Translation as Transformation in Victorian Poetry

312 Pages·2015·2.665 MB·English

by  Annmarie Drury

TRANSLATION AS TRANSFORMATION
IN VICTORIAN POETRY
Translation as Transformation in Victorian Poetry illuminates the
dynamic mutual influences of poetic and translation cultures in
VictorianBritain,drawingonnewmaterials,archivalandperiodical,
torevealtherangeofthinkingabouttranslationintheera.Theresults
areanewaccountofVictoriantranslationandfreshreadingsbothof
canonicalpoems(includingthosebyBrowningandTennyson)and
of non-canonical poems (including those by Michael Field).
RevealingVictorianpoetstobecrucialagentsofinterculturalnego-
tiation in an era of empire, Annmarie Drury shows why and how
metermatterssomuchtothem,andlocatestheoriginsoftranslation
studieswithinVictorianconundrums.Sheexploreswhatitmeansto
“sound Victorian” in twentieth-century poetic translation, using
Swahili as a case study, and demonstrates how and why it makes
sensetoconsiderVictoriantranslationasworldliteratureinaction.
annmarie drury is Assistant Professor of English at Queens
College of the City University of New York. Many of her own
poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Raritan, and Western
HumanitiesReview.Shehasalsopublishedtranslationsof,andessays
on,Swahilipoetry.HerbookStrayTruths:SelectedPoemsofEuphrase
Kezilahabi(2015),offerstranslationsoftheTanzanianwriter’spoetry.
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN NINETEENTH-
CENTURY LITERATURE AND CULTURE
GENERAL EDITOR
GillianBeer,UniversityofCambridge
EDITORIAL BOARD
IsobelArmstrong,Birkbeck,UniversityofLondon
KateFlint,RutgersUniversity
CatherineGallagher,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley
D.A.Miller,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley
J.HillisMiller,UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine
DanielPick,Birkbeck,UniversityofLondon
MaryPoovey,NewYorkUniversity
SallyShuttleworth,UniversityofOxford
HerbertTucker,UniversityofVirginia
Nineteenth-century Britishliterature and culturehave been richfieldsfor inter-
disciplinary studies. Since the turn of the twentieth century, scholars and critics
have trackedthe intersections and tensionsbetween Victorianliterature and the
visual arts, politics, social organization, economic life, technical innovations,
scientific thought – in short, culture in its broadest sense. In recent years,
theoreticalchallengesandhistoriographicalshiftshaveunsettledtheassumptions
ofpreviousscholarlysynthesisandcalledintoquestionthetermsofolderdebates.
Whereasthetendencyinmuchpastliterarycriticalinterpretationwastousethe
metaphorofcultureas“background,”feminist,Foucauldian,andotheranalyses
have employed more dynamic models that raise questions of power and of
circulation. Such developments have reanimated the field. This series aims to
accommodate and promote the most interesting work being undertaken on the
frontiersofthefieldofnineteenth-centuryliterarystudies:workwhichintersects
fruitfullywithotherfieldsofstudysuchashistory,orliterarytheory,orthehistory
ofscience.Comparativeaswellasinterdisciplinaryapproachesarewelcomed.
Acompletelistoftitlespublishedwillbefoundattheendofthebook.
TRANSLATION AS
TRANSFORMATION IN
VICTORIAN POETRY
ANNMARIE DRURY
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom
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©AnnmarieDrury2015
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Drury,Annmarie.
TranslationastransformationinVictorianpoetry/AnnmarieDrury.
pages cm.–(Cambridgestudiesinnineteenth-centuryliteratureandculture;99)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-07924-3(hardback)
1. Englishpoetry–19thcentury–Historyandcriticism. 2. Translatingand
interpreting–England–History–18thcentury. I. Title.
pr591.d76 2015
821′.809–dc23
2014042925
isbn978-1-107-07924-3Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
urlsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
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Contents
Listoffigures pagevi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction:Victoriantranslations,poetictransformations 1
