Lettere e FilosofiaLaurea Magistale

2018-2019

WEEK 4 - LECTURE 1Dr. Margherita Dore

margherita.dore@gmail.com

ENGLISH 1Module B – Stylistics and Translation

Overview• Ezra Pound and Foreignization • The Cognitive Turn in TS• Cognition and Context• Cognitive stylistics and Translation• Translating the Mind in the Text • Translated Literature• Effect(s)

Ezra Pound (1885–1972)• Creative energy of translation• Pound’s ‘reading’ of Chinese ideograms, based on the

notes of Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908)• Experimental practice

– Deliberately archaicizing or ‘Make it new’ (cf. His translation of Cavalcanti’s poetry in Dolce stil nuovo into ‘pre-Elizabethan English’)

• Influenced Haroldo de Campos (1929–2003)– Transcreation– Brazilian cannibalism: revitalization of the past (transcreation ->

taking of the life energies of the ST and their re-emergence in the TT)

Poetry – Example 1

Io vidi li occhi dove Amor si misequando mi fece di sé pauroso,che mi guardar com'io fosse noioso:allora dico che 'l cor si divise;

e se non fosse che la donna rise,i' parlerei di tal guisa doglioso,ch'Amor medesmo ne farei cruccioso,che fe' lo immaginar che mi conquise.

Dal ciel si mosse un spirito, in quel puntoche quella donna mi degnò guardare,e vennesi a posar nel mio pensero:

elli mi conta sì d'Amor lo vero,che ogni sua virtù veder mi paresì com'io fosse nello suo cor giunto.

I SAW the eyes, where Amor took his placeWhen love's might bound me with the fearthereof, Look out at me as they were weary of love. I say: The heart rent him as he looked on this. And were't not that my Lady lit her grace, Smiling upon me with her eyes grown glad, Then were my speech so dolorously cladThat Love should mourn amid his victories. The instant that she deigned to bend her eyesToward me, a spirit from high heaven rode And chose my thought the place of love'sveritiesThat all Love's powers did my sight accostAs though I'd won unto his heart's mid-most.

Ezra Pound’s translation of Cavalcanti’s sonnet Io vidi li occhi dove Amor si mise

The Cognitive Turn in TS

A general shift of focus from the observation ofbehaviour to speculation about the cause of thatbehaviour in the mind (Graham 1992: xiiff.).

Three views:1. Cognitive science into literary criticism2. Study the way language is use in literature to

understand the mind (Conceptual MetaphorTheory; Lakoff 1987).

3. Neither (Stockwell 2002).

The Cognitive Turn in TS

The value of cognitive approaches might be expectedto lie in their potential to help us understand issuesabout literary comprehension, universality, and thedifference between literary and non-literary texts.This question of the difference between literary andnon-literary texts has always been central fortranslation studies and the main focus of thedifference is style. So cognitive approaches areattractive not least because they promise to help inproviding insights into the nature and effects of thedifference (Boase-Beier 2006: 72).

The Cognitive Turn in TS• Understanding the effects of style on the mind involves a

consideration of cognitive processes.• Most cognitive stylistics, especially in the area of metaphor

is concerned to show that the very basis of cognition is thebody and the senses.

Universality vs relativity:We know that environment shapes the brain (Phillips 2005),and this is likely to be true of all experience. For Tabakowska(1993: 3) it is exactly this meeting of biological sameness andcultural difference that is especially important for a cognitiveapproach to translation.

Cognition and ContextThe cognitive view of context has affected approaches tothe translation of style in two ways

1. The ‘translator-as-reader’ view has been able to move fromthe meaning implied by the text to the meaning inferred fromthe text by the translator.

2. The ‘translator-as-writer’ view has been able to becomemuch more sensitive to questions of reader interaction andexpectations, to the interplay between the creativity andfreedom of the translator and how this must always beaffected by what the reader of the target text might do, feeland decide.

Cognitive stylistics and Translation • i) Meaning is more than the words on the page.• ii) Reading is a cognitive process. It is also a major part of the

translator’s task. • iii) With all the freedom and involvement of the reader, we are

still always trying, not just in literature, but in every type of communication, to find a reading which is more than merely personal.

• iv) What does cognitive stylistics have to say about the difference between literary and non-literary texts?

• v) And if there are universal features of literature (and of other text- types), what is their relation to the culture-specific and the context-specific?

