Comparative Study of Translations of Lyrics by Bob Dylan

Home , Curtis Jones (pianist), No Direction Home, Sara Dylan, Suze Rotolo

Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Magisterská diplomová práce

Bc. Anežka SanitrováBc. Anežka

20 2020 Bc. Anežka Sanitrová

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English-language Translation

Bc. Anežka Sanitrová

Comparative Study of Translations of Lyrics by Bob Dylan

Master’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph. D.

2020

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

I would like to thank my supervisor Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D., for his patience, kind support and useful

advice. I would also like to thank those around me for being here for me when I could not be fully present, especially my mom, my friend Fína and my partner. Thanks to Ondřej H. for his patience and technical advice.

Finally, thanks to Póža for providing me with inspiration.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 1 1. Bob Dylan’s Life ...... 3 1.1. From Robert Zimmermann to Bob Dylan ...... 3 1.2. Dylan’s Repertoire ...... 5 1.3. Dylan and the Protest Movement ...... 7 1.3.1. The Song Blowin’ in the Wind ...... 7 1.3.2. Singing at SNCC Events in 1963 ...... 9 1.3.3. Friendship, Affair and Performances with Joan Baez ...... 10 1.3.4. Idol of the Young Generation ...... 11 1.4. Bob Dylan’s Most Significant Lovers and Their Influence on Him ...... 11 1.4.1. Suze Rotolo ...... 11 1.4.2. Joan Baez ...... 12 1.4.3. Sara Lownds ...... 12 1.5. Bob Dylan as a Poet...... 13 2. Poetry Translation ...... 16 2.1. The Difference Between Literary Texts and Non-literary Texts ...... 16 2.2. Why is Translating Poetry Valuable ...... 19 2.3. Translation of Musical Lyrics...... 21 2.3.1 Pitfalls of Singable Translations ...... 22 2.3.2 Achieving Singability ...... 23 3. Methods of Translation ...... 24 3.1. Translation Methods According to Newmark ...... 24 3.1.1. Word-for-word Translation ...... 24 3.1.2. Literal Translation ...... 24 3.1.3. Faithful Translation ...... 25 3.1.4. Semantic Translation ...... 25 3.1.5. Adaptation ...... 25 3.1.6. Free Translation ...... 26 3.1.7. Idiomatic Translation ...... 26 3.1.8. Communicative Translation ...... 26

3.2. Methods of Poetry Translation According to Lefevere ...... 27 3.2.1. Phonemic Translation ...... 27 3.2.2. Literal Translation ...... 28 3.2.3. Metrical Translation ...... 28 3.2.4. Prose Translation of Poetry ...... 28 3.2.5. Rhymed Translation ...... 28 3.2.6. Blank Verse Translation ...... 29 3.2.7. Interpretation ...... 29 4. Potential Problems in Poetry Translation ...... 30 4.1. Structural and Aesthetic Problems ...... 30 4.2. Linguistic and Lexical Problems ...... 31 4.2.1. Collocations ...... 31 4.2.2. Idioms and Fixed Expressions ...... 34 4.2.3. Cultural Collocations and Culture-specific Expressions ...... 37 5. Czech Translations of Dylan’s Lyrics ...... 40 5.1. Gita Zbavitelová ...... 40 5.1.1. Lyrics/Texty 1961–2012 ...... 40 5.1.2. Gita Zbavitelová and Bob Dylan ...... 41 5.1.3. Zbavitelová About Translations of Dylan ...... 41 5.2. Michal Bystrov ...... 42 5.2.1. Bystrov and Dylan ...... 42 5.3. František Novotný ...... 42 5.4. Jiří Vejvoda...... 43 5.5. Víc než jen hlas ...... 43 5.6. Reception of the Translations ...... 43 6. Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues (1961) ...... 45 6.1. Analysis of the Meaning ...... 47 6.2. Formal and Lexical Elements ...... 49 6.3. Accuracy of the Translations ...... 50 6.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations ...... 51 7. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (1963) ...... 54 7.1. Analysis of the Meaning ...... 57 7.2. Formal and Lexical Elements ...... 60

