Lecture 5

1. Lecture 5 Translation in the epoch of Classicism and Enlightenment (17-18th centuries)

2. 1. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. 2. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. 3. Translation activity in Germany. Rational concepts of translatability. 4. Peter the Great and development of translation activity in Russia.

3. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Sir John Denham (1615–69), an English poet and courtier, more than half of whose poetical works were translations, proposed his ‘new way’ in translating poetry, a method both poetic and accurate.

4. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. He was following Horace’s advice in Ars Poetica that the poet should avoid any word-for-word rendering. But where Horace took translation as one practice of the poet, Denham took poetry as the goal of translation, especially poetry translation.

5. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. He wrote: “Poesie is of so subtle a spirit, that in pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a Caput mortuum”

6. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The “new spirit” that is “added” with this translation method involves a process of domestication, in which the foreign text is imprinted with values specific to the target-language culture.

7. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Abraham Cowley (1618–67) was regarded as the greatest poet of his age, writing English and Latin poetry, plays, essays, and prose work.

8. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Cowley advanced the notion of ‘Imitation’, an ultra-free type of translation. In his translation of the ancient Greek poet Pindar, Cowley revised and actually abandoned the original text.

9. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. In the Preface to his translations Cowley wrote: “I have in these two Odes of Pindar, taken, left out, and added what I please; nor make it so much my Aim to let the Reader know precisely what he spoke, as what was his Way and Manner of speaking … “

10. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Katherine Phillips (1631–1664) was the first successful woman playwright, though she did not write for the commercial stage. Her translation of Corneille’s La Mort de Pompe´e made her famous.

11. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Katherine Phillips wrote: “I think a translation ought not to be used as Musicians do a Ground, with all the liberty of descant, but as Painters when they copy, & the rule that I understood of translations till these Gentlemen informed me better, was to write to Corneille’s sense, as it is to be supposed Corneille would have done, if he had been an Englishman, not confined to his lines, nor his numbers (unless we can do it happily) but always to his meaning.”

12. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. John Dryden (1631 –1700), poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright.

13. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Dryden’s main thoughts on translation are found in the prefaces and dedicatory letters to the various collections in which his versions appeared between 1680 and 1700.

14. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Dryden focused on a number of important questions: the kinds of knowledge that any successful translator has to possess; the kind of fidelity to his original which he should seek; the ways in which he might best preserve the distinctive ‘character’ of each of their originals; the degree to which he might properly add to, subtract from, or ‘update’ material in his original; the contribution which translation might make to the culture and language of the nation.

15. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. In the Preface to Ovid’s Epistles (1680), Dryden proposed his well-known tripartite division of translation into ‘metaphrase’, ‘paraphrase’, and ‘imitation’.

16. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. ‘Metaphrase’ (literalism in translation) is rejected as it produces such awkward versions that they can give little idea of the artistic quality of their originals.

17. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. ‘Imitation’ (abandonment of the source text) is criticized because of an excessive freedom which makes it more properly regarded as original poetry than as translation.

18. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. ‘Paraphrase’ (translation in which the contours of the original are attentively observed, but with a freedom which allows the translator to convey the ‘spirit’ and ‘sense’ rather than merely the ‘letter’ of the original) is offered as the ideal compromise between the two extremes.

19. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Like Denham, Dryden recognized that the process of translation inevitably involves losses and gains, so that the translation appears to be in an equivocal relationship to the foreign text, never quite faithful, always somewhat free, never establishing an identity, always a lack and a supplement.

20. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Dryden also viewed the domesticating method as the most effective way to control this equivocal relationship and produce versions adequate to the Latin text.

21. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The Hazards of ‘Metaphrase’ ’Tis almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time; for Latin … often expresses that in one word which either the barbarity or the narrowness of modern tongues cannot supply in more. [ . . . ]

22. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The Hazards of ‘Metaphrase’ … the verbal copier is encumbered with so many difficulties at once that he can never disentangle himself from all. He is to consider at the same time the thought of his author and his words, and to find out the counterpart to each in another language; and besides this, he is to confine himself to the compass of numbers, and the slavery of rhyme.

23. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The Hazards of ‘Metaphrase’ ’Tis much like dancing on ropes with fettered legs: a man may shun a fall by using caution; but the gracefulness of motion is not to be expected …

24. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The Translator’s Language No man is capable of translating poetry who, besides a genius to that art, is not a master both of his author’s language and of his own. Nor must we understand the language only of the poet, but his particular turn of thoughts and of expression, which are the characters that distinguish, and, as it were, individuate him from all other writers. [ … ]

25. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The Translator’s Language There is therefore a liberty to be allowed for the expression, neither is it necessary that words and lines should be confined to the measure of their original. The sense of an author, generally speaking, is to be sacred and inviolable.

26. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The Translator’s Burden But slaves we are, and labour on another man’s plantation; we dress the vineyard, but the wine is the owner’s; if the soil be sometime barren, then we are sure of being scourged: if it be fruitful, and our care succeeds, we are not thanked; for the proud reader will only say, the poor drudge has done his duty.

27. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The Translator’s Burden But this is nothing to what follows; for being obliged to make his sense intelligible, we are forced to untune our own verses, that we may give his meaning to the reader. He who invents is master of his thoughts and words; he can turn and vary them as he pleases, till he renders them harmonious; but the wretched translator has no such privilege; for being tied to the thoughts, he must make what music he can in the expression; and, for this reason, it cannot always be so sweet as the original.

28. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Dryden’s influence is strongly felt in the work of Alexander Pope (1688–1744), a prominent English poet and major translator of poetry.

29. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. In his preface to “Iliad” Pope insists on moderation in translation and the need for an accuracy that avoids literalism or paraphrase.

30. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Pope’s translation of the “Iliad” and “Odyssey” is perhaps the greatest example of elevated style in English literature. The poet took what he saw as essential liberties, varying the repetitive epithets, suppressing what was considered offensive to contemporary taste.

31. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. The translation was inevitably thoroughly domesticated, making Homer readable in terms of the neo-classical aesthetic and notions of propriety. However, even some contemporaries found Pope’s text lacking in precision and too dependent on the requirements of the time.

32. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. From Alexander Pope’s Preface to The Iliad of Homer It is certain no literal translation can be just to an excellent original in a superior language: but it is a great mistake to imagine (as many have done) that a rash paraphrase can make amends for this general defect. [ . . . ]

33. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. From Alexander Pope’s Preface to The Iliad of Homer It is not to be doubted that the fire of the poem is what a translator should principally regard, as it is most likely to expire in his managing [ . . . ] Where his diction is bold and lofty, let us raise ours as high as we can, but where his is plain and humble, we ought not to be deterred from imitating him by the fear of incurring the censure of a mere English critic.

34. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. In 1755, Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was published.

35. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. In his essays Samuel Johnson voiced his views on translation. In general he adhered to the middle way, promoted by Dryden, advocating freedom rather than slavishness, but not at the expense of accuracy.

36. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Johnson wrote introductions for a collection of English poetry The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets with Critical Observations on Their Work, in three volumes (1779–81), including the lives of Pope, Dryden, and Cowley, with commentary on their translations.

37. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. Johnson argued that since ‘poetry cannot be translated’, the criterion must be the success of the translation as an English poem.

38. English translators of the 17th-18th centuries. From Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” (1755): TO TRANSLATE. To transport; to remove. It is particularly used of the removal of a bishop from one see to another. To transfer from one to another; to convey; to change; to interpret to another language; to change into another language retaining the sense. TRANSLATION. Removal, act of removing; the removal of a bishop to another see; the act of turning into another language; interpretation; something made by translation; version. TRANSLATOR. One that turns anything into another language.

39. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. In 1635 The Academie Française was established by King Louis XIII.

40. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt (1606 - 1664) extensively translated Greek and Latin authors into French. In one of his works he used the phrase ‘les belles infideles’ (beautiful and unfaithful), which became a term for the new mode of translation.

41. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. Perrot d'Ablancourt advocated censorship, additions, modifications or modernization of the original text in the name of taste and linguistic and cultural differences. Using his method, he adapted classical texts to current canons and genres.

42. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. In his preface to his version of the Annals, Perrot d'Ablancourt wrote: … the diversity that one finds among languages is so great … that it is always necessary to change the air and appearance, unless one wishes to create a monstrous body, like those in ordinary translations, which are either dead or languishing, or obscure, and muddled, without any order or gracefulness.

43. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. The free dynamic translations known as ‘les belles infideles’ aimed to provide target texts which are pleasant to read and this continued to be the dominant feature of translation into French well into the 18th century.

44. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. The dominant principle for French translators of the time was “please the reader and improve the author”.

45. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630-1721) most clearly formulated the importance of a certain literalism in translation in his treatise “On the best way of translating”.

46. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. He urged the translator to show humility to the source text. According to Huet, the best translation both correctly renders the author’s thoughts and carefully follows the language of the original. Huet emphasized the importance of non-fiction, scientific translation, which he saw as one of the important tasks of the civilization.

47. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. In the early 1690s the Académie Française was shaken by the literary and artistic argument which got the name of the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.

48. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. In 1699 appeared the prose translation of the Iliad (followed nine years later by a similar translation of the Odyssey) by Anne Dacier’s (1654–1720) who belonged to the group of the Ancients.

49. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. Anne Dacier’s translation, which made Homer known for the first time to many French men of letters gave rise to a famous literary controversy.

50. Translation in France. Les belles infideles and the growing demand for faithful translation. In 1714, Houdar de la Motte (1672-1731) published a poetical version of the Iliad, abridged and altered to suit his own taste. Houdar de la Motte argued that as a translator he aimed to achieve three goals: precision, clarity and pleasantness, and to achieve these goals he had to change notions characteristic of Homer’s age.