The Translator’s Little Book of Art/Poetry

December 18th, 2023 by dutchlink

Posted in Translation | Comments Off on The Translator’s Little Book of Art/Poetry

I was more than delighted with the warm, witty and well-written review of the two books I was lucky enough to co-author with my wonderful colleagues Caroline Durant, Joanna Pawulska Saunders, Felicity Pearce, Natalie Reis, Angie Taylor and Adriana Tortoriello. It’s the beauty of collaboration! You can read the article below:

“True to its title, The Translator’s Little Book of Poetry is a brief compendium of poems devised with translators in mind. It comprises 16 carefully selected works in varying styles, ranging from Shakespeare to the present day, each of which serves as a doorway into a topic of particular significance in the translator’s daily work.

These topics are discussed in insightful commentaries by translation professionals, which accompany the poetic texts. Lewis Carroll’s mostly incomprehensible poem Jabberwocky introduces us, quite aptly, to the issue of understanding your subject matter. Many translators will recall that feeling of being faced by a text that looks grammatically correct but is completely impenetrable. The advice offered in this case is that to be successful in their profession, translators have to specialise and learn how to deal with highly technical material.

Similarly, Christina Rossetti’s poem In the Bleak Midwinter serves to focus the reader’s mind on the subject of how best we should (or should not) translate taboo words, while Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee brings up the matter of poetic musicality and how it can be conveyed between languages. As well as reflecting on the challenges and choices commonly faced by translators, this approach allows readers to enjoy verses they might not otherwise have delved into, and encourages close reading of the texts in order to identify the translation issues concerned.

The new companion volume, The Translator’s Little Book of Art, takes a similar approach using pictorial art rather than poetry as a starting point for illustrating some of the complexities typically encountered by translators. The inspired selection of works spans the ages from ancient Egypt to modern Pop Art, addressing such matters as the formal restrictions and boundaries (grammatical, cultural, etc) imposed on the translation process, instances in which these boundaries become hazy, and whether it might be licit to transgress them sometimes. It is worth noting that both of the books reviewed here have a short bibliography and glossary at the end.

These brief volumes are a delight to read, or just to browse. Moreover, in a world currently obsessed by the linguistic achievements of artificial intelligence tools, they are a timely reminder of the very human intelligence, sensitivity and discernment needed to produce a successful translation.

Ross Smith MCIL CL

Available from [email protected].