ERIC ED453665: Translating the Folk.

8 Pages·2000·0.19 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
FL 026 725
ED 453 665
Fletcher, Bryan
AUTHOR
Translating the Folk.
TITLE
PUB DATE
2000-00-00
7p.; For Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics,
NOTE
2000, see FL 026 722.
EWPAL Subscriptions, IALS, 21 Hill Place, Edinburgh EH8 9DP
AVAILABLE FROM
Scotland UK (7.50 Scottish pounds).
Evaluative (142)
-- Reports
Journal Articles (080)
PUB TYPE
Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics; n10 p32-36
JOURNAL CIT
2000.
MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Applied Linguistics; *Nonstandard Dialects; *Poetry; Scots
DESCRIPTORS
Gaelic; Standard Spoken Usage; *Translation; Uncommonly
Taught Languages; *Written Language
ABSTRACT
This article looks at issues affecting Robert Garioch's
translation into Scots of a sonnet from Giuseppe Gioachino Belli's Romaneschi
collection. It begins with the discussion of a problem involved in writing in
dialects with no settled written standard. This 'standardizing' poetry is
then looked at in terms of translation and theories of the "impossibility" of
translation. It is argued that the problems facing the translator/poet are
much the same as those the dialect writer encounters in writing the original.
A brief comparison is made at the level of lexical equivalence between the
two texts in order to illustrate some of these issues. It is concluded that
claiming there is divergence in meaning between the two texts is dependent on
the assumption that there is a determinancy of meaning in both of the
languages concerned, an assumption that is ultimately subjective. (Contains
12 references.) (Author/KFT)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
FOLK
TRANSLATING THE
1
Bryan Fletcher (TAAL)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
BEEN GRANTED BY
CENTER (ERIC)
his document has been reproduced as
eceived from the person or organization
originating it.
Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality.
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Points of view or opinions stated in this
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
AVAILABLE
BEST COPY
TRANSLATING THE FOLK
Bryan Fletcher (TAAL)
Abstract
from
translation into Scots of a sonnet
affecting Robert Garioch's
This paper looks at issues
in writing in
of the problems involved
It begins with a discussion
Belli's romaneschi collection.
is then looked at in terms
standard. This 'standardising' poetry
dialects with no settled written
the problems
translation. It is argued that
of the 'impossibility' of
of translation and theories
which the dialect writer comes up
much the same as those
facing the translator/poet are
lexical equivalence
made at the level of
original. A brief comparison is
against in writing the
illustrate some of these issues.
between the two texts in order to
Er Caffettiere Fisolofo
ll'istesso
L'ommini de sto Monno so
mascinino:
che vvaghi de caffe nner
antro appresso,
c'uno prima, uno doppo, e un
distino.
tutti cuanti pera vvanno a un
Spesso muteno sito, e ccaccia spesso
piccinino,
er vago grosso er vago
tutti in zu l'ingresso
e ss'incarzeno
porverino.
der ferro che li sfraggne in
Monno
E ll'ornmini acussi vviveno ar
misticati pe mmano de la sorte
in tonno;
che sse li gira tutti in tonno
fforte,
o ppiano, o
e mmovennose oggnuno,
calcno a ffono
scnza capillo mai
gola de la Morte.
pe ecasca ne la
from Sonetti 1833/1978)
(Giuscppc Gioachino Belli:
Proprietor
The Philosopher Café
aa's said and duin
Men in this wand, whan
coffee beans in a machine:
are juist like
mair, they rin
first yin, anither, and ac
til the same destiny, that's easy seen.
big yin
They keep aye checngin places, a
smaller bean:
shothers its wey afore a
fechtan their way in
they croud the entrance,
them doun and throu the screen.
syne the mill grinds
boun
Sae in this wand ilka man maun
be passed and passed
Intill fate's neive, thair to
and roun;
frac haun till haun and birlit roun
slaw or fast,
and as thae folk, aye muvan
til the boddum doun,
maun gang, unkennan,
thrapple at the last.
and faa intill daith's
(Robert Garioch 1975)
ISSN 0959-2253
number 10 (2000)
APPLIED LINGUISTICS,
EDINBURGH WORKING PAPERS IN
124)
Transcribing/translating the plebs
1.
poetica della
artificialmente questa intensificazione pseudo
it poeta dialettale tende a realizzare
schemi
strumentale, e trasferisce dentro gli
lingua nei parlanti in rapporto non puramente
documentazione.
lessico, di gergo, come per una
letterari interi pezzi di quella realta di
(Pasolini, 1952)
of bringing the
example of Schleiermacher's notion
Garioch's translations of Belli's sonnets are an
then it
Belli's work in the light of Pasolini's comments,
author to the reader. Indeed, if we consider
nineteenth century to the reader
bringing the people of Rome of the early
may be possible to speak of
introduction to his sonnets comments:
of modern Scots poetry. Belli in his
scrittura
de' popolani. Questa for manca;... La
Nel mio lavoro io non prcscnto la scrittura
valgo ad
parola. Pack) del valore de' segni cogniti io mi
mia, e con essa tento d'imitare la loro
esprimere incogniti suoni.
