The Cross-temporal Factor in Verse Translation

Abstract

A discussion of some problems encountered in translating works written in another time as well as another language. In this case, transfer of information involves not only a shift from one linguistic system to another, but also shifts in the socio-cultural system and the literary or poetic system in which the work is expressed. Some solutions to these problems are investigated in the case of poetry. A translated poem can be rendered in: (1) a replica of English contemporary with the poem; (2) a variety of "standard archaic usage of English"; or (3) in modern poetic idiom. Four translations of Charles d'Orleans' rondel "Jeunes amoureux nouveaulx" which employ a combination of the three possible methods of translation are discussed. None of the translations modernized the original poem at all levels. This finding, in conjunction with a cursory examination of other translations of older poetry indicates that there is a resistance to transposing a poem of another day into a metapoem that is completely modern on all levels, with nothing in it to indicate its ties with an earlier time.