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Problems in Translating Pessoa's Poetry Into English

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Problems in Translating Pessoa's Poetry Into English Problems in translating Pessoa’s poetry into English John Pedro Schwartz* Keywords Translation, Rhyme, Meter, Personal infinitive, Verb tense. Abstract This paper focuses on five problems all translators of Fernando Pessoa’s poetry into English must grapple with. The first is whether or not to distinguish the poetry of Pessoa (orthonym), Álvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro and Ricardo Reis through the use of stylistic and lexical markers. The second is: to what degree should the translator imitate Pessoa’s occasional labyrinthine constructions? Third, every translator must decide at the outset whether or not to use rhyme and meter, where these occur in Pessoa’s poetry. The final two problems concern Portuguese grammar: how to translate the pretérito perfeito do indicativo [simple past tense], which lends itself in English to both simple past and present perfect tenses; and how to translate the personal infinitive, a form unique among all languages for handling a change in subject within a sentence. Palavras-chave Tradução, Rima, Métrica, Infinitivo pessoal, Tempo verbal. Resumo Este artigo foca-se nos cinco problemas com os quais qualquer tradutor da poesia pessoana tem de batalhar quando traduz para inglês. O primeiro é distinguir ou não a poesia de Pessoa (ortónimo), da de Álvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro e Ricardo Reis através de indicações estilísticas e lexicais. O segundo é até que ponto o tradutor deve imitar as construções labirínticas ocasionais. Terceiro, o tradutor tem de decidir no início se deve usar rima e métrica ou não, quando e onde estas ocorram na poesia de Pessoa. Os dois problemas finais referem-se à gramática portuguesa: como traduzir o pretérito perfeito do indicativo, que em inglês empresta-se ambos ao simple past tense e ao present perfect tense; e como traduzir o infinitivo pessoal, uma forma única de todos os idiomas para lidar com uma mudança de sujeito dentro de uma frase. * American University of Malta. Schwartz Translating Pessoa’s Poetry The António Miranda Collection of Pessoana in Santo Tirso boasts some 21 English translations of Fernando Pessoa’s poetry: 13 book-length, two in books and six in periodicals. Many of these translations are little known, with the earliest dating back to 1938, when Charles David Ley, a member of the British Institute in Lisbon, published Pessoa’s first poem in English translation in the Portuguese journal Presença (“O ceu, azul de luz quieta” / “The sky is blue with quiet light”).1 A signed copy of Jonathan GRIFFIN’s 1971 Fernando Pessoa, a collection of 87 poems attractively presented in four slim volumes, is just one of the gems (Fig. 1). Impressive as this trove is, it contains less than half of all the English translations published during the span of the collection, which ran to 2010. Missing from the catalogue are some 15 book-length English translations brought out in that period, as well as the majority of the translations published in books, periodicals or special editions.2 Then, too, at least three important English translations have appeared since 2010 (ZENITH, 2016; JENNINGS, 2019; SCHWARTZ with SCHWARTZ, 2020). Still, the corpus greatly facilitates the study of English translations of Pessoa’s poetry—one of the many avenues of research paved by the cataloguing of the collection in issues 15 and 16 of Pessoa Plural. There are at least four ways to study the subject. Filipa de FREITAS (2015) analyzes English translations of Pessoa’s “Ode Marítima” [Maritime Ode], specifically, the terms they use for the different moods or dispositions she finds central to the poem. Her aim is to reveal how their inexact correspondence in English forces translators to make interpretative decisions as to the poem’s meaning3. George MONTEIRO (1998) tells well researched stories about classic translators, such as Edouard Roditi, Thomas Merton, Roy Campbell and Edwin Honig, which focus equally on the issues surrounding their work and on the works themselves.4 A third approach is the bibliographic review epitomized by the indefatigable José BLANCO, whose 2008 article “Fernando Pessoa’s Critical and Editorial Fortune in English” provides a chronological overview of most of the works discussed in this paper. 1 PIZARRO (2017) identifies Ley as the translator of three additional poems (by Álvaro de Campos), two of which were published in Presença in 1977; a transcription of the poems is included in the article. 2 See Blanco’s selected bibliography of Pessoa’s poetry in English in LISBOA and TAYLOR (1995: 317- 21), which extends to 1995. From 1995 to 2010, the following books appeared: ZENITH (1997); BUTLER ([2004] 2009); ZENITH (2006); DANIELS (2007); RATTIGAN (2007); and DANIELS (2009). 3 In a similar vein, GUYER (1996) analyzes form and diction in eight translations of “Tabacaria.” 