(Belli, 1978: 9-10)
offers himself as translator
claim to represent a people? The poet
How seriously can we take such a
operazione di
readers: "tramite una complessa ed intricata
between the illiterate masses and cultured
dal popolano
sorvegliato mimetismo, di continua traduzione
supplenza culturale e tecnica, di vigile e
1995: 190).
linguaggi della cultura e della poesia..." (Merolla:
al colto e, quindi, di ri-traduzione dai
collection of
imitate the word of the people, but also, in one
Not only does Belli suggest that he will
"cavare una regola dal caso e
written standard for the Roman dialect:
sonnets, he intends to create a
it mio scopo." (Belli: 1978, 6).
una grammatica dall'uso, ecco
illusory, however. The
the mimetic ideal is anything other than
We needn't necessarily accept that
do with literary
be a mask of sorts for an agenda more to
manifesto set out in Belli's introduction may
experimentation than folkloric documentation.
of reasons. For Belli
the issue of translation for a number
These are complicating questions for
psyche of the
1996) into the traditions, even into the
language represents a "magic key" (Joseph
Steiner
belongs to an illustrious line of thought. As
Romans. Belli in considering his poetry this way
pivot of man and the
that "language (is) the defining
points out, in this tradition there is a notion
other, the
each human tongue differs from every
determinant of his place in reality... But so far as
Belli
altered." (1975: 81-82) In the poems, the
resulting shape of the world is subtly or drastically
that share no
used is at the core of distant cultures
original and Garioch's translation, the language
the two?
historical resemblance. Is translation possible between
more than a superficial
that there are
has its own manifesto and similar claims
The politico-linguistic debate around Scots
Scots tongue:
things that can be can be worded only in the Guid
E'en herts that ha'e nae Scots'll dirl richt thro'
for here's a language rings
As nocht else could
things.
Wi' datchie sesames, and names for nameless
(MacDairmid:`Gairmscoile')
be expressed in the
of the people of Rome, which can only
In Belli the work represents the "genius"
rallying cry to put
guise has been and is being used as the
Roman tongue. Relativism in a very similar
general. Just as
the language across Scottish culture in
Scots back into writing and to re-animate
justify
the soul of the Irish nation, so Scottish writers
Joyce, with his linguistic inventions, 'captured'
resuscitate a moribund literary tradition. But can a
atavistic dictionary dredging in the attempt to
nation be used to translate other literatures, other
language so closely bound to the 'genius' of a
cultures?
and perhaps also in translating into Scots. It is, however,
There is indeed a paradox in translating Belli
impossible
Schleiermacher's terms Garioch's task is an
one
the paradox of translation in general. In
Roman poet sound like a modern speaker of Scots.
in that he attempts to make a nineteenth century
simultaneously engaged
unlikely by the fact that both writers are
The task is made to seem even more
in which they are writing. Belli has the normative role
in the standardisation of the language or dialect
into art. Garioch
speech to writing and transforming it
of committing a particular sociolect of Roman
interpret someone in one
Scots tongue while also "deciding to
is taking part in the recreation of a new
judgements." (Putnam, 1988: 14)
[which] is intimately tic 3 to normative
way rather than another
that is attempting to put Scots back onto the literary
Translation as part of the emerging tradition
Blok woven into
MacDairmid, `free adaptations' of Alexander
agenda has a number of functions. For
statement of modernist credentials. For Garioch,
the text of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle are a
the fact that "the language that
translating Belli is perhaps an attempt to escape
on the other hand,
of sounds and
also encloses us in an invisible web
enables us to communicate with one another
its language." (Paz, in Schulte, 1992: 154) Or, in more
meanings, so that each nation is imprisoned by
Scots: "The bringing forth of language is an inner
positive terms, translation widens the net of
potentiality of the world."
form] is a foray into the total
necessity of mankind ...[Each speech
(Steiner, 1975: 83, quoting Humbolt)
Vulgar Insularity
2.
