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The Significance of Scots and Its Accents in Contemporary Scottish Literature, and Its Reflection in Translation

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The Significance of Scots and Its Accents in Contemporary Scottish Literature, and Its Reflection in Translation ISSN 0258–0802. LITERATÛRA 2007 49(5) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCOTS AND ITS ACCENTS IN CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH LITERATURE, AND ITS REFLECTION IN TRANSLATION Aniela Korzeniowska Associate Professor, Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw The aim of this article is to address the ques- specific choice of linguistic form they transfer a tion why so many significant contemporary common message, that is both highly political and Scottish writers do not enjoy the same reknown national, as well as being characteristically social. outside the English-speaking world, specifi- All pose translation problems, although the fact cally in Poland, as they do at home. Are they that Welsh has been translated into Polish, while marginalised because of the linguistic forms the other three have not, points on the one hand, they adopt in their works, which pose addi- to certain translation solutions that can be found tional hurdles to any prospective translator, or more easily than others, while on the other, to a are there other issues involved? Why is Irvine contemporary readership that appears to want and Welsh, for example, translated1 while the is ready to accept both the topics touched upon founding father of the new generation of in his novels as well as the language Welsh Scottish writers, Tom Leonard, or the Booker consistently uses in his writing. The publish- Prize Winner James Kelman are completely ing market, of course, is always ready to meet unknown to non-English speaking Polish demands and knows what will supposedly sell readers?2 The same can be said for one of the well. leading Scottish playwrights and poets of the Also the fact that I have chosen those very day, Liz Lochhead. two poems: ‘right inuff’ by Tom Leonard and Although Scottish writing is flourishing in a ‘Kidspoem/Bairnsang’ by Liz Lochhead as variety of genres and forms, I have chosen only examples3, is hardly accidental. Both, though to present here these four writers: first, because written over a timespan of probably about they are of the same generation and have had a twenty years (no exact information has been great influence on subsequent Scottish writing, provided concerning when exactly the poems second, because through the adoption of their were written)4 point not only to a common 1 To date four of his novels have been translated into Polish. 3 See Appendix for the complete poems. 2 James Kelman has, however, been translated into 4 An interesting point here is that Liz Lochhead’s other languages: French, German, Dutch, Norwegian and collection of poetry that includes ‘Kidspoem/Bairnsang’ Spanish. was dedicated, among others, to Tom Leonard. 93 theme but also to a political issue going back part of the culture of the city’s inhabitants. three hundred years, which is obviously of Although ‘right inuff / ma language is disgrace- great concern to the writers in question. The ful’, as Leonard says, ‘all livin language is sa- issue of language, one’s native language and cred’ (emphasis mine). And it is for this lan- the status that language enjoys – or does not guage and the people who speak it that he is enjoy – is highly significant to the position demanding respect. It is both a very obvious it holds within the native culture and the political and social manifesto – the two being acknowledgment it receives – or does not irretrievably entwined – by one of the most receive – both within and beyond it. radical representatives of literary Glasgow of “From the perspective of English speakers the last few decades.7 and of English culture, Scots”, according to Leonard’s manifesto uses his own form of Cairns Craig, “is a language of leftovers, the phonetic transcription to express the Glasgow detritus of proper speech and good writing, a speaking voice, with all its genuine truthful- supplement poisonous to the health of the real ness, humour and terseness of expression. It language of its society, ‘thi/ lanwij a/ thi guhtr’ is also a strong expression of the poet’s juxta- as Tom Leonard transliterates it” (1999: 76).5 position with English and its ‘received pro- The additional problem is that the Glaswegian nunciation’, which has for so long been the Leonard speaks and is advocating in much of language of power. His conscious adoption of his poetry is, as he says, not even acknowl- the scorned ‘urban dialect’ for much of his edged by the Scottish National Dictionary. It writing is both an exploration into these lin- is often treated both by native Scots and guistic relationships and an expression of soli- linguists alike as a bastardised form of English darity with the socially and economically