7.3. Accuracy of the Translations ...... 61 7.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations ...... 63 8. Oxford Town (1962) ...... 65 8.1. Analysis of the Meaning ...... 66 8.2. Formal and Lexical Elements ...... 69 8.3. Accuracy of the Translations ...... 69 8.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations ...... 70 9. Love Minus Zero/No Limit (1965) ...... 72 9.1. Analysis of the Meaning ...... 73 9.2. Formal and Lexical Elements ...... 76 9.3. Accuracy of the Translations ...... 76 9.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations ...... 78 10. All Along the Watchtower (1967) ...... 80 10.1. Analysis of the Meaning ...... 81 10.2. Formal and Lexical Elements ...... 83 10.3. Accuracy of the Translations ...... 83 10.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations ...... 85 Conclusion ...... 86 Bibliography ...... 88 Primary Sources ...... 88 Secondary Sources ...... 89 Summary ...... 95 Resumé ...... 97

Introduction

The second half of the 20th century in the USA was a tumultuous time full of changes in the social, political, economic and cultural sphere. On one hand the states were profiting from the technological growth that came in the first half of the century and they were experiencing economic prosperity – on the other hand the land was for most of the years involved in the Cold War and the society has been full of racial and social tensions. Naturally, all this also influenced the art that grew in that time. If it did not have a directly campaigning function, the work of many writers, painters or musicians reflected the current events.

One of the significant persons of that time in whose work we can find various political, social or racial references is the musician, songwriter and a quite newly officially recognised poet Bob Dylan. His influential power worked and still works through his music and lyrics.

His most significant songs were created during the 60s and 70s in the USA, and they were often inspired by the current events and contained many references for political, social or racial affairs (e.g., Blowin’ In The Wind, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Hurricane, The

Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol). Some of his pieces had such influence that Dylan got called the ‘voice of his generation’.

Bob Dylan’s songs have been translated into several languages, among others into

Czech. Some of the translators that dealt with his work were Robert Křesťan, Wabi Daněk,

Jan Vyčítal, who worked together on some translations for Křesťan’s album Dylanovky

(2007), or Michael Žantovský. The translators František Novotný and Jiří Vejvoda included around 40 of his lyrics in their book Víc než jen hlas (1980). The newest translations come from Gita Zbavitelová who worked several years on the translations of all his lyrics from the year 1961 to 2012.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the accuracy of 5 chosen translations by Gita

Zbavitelová, František Novotný and Jiří Vejvoda. At first, there will be an analyse of the original song – both regarding the meaning and the formal and lexical elements (including cultural references, idioms or collocations). This will be followed by an analyse of the meaning and those elements in the translation. The results of the analyse and level of accuracy will be summed up in the conclusion.

1. Bob Dylan’s Life

1.1. From Robert Zimmermann to Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan was born on the 24th of May 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, to the Jewish shopkeeper Abraham Zimmermann and his wife Beatrice. His original name was Robert

Allen Zimmermann.

Robert was keen on music from early childhood; he used to sing at family gatherings and weddings, and spent hours listening to the radio. Although he was sometimes giving priority to music over school, he finished it after all, and graduated in 1959 from Hibbing

High School – in the city the family had moved to in 1947.

After his graduation he started studying liberal arts at the University of Minnesota in

Minneapolis. This went hand in hand with wild student life, which for him meant spending hours or days in hipster district Dinkytown, where he also discovered folk music. Here he allegedly created his pseudonym Bob Dylan, the origin of which remains quite a mystery

(Dalton 2012: 15–16).

David Dalton (2012) in his book Who is that man? starts with the following story when talking about the creation of Dylan’s name:

Of course, you have to leave home if you’re going to be somebody else. First thing you need is a new name. According to the story (there’s always more than one explanation for everything Dylan does), he begins calling himself Bob Dillon after Matt Dillon, the sheriff on

Gunsmoke. (Dalton 2012: 16)

He also mentions a few other versions: that Dillon was Bob’s mother’s maiden name or that he named himself after a town in Oklahoma. There is also a version, coming

3 apparently from a Dylan’s childhood friend, who says Dylan took the name after the famous poet Dylan Thomas.

After two years at the university, Dylan moved from Minneapolis to New York. One of the reasons for moving was the idea of meeting the musician and icon of folk music –

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie or so called “Woody” Guthrie – who lived in New York by that time.

By that time, Woody was sick – suffering from Huntington's disease – and lived in a psychiatric hospital. Yet young Dylan managed to meet him and later wrote his idol a song called Song to Woody (it later appeared on his first album in 1962).

After moving to New York and meeting Woody, Robert started to perform in

Greenwich Village more and more often. He was performing on local stages and in local clubs on a regular basis, playing folk music and “playing roles”.

As Dalton (2012) says, playing roles has for a long time been a big part of Dylan’s identity, as well as making up stories about his origin or about the inspiration for particular songs. Dalton writes about Dylan’s disguises and made-up stories many times. The first one appearing in the book comments on Dylan’s origin – or more about how he would have wished it to be.