• vi) If reading a text for translation means inferring an author, assuming a meaning, finding something we can act upon, can we accept that we are merely acting as though we knew what the author meant? Can we balance a sense of our ultimate ignorance with the need to act?

Translating the Mind in the Text Point of view is the perspective from which the fictional world ispresented.Mind style is the way in which the fictional world is perceived.

(Semino & Swindlehurst 1996)

Mind style is a textual feature. The translator might reconstruct anauthorial voice, but still be aware that it is a reconstruction and thatit is not identical with the real author’s voice.

Because Tennyson wrote in the voice of a suicidal murderer in‘Maud’ (1894), it does not mean this was Tennyson’s own situation,or even inclination, in spite of the view of some of his contemporarycritics (Thwaite 1996:322) (Boase-Beier 2006: 76).

Think about the novel you are reading…

Poetry - Example 2Ich lese in der Zeitung, dass die Mörder /von Mord undTotschlag nichts gewusst --. (HABEN or HÄTTEN)

(von Törne 1981:56)

Lit. Transl. ‘I read (present tense) in the paper, that themurderers ... known nothing of murder and manslaughter’.

(Translating goes beyond the words on the page and involvesfinding a way to reproduce the gap in English, so that thesame options (as far as possible) are open to the Englishreader).

Translated Literature

• Translated literature in particular could be seen to change the mind in three ways:

• i) by acquainting us with thoughts or feelings we had not experienced, or reflected on, or known to exist;

• ii) by showing us that other people experience them; • iii) by allowing us to experience those thoughts or feelings

for ourselves.

Prose - Example 3

Calorio non si chiamava Calorio, ma in tutta Vigata lo conoscevano con questo nome. Era arrivato in paisi non si sa da dove una ventina d’ anni avanti, un paro di pantaloni ch’ erano più pirtusa che stoffa, legati alla vita con una corda, giacchetta tutta pezze pezze all’arlecchino, piedi scavusi ma pulitissimi. Campava dimandando la limosina, ma con discrezione, senza dare fastiddio, senza spavintarefimmine e picciliddri. Teneva bene il vino, quando poteva accattarseneuna bottiglia, tanto che nessuno l’aveva veduto a malappena brillo: e dire che c’erano state occasioni di feste che di vino se n’era scolato a litri.

Calorio was not his name, but in Vigata the whole town knew him as Calorio. About twenty years back, he had turned up in town from God knows where, with a pair of britches that were draftier than a barn on account of the many holes, tied with a rope around his waist, and with a raggedy jacket so patched up he looked like a circus clown. He walked barefoot, but his feet were spotless. He scraped along by begging but without making a nuisance of himself, never bothering nobody, or scaring the womenfolk or young’uns. He held his liquor so well, when he could scare up enough to buy himself a bottle, that nobody ever saw him even slightly pickled; although there had been times on Feast days when he had put away quite a few quarts.

Taken from Camilleri’s ‘La sigla’ (as suggested by Cipolla 2006)

Effect(s)• A literary author’s aim is to make the reader search; the

translation must keep whatever prolongs that search, not just because the enhancement of cognitive state will be greater, but because the search will be better. Translation which gives away too much too easily could be seen to have failed in this particular task.

• The tendency to make things easy for the reader can be seen especially when the original text has several possible interpretations.

• Studies of the style of translated texts generally see the style as the result of choice, and thus, ultimately, if not explicitly, of a cognitive state driving that choice (the author’s and the translator’s…)

Mind in the Text• The notion of mind in the text can, be approached from the point

of view of the mind constructed as inhering in the source textand affecting the reader in a particular way or as being thecognitive state suggested by the interaction of inferred authormind style and translator mind style.

• The mind in the text is influenced by ideology (cf. Fowler et al.1997) it takes a particular attitude (e.g. irony) or it embodies aparticular feeling (sympathy).

• The second aspect of mind in the text, that it carries an attitudeconveyed by the style, is particularly important in the translationof irony, where the attitude towards the subject matter, if lost,would alter the translation completely.

In general…• Cognitive approaches to style and translation rely on the

interplay of stylistic universals with stylistic characteristics peculiar to an individual language, culture or view.

• For translation, a cognitive view might suggest that what is universal will be more easily translated than what is culturally or linguistically diverse.

