridge. Not the dog. But I am reminded again of the Jew who never stopped talking about the work of the shepherd.
This is the first Viet Nam letter of exactly 1 so far about Traduire Comme Transhumer by Mireille Gansel.
We also have addressed 1 only to her translation “Chaque jour je viens quand même” with poet Xuân Diệu and editor Hữu Ngọc from poet Hoàng Trung Thông on November 7, 2022.
We have written once only also on the 3 friends’ translation “Les fleurs s'ouvrent sur ta tombe” from poet Thanh Hai on February 7, 2023, and on “Questions sous terre” from poet Tế Hanh on December 9, 2022
We have twice sent letters on their translation“Être mère au Viet Nam” from poet Chế Lan Viên, the first on November 30, 2022, and the second on December 27, 2022.
We twice have addressed as well their translation “Poème des chauffeurs de camion sans pare-brise” from poet Phạm Tiến Duật, first on December 18, 2022, the again on January 8, 2023.
Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.
