The water of life
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Sibelan Forrester
Abstract
This article examines the practice and significance of several Croatian and Serbian translations of poetry from Russian in the 1970s and 1980s. It takes examples from versions of three Russian writers from the early 20th century made by translators primarily known for their original writing, Josip Sever, Danilo Kiš, Irena Vrkljan and Dubravka Ugrešić. Each translator selects a suitable literary forebear or model and mobilizes the original author’s image and significance, along with the status of Russian literature and culture in general, in order to shape his or her own bibliography and literary personality. These translations play multiple roles in the recipient culture: they select particular Russian authors and make them available in the local language, thus recommending them to readers, while the acts of selection and translation demonstrate the Russian authors’ influence on or connections with the local writers who choose to translate them.
Abstract
This article examines the practice and significance of several Croatian and Serbian translations of poetry from Russian in the 1970s and 1980s. It takes examples from versions of three Russian writers from the early 20th century made by translators primarily known for their original writing, Josip Sever, Danilo Kiš, Irena Vrkljan and Dubravka Ugrešić. Each translator selects a suitable literary forebear or model and mobilizes the original author’s image and significance, along with the status of Russian literature and culture in general, in order to shape his or her own bibliography and literary personality. These translations play multiple roles in the recipient culture: they select particular Russian authors and make them available in the local language, thus recommending them to readers, while the acts of selection and translation demonstrate the Russian authors’ influence on or connections with the local writers who choose to translate them.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Contexts
- Shifting contexts 19
- Nation and translation 33
- Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
- Romania as Europe’s translator 79
- Translating India, constructing self 97
- The water of life 117
- Translation trouble 137
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Part II. Subtexts
- Between the lines 149
- Translation theory and cold war politics 171
- The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
- Squandered opportunities 205
- Meaningful absences 219
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Part III. Pretexts
- Translated by Goblin 235
- “No text is an island” 249
- Russian dystopia in exile 265
- Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
- The other polysystem 295
- Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
- Index 323
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Contexts
- Shifting contexts 19
- Nation and translation 33
- Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
- Romania as Europe’s translator 79
- Translating India, constructing self 97
- The water of life 117
- Translation trouble 137
-
Part II. Subtexts
- Between the lines 149
- Translation theory and cold war politics 171
- The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
- Squandered opportunities 205
- Meaningful absences 219
-
Part III. Pretexts
- Translated by Goblin 235
- “No text is an island” 249
- Russian dystopia in exile 265
- Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
- The other polysystem 295
- Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
- Index 323
