ETI 305--Literary Translation I

ETI 305--Literary Translation I What is ‘literary translation’?

Literary translation The attempt to render into one language the meaning, feeling and, so far as possible, style of a piece written in another language. “I realize that this can only be an ideal. Translation, like politics, is an art of the possible; compromise is inevitable and universal.” John Bester

Why do literary translation? • Lets the translator consistently share in the creative process • Allows the translator to be recognized as part of the literary world • Offers many intellectual rewards • Lets the translator expand the potential readership of a literary work • Allows the translator gain prestige, helps develop longlasting relationships, and gives them access to different worlds

Literary translators • In addition to a thorough mastery of the source language, the literary translator must possess a profound knowledge of the target language. • The literary translator must command tone, style, flexibility, inventiveness, knowledge of the SL culture, ability to glean meaning from ambiguity, and ear for sonority and humility.

Literary Translation • It entails an unending skein of choices. • It is marked by a heightened sensitivity to nuance (seemingly straightforward phrases/sentences may be rendered in several different ways, each with a subtle shading). • Such sentences may convey the same information, but they differ significantly in aesthetic effect; thus the translator is constantly faced with choices to make with regards to words, fidelity, emphasis, punctuation, and register.

Fire and Iceby Robert Frost Some say the world will end in fire, a Some say in ice. b From what I've tasted of desire a I hold with those who favor fire. a But if it had to perish twice, b I think I know enough of hate c To know that for destruction ice b Is also great c And would suffice. b

Translation process problems on the illocutionary level (illocutionary: relating to or being the communicative effect; e.g., “There is a snake under you” may have the illocutionary force of a warning • Alliteration • Allusion • Foreign words • Genre • Grammatical norms • Metaphor • Names • Neologisms • Parody • Poetic diction • Pun • Register • Rhyme and meter • Syntax

Alliteration • Repetition of the same sound at the beginning of consecutive words “The surrender of her weary ghost to the keeping of stars and sea was stirring like the sight of a glorious triumph.” From Joseph Conrad’s “Youth” “Surely no spirit or sense of a soul that was soft to the spirit and soul of our senses Sweetens the stress of surprising suspicion that sobs in the semblance of sound and a sigh...” Charles Swinburne’s “Nephelidia”

Allusion • An implied or indirect reference • Writers often allude to well-known texts/people in their works to give a sharper edge to the point they are making. • Four types of allusions are likely to occur regularly in literature written in English: biblical, classical, cultural, and literary

Allusions • Biblical: “Decency forbade that he should take the door off its rickety hinges, like Samson at the gates of Gaza.” • Classical: “Of those pedestrian Paphians who abound In decent London when the daylight is o’er.”

Allusions Cultural: “Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (Which was rather late for me)— Between the end of the Chatterley ban And the Beatles’ first LP.” Literary: Their jealousy (if they are ever jealous) Is of a fair complexion altogether, Not like that sooty devil of Othello’s Which smothers women in a bed of feather

Foreign words “The calm Madonna o’er your head Smiles, col bambino, on the bed Where but your chaste ears I must spare Where, as we said, vous faites votre affaire.”

Genre • Many non-Western genres (except haiku) have found it hard to be accepted in Western literature because there is no obvious Western analog for them (e.g., the Arabic qasidah or Chinese rhyme-prose)

Grammatical Norms • Writers sometimes deviate from the accepted grammatical usage of their time for different reasons. “Says gorging Jim to guzzling Jacky We have no wittles, so we must eat we.”

Metaphor • “...the animal within me licking the chops of memory.” • “She was drowning in money.” • “A smile coyly bridged the crack in the door.”

Names/Culture-specific words • Rüya, Galip, Celal from Pamuk’s Kara Kitap • Dolmuş, rakı, muhtar, töre

Neologisms • Sometimes writers invent new words to strengthen the illocutionary power of their texts. • “Moreunder, which is to subtract, not add...” • “A sharp fragillycut nose”

Parody • Parody: A literary or musical work in which the style of an author is closely imitated for comic effect or ridicule) • Translation of parody requires alertness to the work(s) parodied, probably the most difficult for translators.

Poetic Diction • A style of writing that exhibits a fairly dense concentration of illocutionary power in relatively few words, stanzas, or paragraphs: “Morning dawned at last, slowly, with a pale yellow dome of light rising silently above the bluffs, which stand like a huge storm-devastated castle, just east of the city.”

Pun • A play on two of the meanings a word can have “Belacqua cut the surgeon.” cut: ignore, give the cold shoulder to

Register • If you are introduced to the queen of England, what do you say: • “Hi, Queen” or • “Your Majesty”

Rhyme and Meter • Rhyme: identical stressed vowels and the consonants succeeding them at the end of a word • Meter: systematically arranged and measured rhythm in verse • Both rhyme and meter are very difficult to translate, especially into languages with a different vowel and consonant distribution.

Syntax • Most stringent and least flexible of all the constraints translators must work under since it regulates the order of the words to be translated. • Few liberties can be taken with the word order before the text becomes unintelligible.

Sources • Landers, Clifford (2001) Literary Translation: A Practical Guide. UK: Cromwell Press Ltd. • Lefevere, André (1992) Translating Literature: Practice and Theory in a Comparative Literature Context. New York: MLA of America.

ETI 305--Literary Translation I