Brilliance in Translation # 1

 

There is the widespread idea that translation is a merely mechanical process that has little to do with creative writing and that its product is always deficient, a pale copy of a better original. This conception is based on the belief that a translation into Italian (or any other language) of, say, Hemingway, should aspire to be ‘what Hemingway would have written if he had written in Italian’. The brutal truth, however, is that Hemingway did not write in Italian and if he had, he wouldn’t have been Hemingway and would have written different books. Such a goal for translation appears, therefore, to be completely pointless and to judge a translation on this basis would be equally pointless.

In contrast to all that is said and written to highlight the shortcomings of translation, the posts in this series will highlight the brilliance of it, picking out examples where apparently insurmountable difficulties have been, in my opinion, overcome with exceptional grace and creativity.

 

The first example of brilliance in translation is an extract from Maurizia Balmelli’s translation into Italian of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree. I came across it during a translation course in Turin. The English is:

‘Below him ravens rode up like things of wire and crepe weightless on the updrafts. They rocked and wheeled and slid away over the high vast emptiness with lost windmuted croaks.’

Anyone with some knowledge of Italian will appreciate the difficulties these few lines pose. First of all the variety of verbs that denote movement, which Italian cannot easily match. Secondly the brevity of the English (only two words contain more than two syllables), a feature so alien to the Italian language. Finally and crucially that single word ‘updrafts’, brief and clear in English, but which in Italian inevitably becomes the heavy and rather meteorological ‘correnti ascensionali’.

Maurizia Balmelli’s skillful translation is:

‘Sotto di lui i corvi si abbandonavano alle correnti ascensionali come cose di crespo e fil di ferro senza peso. Oscillavano e volteggiavano e scivolavano via sulle vaste altitudini del nulla con gracchi smarriti smorzati dal vento.’

Reading it, it almost seems easy.

 

You can read an interview with Maurizia Balmelli (in Italian) on the subject of her translation of Suttree here.

L’ebook: benedizione o condanna?

Lo so, lo so. Se avete anche solo la metà della mia passione per la lettura starete già pensando: ma vuoi mettere il profumo di un libro fresco di stampa, passare i polpastrelli sulla carta, avere una testimonianza fisica del proprio viaggio all’interno di quel mondo letterario? Sono perfettamente d’accordo. Io i libri devo maltrattarli per sentirli davvero miei, letti e vissuti. Il segno lo tengo se va bene piegandolo l’angolo, ma più spesso semplicemente appoggiando il libro, aperto e a faccia in giù, sul tavolo, sul letto, sul pavimento, poco importa dove. Pagine spiegazzate o addirittura volanti (qui do la colpa alle rilegature di scarsa qualità), macchie di sugo… Insomma, se un libro finisce per odorare di caffè e crema solare vuol dire che è bello, che è stato impossibile posarlo anche quando sarebbe stato il caso di farlo.

Ho iniziato a usare l’e-reader con diffidenza e per questioni puramente pratiche, scoprendo, mio malgrado, che se un libro è davvero bello poco importa come o dove lo si legge. Il piacere di un buon libro non è per nulla sminuito dal digitale, è solo la nostra visione romantica della lettura a soffrire. Certo l’e-reader non tollera altrettanto bene gli spruzzi di caffè e i voli per terra, ma offre molti altri vantaggi. Se viaggiate molto (treno, pullman, aereo, metro) e soprattutto se studiate e/o traducete, l’e-reader è uno strumento fantastico. Avete degli articoli da leggere per la tesi? Invece di stamparli potete visualizzare il documento word o pdf sull’e-reader. Volete farvi un’idea generale riguardo a un argomento per voi nuovo? Amazon vi permette di scaricare gratuitamente l’inizio dei testi; spesso si tratta di meno di un capitolo, ma in genere basta per capire se il libro in questione può davvero esservi utile. Inoltre, sull’e-reader potrete consultare uno dei vari dizionari integrati o persino fare ricerche su internet (anche se, almeno nell’e-reader che ho io, il browser è solo sperimentale). Traducendo saggistica o, spesso, purtroppo, cose ancora più tecniche, la possibilità di fare ricerche su internet per me è utilissima. Certo, queste sono tutte cose che fa anche un portatile, ma con peso e dimensioni molto maggiori.

