Translation of Poetry

Résumé du document

28 pages essay about translation of Poetry





Translation, as defined by Uwajeh (1993), is a special way of language use, where what was expressed in some text of a given language, SL, is re-expressed in some other text of another language, TL, adjudged equivalent in some sense to that of SL.





I- Translation by omission

II- Translation by addition

III- Translation by compensation

Extraits

[...] Live. Die. So not to tell one day, My beloved is just a tree أريدك انثى . اريدك انثى . لان الحضارة انثى . لان القصيدة انثى . و سنبلة القمح انثى . و قارورة العطر انثى . و باريس- بين المدائن- انثى . و بيروت تبقى- برغم الجراحات- انثى . [...]

[...] How amazing history is! How it had brought me back To the dark-skinned beauty, one of my grand- daughters In that Damascus face−I could see Balqees's eyelids, Suảd's graceful neck Our old house, and that room Where my mother provided my pillow, That jasmine vine adorned with its stars, And that fountain with the golden hymns. And Damascus! Where could it be? I said your cascading hair−that sable river Gracing your Arabian face, In those lips Where all the suns of my country Have always been stored, In the scent of the trees of al-Areef and its waters, In the Arabian jasmine, in basil, and in quince.” She strolled with me: and her hair gasping after her Like wheatstalks left unharvested, Her long earrings on her graceful neck Like Christmas candles. [...]

[...] In the translation of poetry, the translator makes use of this strategy when he feels he has lost an element in a part of the translated version. Sometimes, the translator sacrifices the sound effect to make the poem look more metaphorical, and he tries to compensate for this loss in another part where he would bring a more musical sentence into his translation/poem. To illustrate the above claim, let's have the following example: Source text5: في مدخل (الحمراء) كان لقاؤنا . [...]

[...] She said: “here is Alhambra, our forefathers' pride So go ahead, read on its walls my glories.” Her glories? I wiped a bleeding wound And another one inside my heart If only my beautiful heiress had realized It was my forefathers she was talking about. When I said goodbye, I embraced in her A man by the name of Tariq Ibn Ziyad References: 1-Baker, M. (1992). In Other Words: A Course Book On Translation” London &New York: Routledge. 2-Crystal, D (1992). Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Language & Languages” Oxford. Blackwell 3-Newmark, P (1988). [...]

[...] This relationship is controlled by specific rules and principles. Therefore, the principle task of the translator is to understand the text to be able to select the appropriate method to approach it. The translator has to know the intention lurking behind the set of words and structures used in the text to be translated. Then he should know the person/reader for whom the text is translated. The kind of reader and the typology of the text help the translator to decide on the degree of formality, emotiveness, and simplicity. [...]