1 DiscoveringaVictoriancultureoftranslation 17
2 IdyllsoftheKing,theMabinogion,andTennyson’sfaithless
melancholy 57
3 Inpoetryandtranslation,Browning’scaseforinnovation 100
4 TheRubáiyátanditscompass 147
5 ThepersistenceofVictoriantranslationpractice:William
HichensandtheSwahiliworld 192
Epilogue:Victoriantranslatorsand“theepoch
ofworldliterature” 224
Notes 227
Bibliography 269
Index 288
v
Figures
1. JuliaMargaretCameron,“Enid,”fromJuliaMargaretCameron’s
IllustrationstoTennyson’sIdyllsoftheKingandOtherPoems(London,
1875[1874]).Albumenprint.CourtesyofGeorgeEastmanHouse,
InternationalMuseumofPhotographyandFilm 97
2. ElihuVedder(IllustrationforRubáiyátofOmarKhayyám),Courts
ofJamshyd,1883–1884.SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum,Museum
purchaseandgiftfromElizabethW.Hendersoninmemoryofher
husbandTracyHenderson 183
3. OliverHerford,RubáiyátofaPersianKitten(NewYork:Charles
Scribner’sSons,1904).RareBooksDivision,DepartmentofRare
BooksandSpecialCollections.PrincetonUniversityLibrary 184
4. CharlesM.RelyeaforJamesWhitcombRiley’sRubáiyátofDocSifers
(NewYork:TheCenturyCo.,1897).RareBooksDivision,Department
ofRareBooksandSpecialCollections.PrincetonUniversityLibrary 188
5. MetricalscansionsfromtheHichensCollection,MS53826,SOAS,
UniversityofLondon.ArchivesandSpecialCollections,SOAS,
UniversityofLondon 213
vi
Acknowledgements
Many friends and mentors read and discussed sections of this book with
meand offeredinvaluableguidanceand moralsupport.Forthis,Iwould
like to thank Tanya Agathocleous, Ann Biersteker, Anne Dewitt, Pamela
Diamond,WaiChiDimmock,JeffDolven,ErikGray,MargaretHomans,
MeredithMartin,JairoMoreno,ElizabethTucker,andLawrenceVenuti.
AtQueensCollege,mycolleaguesJeffCassvan,GloriaFisk,RogerSedarat,
andTaliaSchafferhavebeentremendouslyhelpful,ashaveparticipantsin
the English department’s faculty seminar. For teaching me about Swahili
poetry,IoweaspecialdebttoFaroukTopanandthelateYahyaAliOmar;
about poems, to Richard Howard and the late John Hollander. Without
thegenerouswisdomandunfailingencouragementofLindaPeterson,this
bookwouldneverhavebeenbegunorcompleted.
Thisproject began whenI was adoctoral candidate at Yale University,
whereIwasgratefultoreceivethesupportofanOsborneFellowshipfrom
the Beinecke Library and a Whiting Fellowship. It benefited incalculably
from research leave given by Queens College and grants from the PSC-
CUNY Research Fund. Conversations with my students in the writing
seminarsatPrincetonUniversityandatQueenshaveinspiredmetothink
harderabouttextsdiscussedherethanIhadeverdonebefore.Iamgrateful
to the two readers for Cambridge University Press who offered many
insights that have become integral to the book, and to the anonymous
reader for Nineteenth-Century Literature who greatly helped me improve
Chapter 2. Working with Linda Bree and Anna Bond at Cambridge has
beenmygoodfortune.JodieHodgson,SarahPayne,andPaulSmithsawit
expertlythroughproduction.
GraceTimmonsattheTennysonResearchCentre,ColinHarrisinthe
Special Collections Reading Rooms of the Bodleian Libraries, Lance
Martin of SOAS Special Collections, AnnaLee Pauls of Princeton
University, and the staff of the Morgan Library and Museum shared
vii
viii Acknowledgements
their expertise generously and patiently. The friendship of Angelica
BaschieraoftheCentreforAfricanStudies,SOAS,haslongbeenessential.
Part of Chapter 4 originally appeared in Victorian Poetry as “Accident,
Orientalism, and Edward FitzGerald as Translator” (46.1: 37–53), and
another part of the same chapter appeared in FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of
Omar Khayyám: Popularity and Neglect, ed. Adrian Poole, et al. (2011:
193–212) as “Some for the Glories of the Sole: The Rubáiyát and
FitzGerald’s Sceptical American Parodists.” My thanks to West Virginia
UniversityPressandAnthemPressforallowingmetoprinttheminrevised
form.
Mylatefathershowedmehowlanguagematters;mymotherandsister
have seen me through everything and show me that still. To Bill Broun,
who seems always to have helped me “follow the gleam,” my trillionth
sincerethanks.