Is 'caramel' an adequate or acceptable substitute for 'chanterelle' (as in the mushroom) ?
And, if not, is that reason enough to start an international controversy ?
Yes, the good folks at the (Nobel-awarding-)Swedish Academy can't seem to keep out of the limelight, even as these days should be all about Mo Yan. As for example The Local reports, Mushroom mix-up taints Swedish Academy. -- featuring everyone's favorite institutional old man (now that Knut Ahnlund has been resigned; see my previous mention), Göran Malmqvist. Already disturbed by Chinese poet Li Li's translation of a Tomas Tranströmer poem in which the uppity translator substituted 'caramel' for 'chanterelle', the eighty-eight-year-old Malmqvist apparently went ballistic when he thought Li Li also took a shot at the fact that the stud Göran has a wife barely half his age:
Even Swedish Academy secretary (and proud new dad -- the reason he wasn't the one to introduce Mo's Nobel lecture) Peter Englund felt compelled to weigh in -- and out, distancing the institution from the cat fight ("Detta är alltså inte något som Svenska Akademien är inblandad i, ställer sig bakom, sysslar med, ursäktar eller försvara")
Yes, the good folks at the (Nobel-awarding-)Swedish Academy can't seem to keep out of the limelight, even as these days should be all about Mo Yan. As for example The Local reports, Mushroom mix-up taints Swedish Academy. -- featuring everyone's favorite institutional old man (now that Knut Ahnlund has been resigned; see my previous mention), Göran Malmqvist. Already disturbed by Chinese poet Li Li's translation of a Tomas Tranströmer poem in which the uppity translator substituted 'caramel' for 'chanterelle', the eighty-eight-year-old Malmqvist apparently went ballistic when he thought Li Li also took a shot at the fact that the stud Göran has a wife barely half his age:
"He is an evil person. I will annihilate him, like you crush a louse with your thumbnail," he wrote to his academy colleague Per Wästberg, 76.See the original Swedish report in Aftonbladet for more of the details of this truly bizarre case.
Even Swedish Academy secretary (and proud new dad -- the reason he wasn't the one to introduce Mo's Nobel lecture) Peter Englund felt compelled to weigh in -- and out, distancing the institution from the cat fight ("Detta är alltså inte något som Svenska Akademien är inblandad i, ställer sig bakom, sysslar med, ursäktar eller försvara")