dis- – in contrast to the Doric of the north-eastern possessed of the city of Glasgow. region of Scotland, for example, or other Liz Lochhead’s ‘Kidspoem/Bairnsang’, rural varieties – mainly because of strong im- from her 2003 collection of poetry, and the migrant influence and the fact that it has no first to appear in over a decade, is more auto- acknowledged written form. Without going biographical in nature and, what, in some into the history of the Glasgow variety of respects could be treated as touching upon a Scots, it is highly significant that such writers historical theme, emphasises the Scottish Edu- as Leonard and Kelman6 have shown the world cational Department’s insistence on teaching that it is possible to present, through literary children the use of what was generally means, how people speak in that large city of described as ‘proper English’. It has to be Scotland and that this speech is an inseparable admitted that today attitude towards dialects and regional accents have changed somewhat over the last decade or so. They are not 5 Tom Leonard quoted from ‘Unrelated Incidents’ in stigmatised as much as they used to be and it Intimate Voices. Selected Work 1965–1983, London: Vin- tage, 1995, p. 86. 6 Although not discussed here, it is necessary to inclu- de Anne Donovan, with her recently published novel 7 The Glasgow idiom was first introduced by Ian BuddhaDa (2003), which has been written throughout Hamilton Finlay in Glasgow Beasts (1961). Besides Tom in Glaswegian, her spelling forms being based in many Leonard, the significant contribution of Stephen cases more on traditional Scots than anything we can Mulrine and Alan Spence must also be remembered here find in Leonard’s poetry. (cf. Wood in Craig, ed. 1988: 345). 94 is even politically incorrect to insist people leading authors have not been translated into reject their linguistic identities for a form that Polish (and I presume many other languages is intrinsically alien to them. This, however, as well, even when they write in Standard was not the case in the not so distant past.8 English) because translation does not bend Both writers in these two poems are easily – or not at all – to localisation and to the presenting not only an extremely important use of different dialects/varieties of a language Scottish issue but a problem that has touched within one literary work? However, because many countries and nations in the world. Leonard does in fact adopt one consistent form We do not have to go very far to recall histori- throughout his poem, there is the possibility cal periods where native languages were to translate it into the standard form of any marginalised or even banned in favour of other language as long as it is stated very clearly the language of the coloniser, aggressor or that the work was translated from Glaswegian dictator government. Those in power have al- and not from English. Otherwise, the political ways had the means to enforce the central lan- significance of Leonard’s message would make guage and its culture on the weak and defeated. no sense whatsoever. The same mechanism is at work as far as one’s Liz Lochhead, on the other hand, is using position in society is concerned. The higher two dialects of two different languages within up the social ladder, the more one is expected one poem to make a very important political to adopt the standards of those in power, au- point. To anybody who knows anything about tomatically becoming more powerful oneself the history of English and Scots, as well as of in relation to those standing on a lower rung England and Scotland, and the position of these of the same ladder. This social position is of languages and their varieties in society will course also strictly linked to how one speaks. understand this immediately. It is obviously How can we then bring this seemingly much more difficult, or even impossible, for international problem, but exemplified by the those who are not acquainted with the subject Scottish situation as presented by Tom Leonard at all. The culture-specificity of both the and Liz Lochhead, to a readership outside the content and form of this poem is such that English/Scottish speaking world? Is transla- even if translated into two related languages tion at all possible? Is the fact that these two with a related political history, like Polish and Russian for example, would deprive it of its geographical position. The use of Polish and 8 It is enough to go back twelve years to the heated Russian or Polish and Silesian, or Kashubian debate and extremely strong criticism addressed to James Kelman and his How Late it Was, How Late when it won for that matter, would automatically change the the Booker Prize in 1994. The insults ranged from geographical locality as well as the political and Professor Andrew Noble – a great promoter of Robert historical associations the target readers would Burns’s work – comparing “the Booker award to the have.
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