Translating (as) Excess: Toward Communitas in the Hermeneutics of a Saturated Phenomenon

Structure, rhythm, meter, ca- dence, syntax, connotation, political implications both subtle and overt, character- istic diction, allusions, allegorical suggestions, mood, tone, deconstructive gestures, affinities, aporia, latent ideologies, echoes of literary influence, diachronic literary historical relationships, genre conventions: these are the basic componential stan- dards that variously coalesce on translated texts in addition to the supposedly basic criterion of semantic "accuracy" of varying degrees of "literalness." "Retreat" here designates the kind of extreme of anti- translation, the demand that the excess of the text be met with the infinitude of language proficiency and a congruently sublime hermeneutic; and "to admit de- feat" is typified in the trope of the translators humbly apologetic preface.