As you may have heard, Ernest Hemingway was particularly proud of his six word story,
“For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”
And rightly so. A concise work with protagonist, scenario and resolution punctuated and wrapped neatly into a oneliner that can justly be called a story. However a slew of copycat sixworders have hit blogs around the web, each as weak as the next with often pithy headlines that aspire to the American author’s genius only to consistently fall somewhat short.
Thankfully, in late 2006 Wired ran the scifi version and the Guardian the ‘contemporary authors’ version shortly thereafter. It’s a very interesting phenomenon and well worth exploring but far from suggesting additional asassinations be added to the messy fray; what could also be of interest in the eye of a language enthusiast is the challenge that translating these stories presents.
The additional problem of word limit may have been artificially created through people latching on to the fact that the Hemingway story is just six words long and deemed this to be its true mark of excellence. However he perhaps wasn’t counting when he wrote, aiming for concision while retaining his meaning. In translating, then, how concerned should the translator be with the quantity of text?
“A vendre : chaussures bébé, jamais portées”
At least in French, this doesn’t seem to be too much of a concern.