James Joyce's The DublinersShe was fast asleep. Gabriel, leaning on his elbow, looked for a few moments unresentfully on her tangled hair and half-open mouth, listening to her deep-drawn breath. So she had had that romance in her life: a man had died for her sake. It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. He watched her while she slept as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. His curious eyes rested long upon her face and on her hair: and, as he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange friendly pity for her entered his soul. He did not like to say even to himself that her face was no longer beautiful but he knew that it was no longer the face for which Michael Furey had braved death.

Era profondamente addormentata. Gabriel, appoggiato su un gomito, guardò per alcuni minuti, senza rancore, i suoi capelli scarmigliati e la bocca dischiusa, e ascoltò il suo respiro profondo. Nella sua vita, dunque, c’era stata un’avventura, un uomo era morto per lei. Ora non gli dava quasi piu pena pensare a quanta poca parte lui, suo marito, aveva avuto nella sua vita. La os- servava mentre dormiva, come se lui e lei non avessero mai vissuto insieme come marito e moglie. I suoi occhi curiosi si fermarono a lungo sul volto e sui capelli di lei, e nel pensare a quella che doveva esser stata allora, al tempo della sua prima bellezza d’adolescente, si sentìpervadere da una strana, fraterna compassione per lei. Non gli piaceva ammetterlo nemmeno con se stesso, che quel volto non era piu cosìbello, tuttavia sapeva che non era piu il volto per il quale Michael Furey aveva affrontato la morte.

James Joyce's The Dubliners - KEYShe was fast asleep. Gabriel, leaning on his elbow, looked for a few moments unresentfully on her tangled hair and half-open mouth, listening to her deep-drawn breath. So she had had that romance in her life: a man had died for her sake. It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. He watched her while she slept as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. His curious eyes rested long upon her face and on her hair: and, as he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange friendly pity for her entered his soul. He did not like to say even to himself that her face was no longer beautiful but he knew that it was no longer the face for which Michael Furey had braved death.

Era profondamente addormentata. Gabriel, appoggiato su un gomito, guardò per alcuni minuti, senza rancore, i suoi capelli scarmigliati e la bocca dischiusa, e ascoltò il suo respiro profondo. Nella sua vita, dunque, c’era stata un’avventura, un uomo era morto per lei. Ora non gli dava quasi piu pena pensare a quanta poca parte lui, suo marito, aveva avuto nella sua vita. La os-servava mentre dormiva, come se lui e lei non avessero mai vissuto insieme come marito e moglie. I suoi occhi curiosi si fermarono a lungo sul volto e sui capelli di lei, e nel pensare a quella che doveva esser stata allora, al tempo della sua prima bellezza d’adolescente, si sentì pervadere da una strana, fraterna compassione per lei. Non gli piaceva ammetterlo nemmeno con se stesso, che quel volto non era più così bello, tuttavia sapeva che non era più il volto per il quale Michael Furey aveva affrontato la morte.

Lettere e FilosofiaLaurea Magistale

2018-2019

WEEK 4 - LECTURE 2Dr. Margherita Dore

margherita.dore@gmail.com

ENGLISH 1Module B – Stylistics and Translation

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Overview

• Ambiguity and textual gaps (and their opposite)• Foregrounding, salience and visibility• Metaphor, mind and translation• Iconicity, mimesis and diagesis• Cognitive stylistics and the pretence of translation

Ambiguity• As a stylistic characteristic it involves the presence of

structures in a text which have multiple meaning; its universal status in linguistics is gen- erally seen to result from the arbitrariness of the relation between signs and meanings

• In cognitive stylistics, ambiguity is also of especial interest because it can be seen as expressing a cognitive state in which several different and possibly contradictory thoughts are entertained at the same time.

• Early writers on translation, regarding ambiguity as a stylistic fault, saw it as the translator’s job to resolve it.

Ambiguity• The question for the translator is then this: should s/he

keep the ambiguity in the target text, or, regarding it as an anomaly that arises in written language, make no attempt to preserve it?

• Ambiguity may be removed intentionally in literary translation, because it is seen as a fault, or its implicatures may be missed. But in non-literary texts such as newspaper and magazine articles, many instances of ambiguity are disambiguated in context. Their effect depends upon the linear process of reading, so they first attract attention and create a situation where multiple meanings are held in mind, to be then resolved into only one.

Example 1

Non fiori ma firme contro il palazzo (Panorama, 15.4.2004

There are two sources of disambiguation in theaccompanying text: a photograph of Publio Fiori and thephrase “the vice- president ... Publio Fiori”, both of which tellus this is the name of a person, a fact which many Italianreaders would already know. After reading the article, theuncertainty is removed (Boase-Beier 2006: 88)

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Ambiguity and Humour TranslationWhat’s black and white and red all over?

