In Translation

289 Pages·2013·3.57 MB·English

In
A
“The essays in In translation, exploring both the larger, complex questions of trans-
l
l
lation’s role and function in the world of literature and the more detailed, word-by- E
n
word dilemmas faced by every translator, are consistently stimulating, engaging, T R a s l at n
& o
and eye-opening, not to speak of eloquent and occasionally even dramatic and/or

funny. I came away from reading them with a host of new ideas and insights.” BE n i
r
—Lydia davis, translator of Swann’s Way and Madame Bovary n
o
f trAnslAtors on thEir Work
“In translation promises to be an essential part of any translation library. Allen k
s
and Bernofsky have assembled a collection of thoughtful essays by a wide-ranging y, And WhAt it MEAns
group of translators whose opinions about the knotty art of translation are varied, e
d
s
fascinating, and eminently intelligent.” .
—Edith Grossman, author of Why translation Matters
I
n

“An impressive gathering of the expertise of the finest translators.” T
David Bellos • Clare Cavanagh • Peter Cole
— PEtEr ConstantinE, winner of the Helen and Kurt Wolff R
Translator’s Prize for Benjamin Lebert’s novel, the Bird Is a Raven Michael Emmerich • Maureen Freely • Forrest Gander
a
“Offers fascinating insights into the role and work of the translator. Anyone inter- n Ted Goossen • Jason Grunebaum • Alice Kaplan
ested in the making of literature will want this book.”
s Christi Merrill • Haruki Murakami • Catherine Porter
—John BiGuEnEt, coeditor of the Craft of translation
l
and theories of translation a José Manuel Prieto • Richard Sieburth
t
“Serious and witty by turns, and sometimes both at once, these informative essays Lawrence Venuti • Eliot Weinberger
i
illuminate what matters in translation and why translation matters.”
o
— motoyuki shiBata, University of Tokyo
n
“A very strong addition to the field of translation qua writing, as well as the more
Wt
specialized field of translation studies, with its scholarly connections to language orA
and literary study, the study of English transnational literature, literary theory, and rn
k
s
the history of belles lettres.” Al
— russELL vaLEntino, editor in chief of the Iowa Review nAt
do
Wr
s
EsthEr aLLEn is a professor at Baruch College, City University of New York. hA o
She has translated a number of books from French and Spanish, including the tn

Penguin Classics anthology José Martí: Selected Writings. it th
ME
susan BErnofsky is an award-winning translator of works by Robert Walser, Eir
A
Jenny Erpenbeck, Hermann Hesse, and others. She teaches in the MFA program n
s
at Columbia University and blogs about translation at www.translationista.org.
CoLumBia univErsity PrEss | nEw york
CuP.CoLumBia.Edu
c Edited by
CovEr dEsiGn: JuLia kushnirsky isBnIS:B 9N:7 89-708--203-213-11-519596699--22 o
CovEr imaGE: dEtaiL from the temptation of St. Anthony lu
By hiEronymus BosCh 9 780231 159692 M EsthEr AllEn and susAn BErnofksy
PrintEd in thE u.s.a. B
i
A
In Translation
www.EnglishPro.ir
www.EnglishPro.ir
In
T R A S L AT N
O
N I
TRANSLATORS ON THEIR WORK
AND WHAT IT MEANS
Edited by
and
ESTHER ALLEN SUSAN BERNOFSKY
Columbia University Press New York
www.EnglishPro.ir
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2013 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
In translation : translators on their work and what it means / edited by Esther Allen
and Susan Bernofsky.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15968-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-15969-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-0-231-53502-1 (electronic)
1. Translating and interpreting. 2. Literature—Translations—History and criticism.
3. Language and culture. I. Allen, Esther, 1962- II. Bernofsky, Susan.
PN241.I45 2013
418'.04—dc23
2012031223
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
COVER DESIGN: Julia Kushnirsky
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor
Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since
the manuscript was prepared.
www.EnglishPro.ir
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: A Culture of Translation
ESTHER ALLEN AND SUSAN BERNOFSKY xiii
PART I
THE TRANSLATOR IN THE WORLD 1
One
Making Sense in Translation: Toward an Ethics of the Art
PETER COLE 3
Two
Anonymous Sources (On Translators and Translation)
ELIOT WEINBERGER 17
Three
Fictions of the Foreign: The Paradox of “Foreign-Soundingness”
DAVID BELLOS 31
Four
Beyond, Between: Translation, Ghosts, Metaphors
MICHAEL EMMERICH 44
www.EnglishPro.ir
Five
Translation as Scholarship
CATHERINE PORTER 58
Six
Translation: The Biography of an Artform
ALICE KAPLAN 67
Seven
The Will to Translate: Four Episodes in a Local History
of Global Cultural Exchange
ESTHER ALLEN 82
PART II
THE TRANSLATOR AT WORK 105
Eight
The Great Leap: César and the Caesura
FORREST GANDER 107
Nine
Misreading Orhan Pamuk
MAUREEN FREELY 117
Ten
On Translating a Poem by Osip Mandelstam
JOSÉ MANUEL PRIETO, TRANSLATED BY ESTHER ALLEN 127
Eleven
Are We the Folk in This Lok?: Translating in the Plural
CHRISTI A. MERRILL 143
Twelve
Choosing an English for Hindi
JASON GRUNEBAUM 156
Thirteen
As Translator, as Novelist: The Translator’s Afterword
HARUKI MURAKAMI, TRANSLATED BY TED GOOSSEN 169
Contents
vi
www.EnglishPro.ir
Fourteen
Haruki Murakami and the Culture of Translation
TED GOOSSEN 183
Fifteen
Translating Jacopone da Todi: Archaic Poetries and
Modern Audiences
LAWRENCE VENUTI 187
Sixteen
“Ensemble discords”: Translating the Music of Scève’s Délie
RICHARD SIEBURTH 209
Seventeen
Translation and the Art of Revision
SUSAN BERNOFSKY 223
Eighteen
The Art of Losing: Polish Poetry and Translation
CLARE CAVANAGH 234
Permissions 245
Contributors 247
Index 253
Contents
vii
www.EnglishPro.ir
www.EnglishPro.ir
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our utmost gratitude to the contributors whose
essays appear here; their achievements as translators and as thinkers
about translation were what inspired us to create this anthology.
In addition, the support, engagement, and advice of many other friends,
colleagues, and institutions has helped immeasurably to make this volume
possible.
Esther Allen would like to thank translators extraordinaires Michael
Scammell, Brian Nelson, and Bill Johnston, for guidance, inspiration,
and prodding; Damion Searls for pointing the way to Murakami's essay
on translating Fitzgerald; and Regina Galasso for helping to develop the
essay Allen contributed to this volume. She is grateful to Larry Siems
and Caro Llewellyn, former colleagues at the PEN American Center, and
to Carolyn McCormick and Carles Torner, former colleagues at Inter-
national PEN and the Institut Ramon Llull, respectively, for friendship,
good will, and exemplary leadership. Alma Guillermoprieto, Roberto
Tejada, and Francisco Goldman have contributed more than they know
by sharing their friendship, mirth, experience, insight, and wisdom. Ga-
briela Adamo and the Fundación TyPA offered the valuable experience of
the Semana de Editores en Buenos Aires, and Susanna Seidl-Fox, Peter
Bush, and John Balcom organized the wonderful Session 461 of the Sal-
zburg Global Seminar, while Ivor Indyk and Chris Andrews of the Writ-
ing and Society Research Group of the University of Western Sydney
did excellent work putting together the wide-ranging Sydney Symposium
www.EnglishPro.ir