Chapter  Hot Form and Hot Potato: “Grahamising” the Romanian Translation of Ulysses Rareș Moldovan Abstract When in 1984 the first Romanian translation of Ulysses – by noted poet and transla- tor Mircea Ivănescu – was published, it was an epochal achievement. Hailed for its literary and poetic quality as well as for its technical prowess, the translation became a gold standard in Romanian literary culture. The aura endures, deservedly for the most part, although the translation itself has only sporadically been subjected to close investigation. This chapter examines parts of “Calypso” and “Oxen of the Sun” from the author’s/(re)translator’s perspective, with a view towards illuminating some of the micro-processes that can make or break a translation, while offering this translator’s solutions as well. Perhaps translators should not write about works they’re (re)translating, at least while in the process. If this be a valid injunction, here it shall be over- looked. Should the retranslator also overlook the previous translation and work in voluntary blindness, in an anxious pocket of unknowing? Or peek un- derhandedly at its solutions, and by gazing dilute their own? Glancing repeat- edly at a previous translation feels as uncomfortable as re-translating with the sensation that the revenant of the old artificer-translator is now looking over your shoulder while you work. For the purposes of this paper, I have allowed myself a limited exposure. In “Oxen of the Sun,” Joyce mentions the illicit operation called “grahamis- ing” (14.1516) – after the name of an English statesman – which consists of opening letters addressed to others and learning their secrets, a metaphor I find apt for my endeavour here. On the same page I encountered – and quickly borrowed – the other metaphor in the title: “hot form” (14.1516). The mare 1 Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: Uni- versity of California Press, 2008), 446. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden,  | DOI:./_