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The translation of poetry has always fascinated the theorists, as the chances of "replicating" in another language the one-off resonance of music, imagery, and truth values of a poem are vanishingly small. Translation is often envisaged as a matter of mapping over into the target language the surface features or semiotic structures of the source poem. Little wonder, then, that the vast majority of translations fail to be poetry in their own right. These essays focus on the poetically viable translation - the derived poem that, while resonating with the original, really is a poem. They proceed from a writerly perspective, eschewing both the theoretical overkill that spawns mice out of mountains and the ideological misappropriation that uses poetry as a way to push agendas. The emphasis throughout is on process and the poem-to-come.
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Second Finding Second Finding
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Second Finding Second Finding A poetics of translation
barbara folkart
university of ottawa press ottawa
© University of Ottawa Press 2007
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Folkart, Barbara Second finding : a poetics of translation / Barbara Folkart. (Perspectives on translation, ISSN 1487-6396) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7766-0628-6 1. Poetry—Translating. 2. Poetics. I.Title. II. Series. PN1059.T7F64 2006
418'.02
C2006-905493-2
Published by the University of Ottawa Press, 2007 542 King Edward Avenue Ottawa, Ontario k2p 0z3 www.uopress.uottawa.ca
The University of Ottawa Press acknowledges with gratitude the support extended to its publishing list by Heritage Canada through its Book Publishing Industry Development Program, by the Canada Council for the Arts, by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences through its Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and by the University of Ottawa. We also gratefully acknowledge the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa whose financial support has contributed to the publication of this book.
In memoriam Antoine Berman— pour témoigner de sa vie-continuante.
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. . . the beautiful changes In such kind ways, Wishing ever to sunder Things and things’ selves for a second finding, to lose For a moment all that it touches back to wonder. —richard wilbur
Ce monde est plus beau qu’une peau de bélier peinte en rouge! . . . grâces, grâces lui soient rendues de n’être pas un songe! —saint-john perse
Die Wörter bekamen eine magische Aura, die es ermöglicht, zu “psalmodieren,” sich wegzubewegen von dem, was vielleicht nur wie ein Wegweiser gelesen werden mußte, um sich selbst einen Weg zu suchen. —uwe timm
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Contents Contents foreword / xi acknowledgements / xix one: Said Writer to Reader / 1 two: Inventing the Past Remarks On the Re-enactment of Medieval Poetry / 34
three: The Valency of Poetic Imagery / 59 four: Remarks on the Valency of Intertextuality / 83 five: The Poem as Unit of Invention Deriving Poetry in English from Apollinaire and Charles d’Orléans / 119 six: The Poetically Viable Translation Englishing Saint-John Perse / 141
seven: Visibility and Viability The Eye on Its Object / 280
eight: Authorship, Ownership,Translatorship / 342 nine: Poetry As Knowing / 413 afterword / 442 critical lexicon / 447 annex : Original and Derived Poems,Tra