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ERIC ED453665: Translating the Folk. PDF

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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)

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