But Robert Allen Zimmermann was born on May 24, 1941, to Abe and Beatty

Zimmermann in Duluth, Minnesota. Allegedly, Bobby has other ideas. According to him, he was an orphan – a story he was still telling (to the astonishment of Abe and Beatty) well into

1963. At other times he claimed to be a foundling, the son of an Egyptian king, an Oglala

Sioux dancing in Indian festivals and rain dances, a tent-show kid growing up in carnivals –

“performing all over the country” on the high wire (and in his spare time taking care of the bearded lady). (Dalton 2012: 42)

In the words of David Dalton, as mentioned above, “there’s always more than one explanation for everything Dylan does”, and those explanations and stories came and come from other people in the same amount as from Dylan himself.

During his time in Dinkytown and later in his early years in New York, Dylan was regularly performing in Greenwich Village and telling not fully true or completely fake stories about himself, his origin or his previous occupation. Some of his former made-up roles were for example a carnival baker or a cook, a former prisoner or a lumberjack. His place of birth also remained a mystery for the people of Greenwich Village, but he offered some (fake) versions like Sioux Falls in South Dakota or Fargo in North Dakota. Acting as a kid from a place like Duluth was not fitting his planned role, and admitting his true name and origin was seemingly the last thing Dylan wanted to do, says Dalton (2012).

Throughout the time, he also adopted the style of different artists and musicians, which led to changes in his appearance and sound every once in a while. As of his first

“disguises” he adopted the style of Woody Guthrie. Dylan learned Woody’s songs, held his guitar the same way as Woody held his, and got inspired by his moves and his dressing style.

Later he went through different phases and also adopted the style (or at least some elements) of the actor James Dean, the musicians Hans Williams and Johnny Cash or even of some

Chaplin’s comical characters. “Like a method folksinger, he has the ability to become the people he identifies with, through imitation of the way they talk and behave. He learns fast – songs, styles, mannerisms – becoming a new person with a new technique every few weeks,” says Dalton (2012: 17).

1.2. Dylan’s Repertoire

At the beginning Dylan’s repertoire consisted mainly of traditional folk songs or of songs from other interprets (Woody Guthrie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Buddy Holly and many

5 more). Dylan stood out, though, thanks to his original style, his raw husky voice and his overall fresh performance.

The old folk legends and folk songs that he was performing came mostly from the area of the Appalachian Mountains, and they often had an oddly dark character. Topics like murder, betrayal, revenge or killing of a child were fairly common.

Most folk songs had grim, murderous content (and subtext). In ‘Pretty Polly,’ a man lures a young girl from her home with the promise of marriage, and then leads the pregnant girl to an already-dug grave and murders her. In ‘Love Henry,’ a woman poisons her unfaithful lover, observed by an alarmed parrot that she also tries to kill. So it was a bit bizarre that these songs should become part of the sweetened, homogenized new pop music.

(Dalton 2012: 47)

In between he was composing his own first songs, finding inspiration also in other things than traditional folk legends (his meeting with Woody Guthrie, moving from

Minnesota to New York etc.)

In November 1961 Dylan recorded his debut album which contained 2 of his own songs and the rest consisted of his versions of traditional songs or songs by other artists (See

That My Grave Is Kept Clean by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Highway 51 Blues by Curtis Jones etc.) The album was named Bob Dylan and was released in March 1962. His second album,

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, was released in 1963 and all the songs were his own. During his life till now he has recorded 39 studio recordings.

1.3. Dylan and the Protest Movement

As mentioned in the introduction, Bob Dylan has experienced a very boisterous time in the second half of 20th century USA. For most of the century, the country was included in the cold war. The college campuses and later the streets bubbled with anti-Vietnam-war protests. The racial and social tensions were growing. The 14-year-old African American

Emmet Till was murdered as he had allegedly flirted with a white girl (1955). He later became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, Martin Luther King delivered his powerful ‘I have a dream’ speech.

He is feeling trapped in the “messiah thing” and suspicious of organizations, causes.

The only group he’s for is “an organization of disconnected people.” And, he claims, “I’m no part of no movement. If I was I wouldn’t be able to be anything else but be in ‘the

Movement.’ I just can’t have people sit around and make rules for me.” It’s not just a refusal to become a spokesman; it’s an early instance of his innate contrariness and ambivalent relationship with his audience. Still, he never abandons folk music – or protest songs. (Dalton

2012: 56)

According to Dalton, Dylan never intended to become a part of the protest movement, yet he somehow managed to get this label anyway. What caused it? There were several reasons for that, which are going to be presented.