4 See also MONTEIRO (2013: 295-321) for a discussion of his some of his problems in translating Pessoa’s poetry, coupled with an interesting comparison of his version of “Autopsicografia” with that of others. Pessoa Plural: 17 (P./Spring 2020) 43 Schwartz Translating Pessoa’s Poetry Fig. 1. Pessoa translated by GRIFFIN (1971). Pessoa Plural: 17 (P./Spring 2020) 44 Schwartz Translating Pessoa’s Poetry Missing from this body of scholarship is a ground-level analysis of the challenges involved in translating Pessoa’s poetry into English. I propose to fill that gap, with a focus on five problems all translators must grapple with. The first is whether or not to distinguish the poetry of Pessoa (orthonym), Álvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro and Ricardo Reis through the use of stylistic and lexical markers. The answer usually depends on a particular interpretation of Pessoa, and I examine whatever correspondence might obtain between the two, as well as the contending takes of the different translators, often spelled out in their introductions. The second question flows from the first: to what degree should the translator imitate Pessoa’s occasional labyrinthine constructions? The spectrum spans from the literalist to the anti-literalist. Third, every translator must decide at the outset whether or not to use rhyme and meter, where these occur in Pessoa’s poetry. The decision often implies a view of the relation between form and content in poetry. The final two problems I look at concern Portuguese grammar: how to translate the pretérito perfeito do indicativo [simple past tense], which lends itself in English to both simple past and present perfect tenses; and how to translate the personal infinitive, a form unique among all languages for handling a change in subject within a sentence. I will examine the following translations: Place of Type of Number of Introduction Contents Bilingual publication publication poems / Notes RODITI USA In periodical Anthology 4 / (1956) ✕ ✓ ✕ LONGLAND USA In periodical Anthology 10 / (1970) ✕ ✓ ✕ 57 + 3 QUINTANILHA Book- Wales Anthology English / (1971) length ✓ ✓ ✓ poems RICKARD Book- England Anthology 70 / (1971) length ✓ ✓ ✓ GRIFFIN Book- England Anthology 133 / ([1974] 1982) length ✕ ✓ ✕ HONIG and Anthology 129 + 22 Book- BROWN USA (includes English / length ✕ ✓ ✓ ([1986] 1998) prose) poems MONTEIRO Book- USA Anthology 31 / (1988) length ✓ ✓ ✕ Single GRIFFIN Book- Author England 44 / ([1992] 2007) length (Fernando ✓ ✓ ✓ Pessoa) Pessoa Plural: 17 (P./Spring 2020) 45 Schwartz Translating Pessoa’s Poetry BOSLEY Anthology England In book 90 / (1995) ✕ ✓ ✕ 233 + 10 ZENITH Book- USA Anthology English / (1997) length ✕ ✓ ✓ poems Anthology BUTLER Book- Ireland (includes 25 / ([2004] 2009) length ✓ ✕ ✕ prose) Single ZENITH Book- Author Portugal 21 / (2006) length (Álvaro de ✓ ✕ ✕ Campos) Single DANIELS Book- Author England 155 / (2007) length (Álvaro de ✕ ✕ ✕ Campos) Anthology JENNINGS Portugal In book (includes 30 / (2019) ✕ ✓ ✕ prose) SCHWARTZ 79 + 6 with Book- Portugal Anthology English / SCHWARTZ length ✕ ✕ ✓ poems (2020) Fig. 2. Some translations of Pessoa into English. A comparison of how these translators tackle the five problems mentioned above reveals the stakes involved. Critical interpretation of Pessoa in English, long lagging behind Italian, Spanish and French scholarship, is on the rise. Recent years have also seen a spate of English translations of Pessoa’s poetry that promises to continue. A critical understanding of problems in translation must keep pace if both interpretation and translation are to maintain their trajectories. The dissemination of Pessoa in the anglophone world depends on both. For translation always involves interpretation, so that Pessoa’s reception in the anglophone world—poised to expand—is crucially shaped by the work done by translators. Critical premises shape what gets translated and how, and this, in turn, shapes audiences’ understanding. Clarifying the connection between critical premises, choices in translation and the interpretation of Pessoa to which these give rise is this paper’s ultimate aim. Pessoa Plural: 17 (P./Spring 2020) 46 Schwartz Translating Pessoa’s Poetry Style and Lexicon: To Distinguish the Heteronyms or Not One bone of contention among translators is whether or not to vary their lexical and stylistic choices with the poetry of Pessoa (orthonym), Campos, Caeiro and Reis. Their decision on the matter is important, for it can reveal, or reinforce, a view of Pessoa’s heteronyms in terms of unity, vacuity or diversity.5 In his Introductory Notes David Butler stakes out his position clearly (Fig. 3): Any translator who is not at all times alive to the disquieting void behind the series of masks runs the danger of misrepresenting the poet. He may become dazzled […] by such superficialities of form and ornament as distinguishing one heteronym from another. In the more reprehensible translations, stylistic and lexical markers are exaggerated […]; in the least imaginative criticisms heteronyms are catalogued and explained in terms of thumbnail biographies and reductive labels. ([2004] 2009: 5) Butler conceives of Pessoa as depersonalized out of existence, his heteronyms Beckettian “vice-existers,” hall-of-mirror images “void” of all source. Pessoa’s “astonishing post-modernity” finds its highest expression in Campos’ ontological self-doubt.
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