sometimes levelled at
against the accusation of insularity
For Garioch translation provides reproof
urban writers, they give poetic form to a style of
writers of modern Scots. Both Belli and Garioch are
anti-language. An anti-language is the extreme form
language dubbed in recent times by Halliday as
"A social dialect is the
of a standard language:
of a social dialect and as such the antithesis
world view." (1978: 179) The translation of the
embodiment of a mildly but distinctly different
Milanese into literary form was not until
world-view of the plebeo Romano, or Napoletano, or
anti-language of
such was possibly only accepted as an
recently accepted as 'literature' in Italy and as
"La riscoperta dei grandi valori poetici dei Sonetti
anthropological interest. As Merolla points out
risalire solo agli armi Cinquanta e
fatto put, farsi
romaneschi a stata piuttosto tardiva e di
might represent a kind of father figure in the
Sessanta.."(1995: 188) For Garioch then, Belli
International of urban dialect writing.
Can a reader
off from the rhetoric of international socialism?
Are such affinities not an illusion, a spin
Garioch's work is that
proprietor of 1833? The assumption in
of Scots empathise with the Roman café
Scot but also that that interpretation can be translated
Belli's `meaning' is not only interpretable for a
"linguistic utterances
assumption is the presupposition that
into modern Scots. Implicit in such an
different utterances
which can also be pointed to (in) wholly
point to something beyond themselves,
justify such assumptions? There is no question of
in `another language. (Joseph: 1999) How can we
`essential' meaning and then working outwards
Garioch deconstructing the Belli sonnets back to an
`essential' meaning we would be forced to question
into Scots. If it were possible to posit such an
semantic primitive based on standard Italian,
whether Belli 's mentalese should be characterised as a
in Romanescho.
translation precede the process of writing
and then question how many layers of
although meaning
and desirable is the ideal notion that,
For Garioch what makes translation possible
situation described in
model, the schema or context of
is not independent of culture as in the Platonic
'reality' that
modern Scots readers. There is an urban
Belli can fit into the world knowledge of
counters the idea of
borders. In Hogan's words, this type of stance
crosses national and linguistic
between people's idiolects within languages or
linguistic relativism: "if there are striking differences
if all this is the case, then there is
and cultures
cultures and striking similarities across languages
historical interpretation." (1996: 27) Such a set of
and can be no special problem of intercultural or
considering distance over time and location,
`shared' notions makes the writing of Belli, even
34
its
assumed, to his readers. As Bonnefoy states "At
relevant to Garioch and therefore, he must have
existence."(in Schulte, 1992: 188)
most intense, reading is empathy, shared
The two poems
3.
and thus constitutes a unique text
Up to a point, each translation is a creation
(Paz, in Schulte,1992: 154 )
metaphor that
the original. The development of the copular
Stylistically Garioch sticks very close to
the elements of the
is handled using the same progression of
is central to Er Caffettiere Fisolofo
development and
splits the sonnet into two parts
coffee-grinder schema. The rhyme scheme, which
all from Belli's structural organisation. It is
is replicated. Garioch does not depart at
conclusion
in each is
between the two poems as the underlying rhythm
difficult to make a metrical comparison
timed. It is
Romano is syllable timed while the Scots is stress
based on dissimilar principles: the
of
'natural' rhythm of speech and a simple progression
noticeable, however, that in both cases the
rhetorical metrical effect.
syntax preclude any obvious emotive or
result of
paradoxical to speak of how the texts diverge in meaning as a
In terms of lexis it is probably
translation strays outside
Nonetheless, there are areas where the text of the
any item of vocabulary.
and this is to
injunction: "[the translator] has one duty to perform,
the bounds set by Nabakov in his
132)
and nothing but the text." (in Schulte, 1992:
reproduce with absolute exactitude the whole text,
wilful
(their) way) implies either outside imposition or
Garioch's verb phrase maun boun (must make
implication and is in
Belli's vviveno ar Monno carries no such
surrender into the hands of fate, while
fact relatively empty in semantic terms.
the translation of
illusion in all parts of the translation. Take
Of course, lexical equivalence is an
plural of chicco.
of Belli the noun is glossed in Italian as the
Belli's word: vvaghi. In Italian editions
in translation.
than bean, the word which Garioch uses
The Italian word has a much wider application
associations. This
and as such is likely to trigger a wider set of
It can also correspond to grain or seed
of poetry is impossible: the
is central to the idea that the translation
type of lexical 'impoverishment'
mind in
in texts written in the same 'language', never
polysemy of poetry cannot be reproduced even
conceptualising differences between
is impossible not only because of
a foreign tongue. Translation
translator,
idiosyncrasy of every unique utterance. No
cultures, but also because of the essential
ideal
the same words, the same context and the same
however, sets out to recreate the same utterance,
rely on memorised stretches of speech.