A newspaper.

ITALIAN VERSION:Che cosa è nero, bianco e rosso ovunque?A. L’Unità, or (a Communist newspaper)B. Una zebra con l’abbronzatura (a zebra with a sunburn)

NOTE: The first “red” retains the “read” association, while thesecond “red” does not.

(Chiaro [2008]: 580)

Exercise 10001 00:00:03:23 00:00:04:23 12"GO"0002 00:00:05:20 00:00:07:00 14"GO ON"0003 00:00:07:22 00:00:09:17 22"GO FIRST"0004 00:00:10:00 00:00:11:16 20"GO FORTH"0005 00:00:14:18 00:00:16:15 23"GO EXPLORE"0006 00:00:18:10 00:00:21:19 40"GO WITH THE WAVES,LEAD THE BRAVE"0007 00:00:22:06 00:00:23:24 21"GO BOLD"0008 00:00:24:03 00:00:25:18 19"GO STRONG"0009 00:00:27:10 00:00:30:04 33"GO TO OCEANS WHERE NO ONE'S GONE"

0010 00:00:33:13 00:00:34:22 16"GO DEEP"0011 00:00:35:12 00:00:36:24 18"GO STEEP"0012 00:00:38:16 00:00:40:05 19"GO SEE"0013 00:00:41:23 00:00:43:24 24"TRY, DARE"0014 00:00:44:17 00:00:46:16 24"GO EVERYWHERE"0015 00:00:48:08 00:00:50:03 22"INTO THE STORM"0016 00:00:53:07 00:00:56:02 34EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN0017 00:00:56:06 00:00:59:22 44THE FIRST-EVER BMW X4

Exercise 1- Key0001 00:00:03:23 00:00:04:23 12"VAI"0002 00:00:05:20 00:00:07:00 14

"VAI AVANTI"0003 00:00:07:22 00:00:09:17 22"VAI PER PRIMO"0004 00:00:10:00 00:00:11:16 20"VAI OLTRE"0005 00:00:14:18 00:00:16:15 23"VAI E ESPLORA"0006 00:00:18:10 00:00:21:19 40"CAVALCA L’ONDA,

SFIDA IL MONDO"0007 00:00:22:06 00:00:23:24 21"SII AUDACE"0008 00:00:24:03 00:00:25:18 19"SII FORTE"0009 00:00:27:10 00:00:30:04 33"VAI IN QUEGLI OCEANI MAI

RAGGIUNTI"

0010 00:00:33:13 00:00:34:22 16"VAI FINO IN FONDO"0011 00:00:35:12 00:00:36:24 18"VAI IN ALTO"0012 00:00:38:16 00:00:40:05 19"VAI A VEDERE"0013 00:00:41:23 00:00:43:24 24"PROVA, OSA"0014 00:00:44:17 00:00:46:16 24"VAI OVUNQUE"0015 00:00:48:08 00:00:50:03 22"NELLA TEMPESTA"0016 00:00:53:07 00:00:56:02 34ABBRACCIA L’IGNOTO0017 00:00:56:06 00:00:59:22 44LA PRIMA BMW X4

The Italian version:

Foregrounding, salience and visibility• Foregrounding has been extensively explained during

Module A (cf. PPTs or read Chapter 4 in Boase-Beier2006). To recap, in Fowler’s words, involves the “use of some strategy to force us to look” (1996:57). One of the cognitive effects of foregrounding is to make readers rethink their views of the world

• In translation in can be achieves via: 1. Lack of smoothness, as a sign of the awkwardness(somehow positive)2. translationese (somehow negative)

• Visibility, PPTs Week 3 on Venuti.

• Salience, according to Relevance-Theory view calls a “communicative clue”

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Foregrounding and Frames - Exercise 2Dust if you must ~ Rose Milligan ~

Dust if you must, but _______ it be _______To _______ a picture or _______ a letter,

_______ a cake or _______ a seed,_______ the difference between _______ and _______ ?

Dust if you must, but there’s not _______ _______ ,With rivers to _______ and mountains to _______ ,

Music to _______ and books to _______ ,Friends to _______ and life to _______ .

Dust if you must, but the _______‘s out there,With the sun in your _______ and the wind in your _______ ,

A _______ of snow, a _______ of rain,This day will not _______ _______ again.

