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The Art of Translation
Patrick John Corness
Translation Critique
K pragmatické ekvivalenci v překladech českých neliterárních textů do angličtiny. [The Quest for Pragmatic Equivalence in the translation of Czech non-literary texts into English]
In ToP, September 1998, 7-11.
(With Jana Králová) eds. Folia Translatologica, International Series of Translation Studies Volume 7, 1999: Issues of Translation into a Non-Native Language. Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Prague
Предложные сочетания с “в” в повести Пиковая дама А.С. Пушкина и их перевод на английский язык: аспекты сравнительной семантики, лексической сочетаемости и валентности
[Prepositional phrases with the preposition v in Pushkin's short story The Queen of Spades and their translation into English].
In Puškino rinkinys: 200 metų jubiliejui paminėti [Proceedings of a conference to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Pushkin],
Vilnius, University of Vilnius, 1999, pp. 227-245
The taming of Dostoevsky: a note on English translations of Crime and Punishment. In Essays in Language, Translation and the Digital Learning Technologies in honour of Doug Thompson, ed. George Talbot and Pamela Williams, Matador, 2002.
Horror Vacui? Explicitation in a Polish translation of Over Nine Waves: A Book of Irish Legends. In Translation Ireland – Polish – Irish Issues in Translation (Translation Ireland, Volume 19, number 2, May 2014)
(With Agata Brajerska-Mazur)
Translating Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s ‘Generalities’: a case study of co-operation
Part 1 in Sarmatian Review, September 2014
(With Agata Brajerska-Mazur)
Translating Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s ‘Generalities’: a case study of co-operation
Nowe tłumaczenia na język angielski dwóch poematów Norwida [New English translations of two poems by Norwid]. In: Kulturowy wymiar twórczości Norwida. Lublin, Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II, 2016, 209-235:
Niektóre luki i translatorskie przesunięcia w tłumaczeniu na angielski Soli ziemi [Some lacunae and translation shifts in an English translation of the novel The Salt of the Earth by Józef Wittlin]. In: Józef Wittlin, pisarz kulturowego pogranicza. Lublin, Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 2017: 61-78.
Abstract
The novel Sół ziemi [The Salt of the Earth], the first part of an intended, but never to be completed Homeric trilogy about The Patient Infantryman, was published in Poland in 1935.
It was awarded the Wiadomosci Literackie [Literary News] and the Zloty Wawrzyn [Golden Laurel] prizes. In 1939 it was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sół ziemi has been translated into a number of languages.
The present paper investigates the English translation by Pauline De Chary, published by Sheridan House in New York in 1941[1]. Cases of translation shift and their perceived impact on the author’s intentions in the sphere of characterisation, stylisation etc. are described.
For reasons of space, the investigated text is limited to the Prologue (Wittlin 1941:7-31).
Translational phenomena treated here include omission, misapprehension, misinterpretation, over-interpretation and semantic or stylistic broadening and narrowing.
The analysis is informed by Jiří Levý’s theories regarding a three-stage translation process (apprehension – interpretation – restylisation) and common translational tendencies (“…occurring principally as a result of shifts in three directions: a) between general and specific denominations; b)between stylistically neutral and expressive denominations; and c) between repetition and variation of vocabulary”)[2]
The translator’s strategy of lexical choice on a spectrum between general and specific denominations is found to generally favour the former, and stylistically neutralised denominations are more commonly chosen than greater expressivity.
Cases of omission and some of the translation shifts identified in this study are considered to represent an impoverishment of the author’s intentions, and therefore a certain restriction of the cultural transfer which is by definition the translator’s task.
[1] Wittlin, Joseph (1941). Salt of the Earth: a novel. Translated by Pauline De Chary. New York, Sheridan House.
[2] Levý’, Jiří. 2011. The Art of Translation. Translated by Patrick Corness. Edited with a critical foreword by Zuzana Jettmarová. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins. pp. 31, 114. NB: The issue of repetition and variation of vocabulary is not addressed in the present article.
"A Clockwork Orange” in Polish: Robert Stiller’s dystopias. In: Słowiańska Wieża Babel Slavonic Tower of Babel, Vol. 2. Poznań, Adam Mickiewicz University, 2018.
Proceedings of a Conference held at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań in October 2016.
Překladatelská strategie přebásnění Dvořákových Mužských sborů (B 66 a B 72, B 73) [Approach to the translation into English of the Czech lyrics of Antonín Dvořák’s Unaccompanied Male Voice Choruses (B 66 a B 72, B 73)].
Časopis pro moderní filologii, Prague, 100, 2018, Č. 2, S. 225-249
Proceedings of IX World Congress of Ukrainianists, Kyiv 2018 (see PDF)
Includes (see pp. 322-335):
Patrick John Corness, A comparative sketch of five published English translations of Lesya Ukrainka's Лісова пісня (The Song of the Forest)
Two English translations of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto. In Opera in Translation: Eastern and Western Perspectives, edited by Adriana Șerban and Kelly Kar Yue Chan. J Benjamins . Published October 2020.
In progress:
A comparative study of five English translations of
Lesya Ukrainka's fantasy drama The Song of the Forest
Image:
Lesya Ukrainka mural at Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, Lutsk (photo by Patrick John Corness, 2018)
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