Translating Patterns of Style in 'Hour of the Wolves'

For a translator of poetry, it is important to analyse the style of the original poem in order to gain access to the poetics from which the poem arose. I consider here the translation of a German poem, ‘Stunde der Wölfe’, by Volker von Törne, into English. Stylistic patterns in the original poem include the central metaphor of wolves and many other metaphors: birds, paths and journeys, night and winter. There are images of curtailment, intervention and impediment caused by natural agents such as wolves, hawks, wind and snow. And there are several patterns of repeated sounds. The translator must also look beyond the poem itself, to the context in which the poet was writing, and to the use of metaphor and myth in both languages. Considering the interaction of all these elements allows the translator to find ways of translating that preserve the central images and stylistic patterns

A cognitive perspective on equivalent effect: using eye tracking to measure equivalence in source text and target text cognitive effects on readers

Eye-tracking methods have long been used to explore cognitive processing in reading, but the recent burgeoning of such methods in the field of translation studies has focused almost entirely on the translation process or audiovisual translation, neglecting the effects of the translation product itself. This paper presents a proof-of-concept study using eye tracking to compare fixation data between native readers of a French literary source text and native readers of its English translation at specific, corresponding points in the texts. The preliminary data are consistent with previous findings on the relationship between the features of the fixated word and fixation durations. These findings are also consistent with stylistic analyses and indicate that this method can be used to compare the levels of cognitive effort between two readership groups in order to investigate whether their experience is similar – whether an ‘equivalent effect’ has been achieved – thus contributing to the ongoing discourse surrounding equivalence in translation studies

A Critical Introduction to Translation Studies

Met register en bibliografi

Translated Holocaust poetry and the reader

How are the indirect memories of disabled holocaust victims encapsulated in a poem by someone else? I argue that translating such poetry both preserves and enhances the memory by communicating it to a new audience

Poetry

The central question that most studies of poetry translation ask, implicitly or explicitly, is whether poetry can be translated. It may seem obvious that it can, since poetry has always been translated. One way of overcoming it is demonstrated by Burnshaw, who translates poetry into a non-poetic text with detailed commentary. This approach can, as this case illustrates, provide highly sensitive prose translations that allow the reader great insight into the original poems. Descriptive theory can enhance the poetry translator’s knowledge of what is possible, and thus be a valuable tool. Three main types of theory are likely to be of particular relevance to theorizing the translation of poetry: theories of poetry, theories of the mind and theories of translation. Much of the information about poetry translation that serves as the basis for theorizing is provided by practising translators in prefaces, notes, introductions and descriptive essays, as well as on various online platforms