Dust if you must, but _______ in _______ ,Old age _______ _______ and it’s not _______ ,

And when you _______ (and go you must)You, _______ , will _______ _______ dust.

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Exercise 2 – Key Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be betterTo paint a picture, or write a letter,Bake a cake, or plant a seed;Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there’s not much time,With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;Music to hear, and books to read;Friends to cherish, and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world’s out thereWith the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,Old age will come and it’s not kind.And when you go (and go you must)You, yourself, will make more dust.

Spolvera se devi, ma non sarebbe meglioDipingere un quadro, o scrivere una lettera,Fare un dolce, o piantare un seme? Ponderare la differenza tra volere ed aver bisogno.

Spolvera se devi. Ma non c’è molto tempo Con fiumi in cui nuotare e monti da scalare!Musica da ascoltare e libri da leggere, Amici da godersi e una vita da vivere.

Spolvera se devi. Ma c’è un mondo là fuoriCon il sole negli occhi, Il vento tra i capelli,Uno spruzzo di neve, una pioggia improvvisa.Questo giorno non ritornerà .

Spolvera se devi. Ma ricordati,La vecchiaia arriverà e non sarà gentile. E quando andrai, e andare devi,Tu, proprio tu, creerai altra polvere.

(Sergio Valentini)

Metaphor, Mind and Translation• Newmark describes the translation of metaphor as the

“most impor- tant particular problem” (1995:104), and makes a number of suggestions for translating the different types such as “dead”, “cliche”, “standard”, “adapted”, “recent” and “original” metaphors (1995:105-113).

• For a translator, if the violation of semantic constraints which the metaphor suggests works in the world of the source text, there is no reason why it should not work in the world of the target text.

• It seems important, therefore, that a translator respect this particular feature of poetic metaphor, rather than assuming that it works like non-poetic metaphor, in expressing the abstract in terms of the concrete.

Metaphor, Mind and TranslationIn general, cognitive views should be able to tell us something about the following three areas which might be seen to play a role in translating metaphor:

i) universality versus particularity in metaphor ii) whether different linguistic types of metaphor should or can be or are translated in different ways iii) whether metaphor is a purely linguistic or even an “ornamental” figure or whether it constitutes thought on a much deeper level, and how such a distinction might affect translation.

Exercise 2Translate the passage from Fiends, Series 1 and try and retain the metaphor in it.

[Context: Ross has just been left by his lesbian wife and he is very upset. He suggests that if there is only one woman for every man he has lost his chance to be happy. Joey tries to cheer him up]

Joey: What are you talking about? ‘One woman’? That's like saying there's is only one flavor of ice cream for you. Lemmetell you something, Ross. There's [sic.] lots of flavors out there. There's Rocky Road, and Cookie Dough, and Bing! Cherry Vanilla, You could get 'em with Jimmies or nuts, or whipped cream! This is the best thing that ever happened to you! You got married, you were, like what, eight? Welcome back to the world! Grab a spoon!

Ross: I honestly don't know if I'm hungry or horny!

Exercise 2 –Key Translate the passage from Fiends, Series 1 and try and retain the metaphor in it.

• Joey: Ma di che diavolo stai parlando? ‘Una sola donna’? Sarebbe come dire:‘Hai solamente un unico gusto di gelato da scegliere’. Lascia che ti dica una cosa. Ci sono un sacco di gusti da scegliere. C'è il gusto Rocky, il gusto Gianduia, e Bingo! Ciliegia vanigliata. Li puoi mangiare con le cialde o con le nocio con la panna montata! Questa è la cosa migliore che ti sia mai successa! Ti sei sposato che, quanti anni avevi? Otto? Bentornato alla vita. Prendi un cucchiaino di gelato!

• Ross: Francamente non so se sono affamato o nauseato.

Bibliography

What we studied so far:• Munday, Jeremy (2016), Introducing Translation Studies.

Theories and Applications, 4th edition, Routledge, London/New York – CHAPTERS 1, 3, 4, 5

• Jean Boase-Beier (2006), Stylistic Approaches to Translation, London: Routledge CHAPTERS 1, 3 and 4 (Chapter 2 is very similar to Chapter 4 in Munday (2016) in terms of content, so you can skip it or read it as further reading).

• Parks, T. (2007), Translating Style, London: Routledge CHAPTERS 1; Chapter 2 (pp.15-18); Chapter 3 (pp. 58-74)