Self-translation

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The self-translation is the translation of a source text into a different language target text by the author of the source text. In specialist literature, self-translation is also called self-translation or ipso - translation .

Basics

Self-translation can be found in different situations, but it is particularly interesting in a literary context. It has drawn the attention of linguists and translation researchers especially since the beginning of the 21st century, largely as a result of intensive research in the field of foreign translation in the 20th century. Research on self- translation has been recognized as a special sub-area of ​​translation research since the publication of the first edition of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies in 1998.

history

In Western societies and literatures, the tradition of bilingual or multilingual texts goes back at least to the Middle Ages. Self-translated texts were quite common in the multilingual world of medieval and early modern literature, especially as a kind of bridge between the Latin of scholars and the vernacular languages ​​of the various areas of Europe. Later, the tradition of self-translation was preserved in elite circles, tended to disappear during the long era of the new nation-states supported nationalist monolingualism to new strength in the post-colonial to gain time.

Types

  • Self-translation can result from regular activity on the part of the author as well as from a one-off act that can have various causes. An example of the latter case is provided by James Joyce , who himself translated two passages from his Work in Progress (later: Finnegans Wake ) into Italian. Other relevant cases are the self-translations by Stefan George and Rainer Maria Rilke .
  • Either the mother tongue or an acquired language can be the source language, so the target language varies accordingly. Examples of the latter case are provided by some Belgian poets from the period between the world wars (including Roger Avermaete and Camille Melloy ), who translated their texts into Flemish themselves, only shortly after completing the originals in the acquired but perfectly mastered french language.
  • The self-translation can arise some time after the completion of the original, or during the creation process, so that the two versions develop almost simultaneously and influence each other. These two types are sometimes referred to as consecutive self- translation and simultaneous self- translation , respectively.
  • Self-translation can also concern more than one target language (native or acquired). This is e.g. E.g. the case of writers such as Fausto Cercignani , Alejandro Saravia and Luigi Donato Ventura .

List of possible motifs

  • The elitist nature of a given language can stimulate its self-translation into a local language, e.g. B. from Latin into a vernacular language in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period.
  • The cultural dominance of a given language in a multilingual society can encourage self-translation from a minor to the dominant language.
  • The cultural dominance of the national language can encourage self-translation from a dialect .
  • The cultural dominance of a given language in an international context can encourage self-translation from the national language into an internationally recognized language such as English. However, English as a target language is more common in cases where the author has emigrated to Anglophone countries.
  • Perfect or near-perfect bilingualism can encourage self-translation in both directions, regardless of market considerations.
  • Dissatisfaction with existing translations or distrust of third-party translators can encourage self-translation in both directions, regardless of market considerations.

Self-translation versus third-party translation

Apart from the intrinsic value of the secondary text, self-translation is often considered to be superior to foreign translation. The reason for this is that "the writer-translator is thought to be undoubtedly more suitable than any foreign translator to regain the intentions of the author of the original". Arguments against self-translation are based in part on the intrinsic value of the secondary text, but can also reflect specific socio-cultural considerations or attempt to criticize dubious publishing procedures.

Web links

Research project on self-translations in the multilingual scholarly culture of the early modern period at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin (ZfL)

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Jan Walsh Hokenson and Marcella Munson, The Bilingual Text. History and Theory of Literary Self-Translation , Manchester, 2007.
  2. ↑ See Jacqueline Risset, Joyce Translates Joyce , in Comparative Criticism , 6 (1984), pp. 3–21, where Joyce's self-translation is viewed as an author variant of the resulting text.
  3. ↑ See Dieter Lamping, The literary translation as a decentralized structure: The paradigm of self-translation , in Harald Kittel (ed.), Geschichte, System, Literäre Translation / Histories, Systems, Literary Translations , Berlin, 1992, pp. 212-227 .
  4. ↑ See Rainier Grutman, Self-translation , in Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies , London, 2008, p. 258.
  5. ↑ Rainier GRUTMAN, self-translation , in Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha (eds.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies , London, 2008, p.259.
  6. ↑ For a self-translation from Italian into German, English and French, see http://sites.unimi.it/austheod/adagio3l.pdf
  7. ↑ Alejandro Saravia is a Bolivian-Canadian writer. His poetry collection Lettres de Nootka is written in English, French and Spanish.
  8. ↑ See Alide Cagidemetrio, Trilinguismo letterario: il caso americano di Luigi Donato Ventura , in Furio Brugnolo e Vincenzo Orioles (ed.), Eteroglossia e plurilinguismo letterario. II. Plurilinguismo e letteratura , Roma, 2002, pp. 377-388.
  9. ↑ See Leonard Forster, The Poet's Tongues. Multilingualism in Literature , Cambridge, 1970, pp. 30 ff.
  10. ↑ For Scotland and Ireland, see Christopher Whyte, "Against Self-Translation," in Translation and Literature , 11/1 (2002), pp. 64-71 and Richard Brown, "Bog Poems and Book Poems. Doubleness, Self-Translation and Pun in Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon, "in Neil Corcoran (Eds.), The Chosen Ground. Essays on the Contemporary Poetry of Northern Ireland , Bridgend, 1992, pp. 171-188. For a case from the Soviet Union, see Munnavarkhon Dadazhanova, "Both Are Primary. An Author's Translation is a Creative Re-Creation," in Soviet Studies in Literature , 20/4 (1984), pp. 67-79. For Catalan, Galician and Basque versus Spanish (Castilian) see Pilar Arnau i Segarra et al. (Ed.), Escribir entre dos lenguas. Escritores catalanes y la elección de la lengua literaria , Kassel, 2002; Christian Lagarde (Ed.), Écrire en situation bilingue . Perpignan, 2004; Milton Azevedo, "Sobre les dues versions de Els Argonautes / Los Argonautas de Baltasar Porcel", in Suzanne S. Hintz et al. (Ed.), Essays in Honor of Josep M. Sola-Sole. Linguistic and Literary Relations of Catalan and Castilian , New York, 1996, pp. 53-67; Ute Heinemann, a writer who crosses the border with language. Literary processing of multilingualism, language contact and language conflict in Barcelona . Vienna, 1998. On the bilingual Belgian writers between the World Wars and in the years that followed, see Rainier Grutman, "L'écrivain flamand et ses langues. Note sur la diglossie des périphéries", in Revue de l'Institut de sociologie , 60 (1990 -1991), pp. 115-28 e RG, "Bilinguisme et diglossie: comment penser la différence linguistique dans les littératures francophones?", In L. D'hulst et J.-M. Moura (ed.), Les études littéraires francophones: état des lieux , Lille, 2003, pp. 113-126.
  11. ↑ On Luigi Pirandello as a self-translator from Sicilian into Italian, see Luciana Salibra, "Liolà. Pirandello autotraduttore dal siciliano", in Bolletino del Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani , 13 (1977), pp. 257-292
  12. ↑ See e.g. B. Zarema Kumakhova, Joseph Brodsky as self-translator. Analysis of lexical changes in his self-translations , Dissertation, Michigan State University, 2005 and Elizabeth K. Beaujour, Translation and Self-Translation , in Vladimir E. Alexandrov (ed.), The Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov , New York, 1995 , Pp. 714-725
  13. ^ Brian Fitch, Beckett and Babel: An Investigation into the State of the Bilingual Work , Toronto, 1988, p. 125.
  14. ↑ See Christopher Whyte, "Against Self-Translation," in Translation and Literature , 11/1 (2002), pp. 64-71