Infine, un altro vantaggio riguarda la disponibilità immediata di testi in lingue diverse. Non occorre più andare in librerie specializzate o addirittura all’estero per avere a disposizione un’ampia selezione di libri in lingua straniera, ora basta un click. Certo questo comporta anche risvolti negativi. Il mercato cartaceo ha sofferto l’avvento di internet (non solo dell’e-book, ma anche dei distributori online), come testimonia la storia di questa libreria milanese costretta alla chiusura.

Riguardo alla perdita dell’elemento “romantico” della lettura, cui ho accennato in precedenza, raccomando questo interessantissimo blog (in inglese) che raccoglie le dediche trovate sulle pagine di libri usati e secondo me rappresenta una delle ragioni per cui il libro cartaceo non sparirà mai del tutto.

Indipendentemente da preferenze personali, penso che non si possa ignorare il fatto che l’ebook stia cambiando il mondo dell’editoria. Stanno già nascendo, e nasceranno in futuro, nuovi generi di letteratura, ‘miniromanzi’ che si leggono in un’ora e mezza, in metro, sullo smartphone. Pubblicare un libro è diventata un’operazione meno rischiosa e meno costosa e questo comporta una maggiore varietà dei contenuti disponibili e una maggiore facilità di accesso al mercato editoriale per gli scrittori (e i traduttori) esordienti. Resta da vedere se  ciò implichi anche un calo di prestigio e qualità dei testi pubblicati.

Life in the UK #2

The Car that’s Going to Kill You is Coming from the Right (and if that doesn’t kill you, zebra crossings will)…

Another post about life abroad, read it here.

The Translator’s Summer Diary

Plan your summer around translation

There are so many workshops, seminars and conferences about literature and translation that I find it hard to keep track of what’s going on when and where. I have collected details about some of the events taking place between June and September, hoping that it might help you plan an academically and professionally rewarding summer. Most of the events listed below will take place either in Italy or the UK, though there are a few which will be held in other parts of Europe. I have tried to include costs and concessions whenever there was a direct reference to them as well as registration deadlines whenever they are particularly close.

 

• 13^th June, London : First Lines, an evening of readings by new translators.

• 14^th June, London: Masashi Matsuie in conversation with Michael Emmerich, Japanese author Masashi Matsuie and translator Michael Emmerich focus on the Japanese publishing world.

• 15^th June, Vicenza: Libriamo 2013, tavola rotonda sulla traduzione dei sentimenti.

• 17^th – 20^th June, London: Russian Poetry Week.

• 22^nd June, Roma: Message in a bottle, Workshop specialistico di traduzione inglese wine & food per i traduttori che desiderano avvicinarsi a questo settore specializzato. Costo 150 € (sconti studenti e soci AITI), iscrizioni entro il 20 giugno.

• 29^th June, Pavia:  Daughters, sisters, mothers and lovers: women’s writing in the modern age. An  interactive seminar of readings and discussion on Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Parker, Joan Didion, Angela Carter and others… (fee: 80€, reductions for AITI members)

• 1^st and 2^nd  July, Terragona: New Research in Translation and Interpreting Studies (registration fee: 50€)

• 6^th July, Rome: La transcreation dei testi pubblicitari e promozionali, elementi teorici e spunti pratici per la traduzione di testi pubblicitari e promozionali, 120€ (riduzione soci AITI), deadline per il pagamento: 30 giugno.

• 30^th August – 4^th September, Pisa: Corso accademico intensivo di traduzione: narrativa contemporanea, editoria e cinema (ENG>ITA), costo: 350€ + iva.

• 5^th and 6^th September, Bangor: “Did Anyone Say Power?” Rethinking Domination and Hegemony in Translation.

• 5^th -7^th September, Colchester: Translating Myth.

• 6^th -8^th September, Cracow: Cracow Translation Days 2013,  registration fee: 495€.

