|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Translation: The Altered Reflection
| Article
# : |
12652 |
|
|
Section : |
Modern Thought
|
| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1987 |
2,692 Words |
| Author
: |
Reney Meyers
Reney Meyers is professor emeritus of English at Middlesex
Country College and has published a translation of the poetry
of Catullus (New York: E.P. Dutton). |
Of all the earth's creatures, man alone has the capacity for language. Yet, although speech expresses his meanings, the latter are not perfectly represented by it. This becomes evident when one translates a constellation of thought, such as a poem, from one language into another. Subtle changes take place, no matter how careful the translation. Grammar and idiom differ among languages, and other subtle nuances come into being between languages, rather than within each--for example, the psychological overtones of languages and the degree of compactness with which an idea in each is expressed.
English is a markedly irregular language. The polyglot mixture of Anglo-Saxon, French, Latin, and, to a lesser degree, German, Italian, and Spanish give a unique and supple quality to English constructions, which are not bound by as many arbitrary usages as other tongues. Although this kind of admixture is true of all languages, it is particularly marked in English. Thus to this observer, English is an emotionally neutral and irregular tongue, a language of moderate density against which one can fruitfully estimate the result when other languages are translated into it.
Catullus
The differences revealed in the following comparisons are, after all, peculiar to the poems discussed and not necessarily representative of anything fundamental. Yet they do cast significant light on the dilemma of translating nuances unique to one language into another tongue.
In the "Odi et Amo" of Catullus, the Roman poet who lived at the time of Julius Caesar, for example, a number of difficulties come up in translation. In the original, it reads:
Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiri? nescio, sed fieri sentio et excruciot.
In English, the sense of it is:
I love and I hate. "How is this possible?" you ask.
I don't know, but I burn and am anguished.
Compared to the Latin, this is a very weak rendering. All the meaning is there, but the passion of the Catullan version is missing. And when comparing the two poems phrase by phrase, one notes a consistent pattern in the number of words used in
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
