LITERAL TRANSLATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20792, 7 February 1931, Page 9 (Supplement)

LITERAL TRANSLATION.

GOOD ADVICE UNHEEDED. In the epilogue of " The Sphinx Has Spoken," a translation of Maurice Dekobra's novel, dedicated to the officers of the Anglo-Indian army, Colonel Roberts is invited by a motion picture magnate to point out technical errors in a picture of India. It is a pity-the publishers, T. Werner' Laurie, Limited, did not the same' with the book. Such a course would have made the novel less galling to those who know how things are done in the services, who know how British officers address each other in private, in the mess and on duty, and who know that they do not drink port and 6moke cigars wnile waiting to take ladies into dinner. French forms of address, liter-, ally translated, fall harshly on . English ears, and the habit of writing _ in the present tense in the manner of directions to puppets on a stage does not appeal. In spite of these faults "The Sphinx has Spoken" is interesting chiefly because of its unusual p10t... Alba de Vogales, a Creole beauty, seems to have passion enough for several women, and two British officers in turn become her victims. In the Khyber Pass they find that she i 3 not worth bothering about, and over their dead love they vow an eternal friendship, which is broken when Madame reappears to vent the fury of a woman scorned. But, again, it is a pity that a British officer with literary inclinations wa3 not asked to scan the proofs of the boo'i. Had that been done, the drawing of the characters of Roberts and his associates might have been improved and the novel better suited to occupy an honoured place on any bookshelf. - ,