The Art of Translation (Benjamins Translation Library (BTL))

351 Pages·2011·1.4 MB·English

by  Jiří Levý (Translated by Patrick Corness

The Art of Translation
Benjamins Translation Library (BTL)
The BTL aims to stimulate research and training in translation and interpreting
studies. The Library provides a forum for a variety of approaches (which may
sometimes be conflicting) in a socio-cultural, historical, theoretical, applied and
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EST Subseries
The European Society for Translation Studies (EST) Subseries is a publication
channel within the Library to optimize EST’s function as a forum for the
translation and interpreting research community. It promotes new trends in
research, gives more visibility to young scholars’ work, publicizes new research
methods, makes available documents from EST, and reissues classical works in
translation studies which do not exist in English or which are now out of print.
General Editor Associate Editor Honorary Editor
Yves Gambier Miriam Shlesinger Gideon Toury
University of Turku Bar-Ilan University Israel Tel Aviv University
Advisory Board
Rosemary Arrojo Zuzana Jettmarová Sherry Simon
Binghamton University Charles University of Prague Concordia University
Michael Cronin John Milton Şehnaz Tahir Gürçaglar
Dublin City University University of São Paulo Bogaziçi University
Dirk Delabastita Franz Pöchhacker Maria Tymoczko
FUNDP (University of Namur) University of Vienna University of Massachusetts
Amherst
Daniel Gile Anthony Pym
Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne Universitat Rovira i Virgili Lawrence Venuti
Nouvelle Temple University
Rosa Rabadán
Amparo Hurtado Albir University of León Michaela Wolf
Universitat Autònoma de University of Graz
Barcelona
Volume 97 (Volume 8 in the EST Subseries)
The Art of Translation by Jiří Levý
Translated by Patrick Corness
Edited with a critical foreword by Zuzana Jettmarová
The Art of Translation
Jiří Levý
Translated by Patrick Corness
Edited with a critical foreword by Zuzana Jettmarová
Charles University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levý, Jiří.
[Umení prekladu. English]
The art of translation / Jiří Levý ; translated by Patrick Corness ; edited with a critical
foreword by Zuzana Jettmarová.
p. cm. (Benjamins Translation Library, issn 0929-7316 ; v. 97)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Translating and interpreting. I. Corness, Patrick. II. Jettmarova, Zuzana. III. Title.
P306.L474513 2011
418’.02--dc23 2011029816
isbn 978 90 272 2445 3 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8411 2 (Eb)
© 2011 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Introduction to the second edition (1983) ix
Editor’s introduction to the English edition xv
Translator’s introduction to the English edition xxvii
part i
chapter 1
Translation theory: The state of the art 3
1.1 An overview 3
1.2 General and specialised theories 7
1.3 Linguistic methodology 9
1.4 Literary methodology 1 3
chapter 2
Translation as a process 2 3
2.1 The genesis of a literary work and of its translation 2 3
2.2 The three stages of the translator’s work 3 1
2.2.1 Apprehension 3 1
2.2.2 Interpretation 3 8
2.2.3 Re-stylisation 4 7
chapter 3
Translation aesthetics 5 7
3.1 Creative production 5 7
3.1.1 Translation as an art form 5 7
3.1.2 The dual norm in translation 6 0
3.1.3 The hybrid nature of translation 6 7
3.1.4 The ambivalent relationship with the original literature 6 9
3.2 The translator’s linguistic and literary creativity 7 3
3.2.1 The ‘classic’ translation 7 3
3.2.2 Translation tradition 7 5
3.2.3 Linguistic creativity 8 0
 The Art of Translation
3.3 Fidelity in reproduction 8 3
3.3.1 Translation procedures 8 3
3.3.2 Cultural and historical specificity 8 9
3.3.3 The whole and its parts 9 9
chapter 4
On the poetics of translation 107
4.1 Artistic and ‘translation’ styles 107
4.1.1 Lexical choices 107
4.1.2 The idea and its expression 114
4.2 Translating book titles 122
chapter 5
Drama translation 129
5.1 Speakability and intelligibility 129
5.2 Stylisation of theatrical discourse 134
5.3 Semantic contexts 140
5.4 Verbal action 148
5.5 Dialogue and characters 156
5.6 The principle of selective accuracy 162
chapter 6
Translation in literary studies 167
6.1 Mapping the history of translation practice 167
6.2 Translation analysis 169
6.3 Translation in national cultures and world literature 180
part ii
chapter 1
Original verse and translated verse 189
1.1 Verse and prose 189
1.2 Rhymed and unrhymed verse 190
1.3 Semantic density 196
1.4 The verse of the source and the translator’s verse 199
1.5 The original metre 202
chapter 2
Translating from non-cognate versification systems 205
2.1 Quantitative verse 205
Table of contents 
2.2 Syllabic verse 210
2.3 Accentual verse 214
chapter 3
Translating from cognate versification systems 217
3.1 Rhythm 217
3.1.1 Two types of rhythm 217
3.1.2 Freed verse 222
3.1.3 The tempo of the dactyl 228
3.1.4 Accentual-syllabic versification 230
3.2 Rhyme 232
3.2.1 Rhyming vocabulary 232
3.2.2 Masculine and feminine rhyme 238
3.2.3 Rich rhyme 241
3.2.4 Imperfect and decanonised rhyme 249
3.2.4.1 Rhyming conventions and language 249
3.2.4.2 Consonance and assonance 251
3.2.4.3 Decanonised rhyme 259
3.3 Euphony 268
chapter 4
Notes on the comparative morphology of verse 275
4.1 Blank verse 275
4.2 The alexandrine 284
4.3 Free verse 289
chapter 5
Integrating style and thought 299
References 301
Index 311

