The translation of Ulysses is a wrong proposition
As we can see in Nepistemology The existence of a well-defined problem does not imply the existence of a solution" (Benford, 1989, p. 155).
Some translations history
In Portuguese we have five. Three in Brazil and two in Portugal.
And there it goes...
But the most amazing is that the language that has more versions of Ulysses, is ... English! ...
Why?
We can understand it using McLuhan notions of hot and cold media and the medium is the message
The concept of hot and cold media encompasses the manner in which various media affect our brain and senses. It also deals with the fact that different media tend to invoke different levels and types of participation. The basic assumption lying behind this dichotomy draws upon the different amount of data each medium is capable of providing. Whereas a hot medium extends our senses with an abundance of detail, a cold one provides considerably lower amount of information. “A hot medium is one that extends one single sense in high definition. High definition is the state of being well filled with data” (Understanding...pg 22” ). Provided that one’s senses are being filled with a sufficient amount of data transmitted by a hot medium, one can hardly expect the recipient to strain himself to increase this amount. If one is given enough information, there is no need to add or complete anything on his/her own. The level of participation is rather low with hot media. McLuhan himself states that:
On the other hand, hot media do not leave so much to be filled in or completed by the audience. Hot media are, therefore, low in participation, and cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience. (“Understanding...” pg 36)
The way hot and cold media affect the level of our participation could be demonstrated on an example of a jigsaw puzzle. A completed puzzle is not a puzzle; it is a finished, enclosed picture and the only way we can interact with it is to perceive it passively. We do not participate in its completion, and it does not invite us to do so. The completed puzzle is a hot medium. An incomplete puzzle of a cold medium, on the other hand, provokes us, lures our senses into putting the missing pieces in the right place. It enables us to engage actively in the process of its completion, therefore is high in participation. Hot media are for example print, photograph and film – all these provide high definition data; cold media are e.g. speech, cartoon, telephone and TV. Cold media provide low definition data, thus leaving more to be filled in by the recipient.
Joyce has to be "heated up" in English, i.e., there is a lot of enigmas, not to mention riddles, puns, metaphors,metonymy, allusions, parodies,characterisations has to be deciphered so they become fit to be put in the right place to have the puzzle revealed.
You can`t find an equivalent into the idiom to be translated keeping the original puzzle fit.
Why the medium is the message influences in all that has to be seen in the J.Joyce Ulysses Interpretation according to McLuhan
What is possible to be done ideally, and this project does it.
Learn English properly, because all the countries targeted idioms teach English one way or another. It does not has to be Oxford or Cambridge.
Find the solution in the original English and translate its explanation to be targeted idiom.
Build it under a Encyclopedic design
Take the explanations from the original text and compare to what happened to them in the translated version of Ulysses.
This project will provide explanation from the sources most usually accepted and an additional McLuhan explanation in hopefully your language