• 12^th -15^th September, Bellinzona: Babel Festival di Letteratura e Traduzione, sul tema: la francofonia africana.

• 16^th – 17^th September, Brussels: Bearing Across: Translating Literary Narratives of Migration.

• 21^st September, Milan: Aspetti psicologici del traduttore-interprete, costo 140 € (riduzioni soci AITI).

• 27^th – 29^th  September, Urbino: XI Giornate della Traduzione Letteraria, programma in corso di definizione, costo 110€ (the date for this event has changed, it will now be held on 18-20 October)

Life in the UK #1: Pepperoni Pizza and Other Surprises

A post about life abroad, on a different blog. Not strictly about translation, but it might be of interest to someone.

 

http://www.lshorizons.com/content/life-uk-pepperoni-pizza-and-other-surprises

Enter Theory

What is theory?

Many translators are suspicious of theory and I think this is due partly to the fear of having someone telling them how to do their job. I do not think, however, that this is what theory tries to do.

So what, then, is theory? I have found the clearest explanation of what theory actually is in the words of Jean Boase-Beier. She defines a theory (of translation or of anything else) as ‘a picture of the world’ (2011:74), only one of the possible ways of looking at the object of our interest. She also points out that theories are not ‘static models’ but rather pictures that  are ‘regularly readjusted’ as they come into contact with other theories or with practical experience (Boase-Beier 2011:74). A strategy, on the other hand, is a ‘plan of action’ which is based on a particular theory and which can or cannot be put into action (Boase-Beier 2011:78). So if we take the well-known work of Venuti, we could take his theory to be one that ‘in the tradition of Poststructuralism and Postcolonialism, emphasizes difference over universality’ (Boase-Beier 2011:76), whereas ‘foreignization’ is a translation strategy based on such a theory.

So theories are not strategies but simply different ways of looking at translation. Each theory focuses only on certain aspects of translation and therefore it is important to bear in mind that no one theory can give a complete picture of translation. It is precisely for this reason that for each theory that holds a particular view there seems to be at least one other that contradicts it. However, one thing that seems evident to me is that the more theories you engage with, the more complete a picture of what translation is and how it works you will have. In my opinion translators – like all professionals – should know the ins and outs of their discipline. This means knowing what is going on, not just in translation practice but also in translation theory, particularly since, as we shall see in a moment, theory can affect practice.

Can theory affect practice?

In my opinion the answer is very simple: yes. Once again, Venuti’s work provides the perfect example. The Translator’s Invisibility started off as a piece of academic work but certain ideas expressed in it have been taken up by the practical world of translation and have concretely affected it. Not everything Venuti said has been recognized as important for translation practice. Indeed practice has probably picked the only element which it felt, at the time, had some relevance for it: the professional invisibility of the figure of the translator. Compensation fees, contractual conditions and social status have all fallen under the scrutiny not only of single individuals but also of organizations and newborn unions. I think it is safe to say that Venuti’s work and its discussion within the translation community have inspired many initiatives of organizations such as CEATL (its 2008 survey Comparative Income of Literary Translators in Europe, its forthcoming survey on the cultural visibility of literary translators, its collection of book covers on which the translator’s name is mentioned) and Biblit (its 2011 survey on translation fees in Italy). In addition, I also believe that practice is now ready to take a step further and consider other implications of Venuti’s work and of more recent theoretical studies – but more about this in a later post. This one is about  theory, not invisibility.

Translation is such a broad subject and so much has been written about it that, for someone who wants a general idea of what the different theories of translation may be, it can be hard to know where to start. There are many introductory manuals to translation studies but I would recommend A Critical Introduction to Translation Studies, by Jean Boase-Beier, because it is up to date (both in terms of publication date and in terms of its content and approach), clearly written and it actually makes for an enjoyable read.

References

Boase-Beier, J. 2011, A Critical Introduction to Translation Studies, London: Continuum.

Venuti, L. 2008, The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation, London: Routledge.

Cracow Translation Days

http://www.cracow-translation-days-2013.com/en/home.html