addressee, just as conversationalists tend not to
Concluding Remarks
4.
assumption
between the two texts is dependent on the
Claiming that there is a divergence of meaning
points out "the
both of the languages concerned. As Joseph
that there is determinacy of meaning in
two
by the language that we can never expect any
meanings of words arc so weakly determined
of the
(1998: 93) We can see this in the translation
speakers to conceive of them in the same way."
gloss in English):
following phrase (linc B represents a word-for-word
ss'incarzeno tutti in zu 11' ingrcsso (Belli, 7)
A)
(they) press (themselves) in on the entrance
B)
in (Garioch, 7)
they croud the entrance, fechtan their way
C)
35
6
theme of Belli's poem, but his
certainly concurs with the pessimistic
Garioch's reading of this section
interpreter. Of course, this role
Garioch here is visible in his role as
fechtan is an interpreted addition.
surrender
translation, Garioch seems to
But, at various points in this
must precede that of translator.
follow
probably made in an attempt to
The lexical choices are
the translator's cloak of anonymity.
concluding section. Garioch
of the visual metaphor for the
Belli in increasing the expressive power
desire to
translator as a result of the
from his objective position as
the creator sticks his head out
retain holistic meaning.
writing to
Belli used the mask of dialect
circle. Critics have claimed that
In a sense this brings us full
accomplished
the ordinary folk; thus Belli
The speakers of his Sonetti are
present controversial views.
incur.
his radical views were likely to
from the probable repercussions
the trick of distancing himself
in a
translating a writer involved
internationalising Scots through
Garioch also achieves the trick of
Belli his translations are a
language. But in terms of re-creating
similar 'struggle' against a dominant
Belli's boast of
of the translation, but also
illusion is at the heart not only
set of illusions. Such
is that
writing process of these two poems
the only difference in the
mimetic representation. Perhaps
Belli began with an empty page.
References
publ.
Mondadori Editore. (Original
Gibellini. Milano: Arnoldo
Belli, G. C. 1978. Sonetti. ed. P.
1833).
Midlothian:
H. Willis. Loanhead,
Works. ed. G. Sutherland and
Garioch, R. 1983. Collected Poetical
Macdonald Publishers.
Edward Arnold.
Social Semiotic. London:
Halliday, M. A. K. 1978. Language as a
Psychoanalysis and Literature.
Meaning and Inference in Law,
Hogan, P. C. 1996. On Interpretation:
of Georgia Press.
Athens and London: University
Historiographia
`Sapir-Whorf hypothesis' ".
immediate sources of the
Joseph, J. E. 1996. "The
Linguistica. 23, 365-404.
Language At Work:
Impossible?" In Hunston, S. (ed.)
1998. "Why Isn't Translation
Joseph, J. E.
for Applied Linguistics
Meeting of the British Association
Selected Papers from the Annual
British Association for
Clevedon:
Birmingham, September 1997.
held at the University of
86-97.
with Multilingual Matters:
Applied Linguistics in association
Lecture Notes.
Joseph, J.E. 1999. Unpublished
Letteratura
Gioachino Belli" in G. Girardello
"1 sonetti romaneschi di Giuseppe
Merolla, R. 1995.
Torino: Giulio Einaudi editore.
italiana: Le Opere, Volume terzo.
del Novecento. Parma: Garzanti.
(eds.) 1952. Poesia dialettale
Pasolini, P.P. and M. dell'Arco
MA: MIT Press.
and Reality. Cambridge,
Pumam, H. 1988. Representation
Anthology of Essays from Dryden to
Theories of Translation: An
Schulte, R. and J. Biguenet. 1992.
of Chicago Press.
Derrida. Chicago and London: University
Oxford University
and Translation. London:
After Babel.. Aspects of Language
Steiner, G. 1975.
Press.
36
FA-Od-b 7
olz5
ERIC
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI)
National Library of Education (NLE)
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)
NOTICE
REPRODUCTION BASIS
This document is covered by a signed "Reproduction Release
(Blanket) form (on file within the ERIC system), encompassing all
and, therefore,
or classes of documents from its source organization
does not require a "Specific Document" Release form.
This document is Federally-funded, or carries its own permission to
reproduce, or is otherwise in the public domain and, therefore, may
be reproduced by ERIC without a signed Reproduction Release form
(either "Specific Document" or "Blanket").
EFF-089 (9/97)