Abstracts
Abstract
Contrary to what might be expected, a Canadian literature in Spanish translation already exists and, expectedly, Margaret Atwood is one of the most translated writers. All her novels except Life Before Man, as well as three of her collections of short stories and three of her poetry collections have been translated into Spanish. Her work has received excellent reviews in Spain which have also praised her translators. This essay focuses on my own experience translating Atwood’s poetry–her collection Power Politics (Juegos de poder, 2000)–into Spanish, in an approach which compares my own project of translation or “projet-de-traduction,” as formulated by Antoine Berman, with that of the other translations of her poetry into Spanish. Being a university teacher and a researcher in Canadian literature, and not a specialist in Translation Studies, my approach is necessarily pragmatic and not theoretical. Bearing in mind Barbara Folkart’s contention that poetry is a cognitive activity and the multiplicity of interpretations that the poems offer, in which the feminist one is prominent, I tried to produce a translation which was as close as possible to the original characteristics of Atwood’s poetry in its tone, lineation and imagistic dimension. The first steps were the stylistic analysis, which resulted in a rhetorical study of the poems, and then the review of the existing criticism about the poems. The main problems which arose during the translation were related to the political and feminist connotations of the poems. If the political context is crucial in Power Politics, the cultural background is vital in The Journals of Susanna Moodie, although it has been erased in its Spanish version (Los diarios de Susanna Moodie, 1991, by Lidia Taillefer and Álvaro García). This is not an unusual phenomenon, since translation consists in an often insurmountable paradox which is formulated in the lines by Margaret Atwood quoted in the title of this article: trying to formulate the same idea in two languages which function differently and have completely different cultural contexts.
Keywords:
- Margaret Atwood,
- English Canadian literature in translation,
- literary translation,
- poetry translation,
- translation analysis
Résumé
Contrairement à ce qu’on peut imaginer, des traductions espagnoles d’oeuvres littéraires canadiennes existent déjà, et, comme on peut le prévoir, Margaret Atwood figure parmi les écrivains les plus traduits. L’ensemble de ses romans, à l’exception de Life Before Man, trois de ses recueils de nouvelles et trois de ses recueils de poésie ont été traduits en espagnol. Ses oeuvres ont reçu d’excellentes critiques en Espagne, qui ont aussi fait l’éloge de ses traducteurs. Cet article porte sur mon expérience personnelle en tant que traductrice de la poésie d’Atwood – son recueil Power Politics (Juegos de poder, 2000) – vers l’espagnol, suivant une démarche qui consiste à comparer mon propre « projet-de-traduction », tel que formulé par Antoine Berman, à celui des autres traducteurs espagnols de sa poésie. En tant que professeure d’université et de chercheure en littérature canadienne, et n’étant pas une spécialiste de la traductologie, ma démarche est nécessairement pragmatique et non théorique. Tenant compte à la fois du concept de Barbara Folkart selon lequel la poésie est une activité cognitive, et de la multiplicité d’interprétations offertes par les poèmes parmi lesquelles l’interprétation féministe est saillante, j’ai tenté de produire une traduction qui, dans son ton, sa linéation et sa dimension imagiste, se rapproche le plus possible des caractéristiques premières de la poésie d’Atwood. La première étape a été l’analyse stylistique, qui a pris la forme d’une étude rhétorique des poèmes, ensuite vint l’étude de l’état de la critique des poèmes. Les principaux problèmes qui ont surgi pendant la traduction étaient reliés aux connotations politiques et féministes des poèmes. Si le contexte politique est crucial dans Power Politics, l’arrière-plan culturel est vital dans The Journals of Susanna Moodie, même s’il a été effacé dans la version espagnole (Los diarios de Susanna Moodie, 1991, par Lidia Taillefer et Álvaro García,). Ce phénomène n’est pas inhabituel, car la traduction constitue souvent un paradoxe insurmontable qui est formulé dans les vers de Margaret Atwood cités dans le titre du présent article : tenter de formuler une même idée en deux langues qui fonctionnent de façon différente et qui évoluent dans des contextes culturels différents.
Mots-clés:
- Margaret Atwood,
- littérature canadienne-anglaise en traduction,
- traduction littéraire,
- traduction de la poésie,
- analyse des traductions
Appendices
References
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