Introduction to the second edition (1983)
The Art of Translation by Jiří Levý was first published in 1963. It was welcomed by
readers and expert reviewers alike as the most valuable work on problems of liter-
ary translation published in Czechoslovakia. The author successfully combined
the approaches of the theoretician, systemic analyst, historian, critic, teacher and
populariser. He does not present dry-as-dust theory, but directly invokes theoreti-
cal findings to support his solutions for a range of specific problems faced by trans-
lators in practice. As a translation critic, he does not dwell on translators’ lack of
knowledge and their blunders, but seeks, finds and explains the causes of transla-
tion difficulties, offering guidance on good literary translation practice. He also
calls on his experience as a university teacher; this is not a textbook, though it does
have some of the merits of good textbooks, clarifying bewildering issues and sim-
plifying complex ones without distorting them. The explanations are not addressed
to experts but to a broad community of interested readers; however, the author
does not give precedence to entertaining presentation over valuable content.
Therefore the initiated, in particular professional translators, can also learn some-
thing from this book.
Levý did not consider his book a theory of translation, calling it simply notes
on such a theory. It is much more than notes, of course; the presentation is based
on considered theoretical foundations, offering theoretical explanations for indi-
vidual aspects of translated works and of translation practice. Certain theoretical
issues are not addressed, however; the author points out that he does not investi-
gate in detail here those properties of translations that are common to works of
literature in general, referring the reader to the literature in the field of literary
studies. Nor, for example, is the relationship between literary and non-literary
translation addressed here, more precisely (though the terminology itself is inele-
gant) the relationship between artistic translations of works of art and translations
of non-artistic writing. Nor is the full extent of literary translation typology cov-
ered here – a broad spectrum ranging from translations reproducing the original
as closely as possible to loose paraphrasing etc.
Levý in fact focuses only on translations belonging to the first half of this spec-
trum, i.e. those seeking the goal of capturing certain characteristics of the original
as adequately as possible (of course, this can never mean all its characteristics; usu-
ally it is a matter of mere approximation) – such translations are of course the most