Translation of Poetry: Towards a Practical Model for Translation Analysis and Assessment of Poetic Discourse

Abstract

Among translation issues, poetry translation is the most problematic area challenging both translators and authorities in the field of translation studies. Translation of poetry as a yet unanalyzed 'black box' (Francis 2006) has been a much debated issue since olden times, with many pros and cons and dichotomist reasoning as to its possibility or impossibility. This is due to the high cultural prestige of poetry which requires time, effort and ingenuity to translate traditional rhyme, rhythm structures and the figurative language involved. In the present study, a Persian piece of poetry by the contemporary Iranian poet, Musavi Garmaroodi, A. (1984) The aim is to identify the formative elements of versified discourse in the source and target texts (ST/TT) and to arrive at a tentative model of translation analysis which can serve as a measure for translation assessment of poetic genre.

Reformulating the problem of translatability

“…Arguably the acknowledged additional time, effort and ingenuity needed to translate poetry (Dastjerdi, Hakimshafaaii, and Jannesaari 2008) were factors that prompted critical attention to the particular embodiment of our working practices. We could be said to constitute a self-regulated community of practice (Wenger 1998), although this does not mean we did not work to external deadlines and expectations, that we were not project-managed and that there were not written contracts as well as verbal agreements.…”

Translation and Anxiety: A Study of Anxiety Effect on Translators’ Performance in Terms of Speed and Accuracy

“…It should be added that since each language has a distinctive form and pattern of its own and there is thus no one-to-one relationship between any two languages, the same meaning may be expressed in another language in quite a different grammatical or lexical form (Vahid Dastjerdi, 2008). As for accuracy in translation, according to Khomeijani Farahani (2005, pp.…”

Translation Quality Assessment (TQA): A Semiotic Model for Poetry Translation

“…Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubayiat is an example of such changes. Vahid et al (2008) call their approach "product-oriented". They justify theirclaimbyresortingtosocialandculturalperspectives.But,aholisticapproach should take into account the three ends of the poetry triangle i.e.…”

“…Further research should be done on the accuracy of the categorization. 'Appeal' and 'meaning'gettogetherinthemodelandform'theverse'.Atthesamelevel, wehaveproseasifitweremeaninglessorwithoutappeal.Furthermore, Vahid et al (2008) refer to 'reader's knowledge of the world', but they fail to state its nature. This model has been devised for assessment of a poetic translatedtext,buthowoneisgoingtocomeupwithsuchanassessment?At …”

“…Such a focus requires close attention to the semiotic level of the text in translation which in turn leads to considering semiotic as well as textual aspects of a text in translation quality assessment (TQA). The present study was an attempt to apply semiotics to a model of translation assessment proposed by Vahid et al (2008), which is a holistic model for the evaluation of poetry translation. Although such an enterprise deserves appreciation in its own right, the model seems to carry some shortcomings.…”