1.3.1. The Song Blowin’ in the Wind

“Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist

Before they’re allowed to be free?”

Probably one of the most popular and best-known Dylan’s songs is Blowin’ in the

Wind, written in 1962, that appeared on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Blowin’ in the Wind is viewed as one of the first protest songs that Dylan wrote. The catching melody quickly became an earworm while the words were quite simply yet aptly addressing the ongoing problems of that period – the continual fight for freedom, the war and violence in general. It is maybe short-sighted to say that it was addressing only the problems of that period – say the sixties, seventies – because the lyrics can work pretty universally and are applicable to several periods before and after the birth of the song and also individually to each of us.

By avoiding specifics, Dylan‘s three verses achieve a universal quality that makes them open to various interpretations and allows listeners to read their own concerns into the lyrics. “How many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?” and “How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?” are clearly about war, but not any particular war. One can hear the words “How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?” and relate them to the civil rights movement and the recent

Freedom Rides. “How many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn’t see?” could refer to the nation’s unwillingness to face its own racism, or to other forms of ignorance. (Dreier 2011)

According to Rees (1993) and Shah (2020), Dylan apparently took the melody from a spiritual called No More Auction Block for Me but wrote his own words. Some sources, including Dalton’s book Who is that man, say it was the trio Peter, Paul and Mary thanks to which the song got such popularity so fast.

Dylan’s first pop protest song Blowin’ in the Wind, injects him into the mainstream, but it’s Peter, Paul and Mary who make it a hit. In their suits and dresses, they combine soothing harmonies with a nursery rhyme lilt, and sell 320,000 copies before it appears on

Dylan’s second LP, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. (Dalton 2012: 51)

The song did not inject him only into the mainstream, as Dalton says. Blowin’ in the Wind, thanks to its strong lyrics, catchy melody, and many performances during the civil rights events also injected Dylan into the waters of the civil rights movement.

“Blowin' in the Wind” quickly became an anthem of the civil rights movement then reaching its peak. Dylan sang it himself at a voter registration rally in Greenwood,

Mississippi, in the spring of 1963. Peter, Paul & Mary performed it on the steps of the Lincoln

Memorial in August of that year, a few hours before Martin Luther King delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech. And Peter Yarrow remembers singing it during the march from Selma to

Montgomery. (Naylor 2000)

1.3.2. Singing at SNCC Events in 1963

As was said before: although Dylan did not necessarily want to be a part or even “a voice” of the civil rights movement, he got involved. He was “seen and heard” at some of the civil rights events and conferences that took place in that period, he composed songs that carried the crowds away and became significant.

In 1963, Dylan, Pete Seeger (his friend, a folk musician and political activist) and Joan

Baez (also his close friend, musician and activist) performed at the voter-registration rally in

Greenwood in Mississippi. This event was sponsored by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee (SNCC), an interracial student political organization fighting mostly for nonviolence and against racism. (Brittanica 2020)

The same year, Dylan also performed at the Newport Folk Festival where he was closing the whole festival together with Baez, Seeger and a formation of SNCC The Freedom Singers.

(Dalton 2012: 54)

1.3.3. Friendship, Affair and Performances with Joan Baez

In the next chapter we will see that women played a significant role in Dylan’s life.

Joan Baez was one of them. Baez, a famous folk musician and passionate political activist, was born in the same year as Dylan. Dalton (2012) even calls her a “folk princess”. However, she reached popularity sooner than Bob. The two of them had a short relationship in the 60s and as Dalton says, Dylan might have partially used Baez to become famous. However, his presence on the mutual concerts was also beneficial for Baez – therefore Dalton views their relationship as “symbiotic”.

He [Dylan] begins a symbiotic relationship with Baez in which he uses her mass popularity (she’d been a folk star since 1959) to promote himself and give him credibility with her audience, but eventually her association with Dylan would lend weight to Baez as her style of folksinging went out of fashion. (Dalton 2012: 54)

Dylan being seen with Baez has not only achieved popularity in the folk-music audience. As written before, Baez was also an enthusiastic activist, she was a member of an anti-war movement and a big supporter of civil-rights; she was also a protest-song singer and author herself. Because of her, Dylan performed at several civil-rights or SNCC marches or

10 conferences. And since Baez was deeply involved and Dylan was her close friend and later a partner, he must have been involved too.

1.3.4. Idol of the Young Generation

Joan Baez was one of the many politically engaged people that were surrounding Bob

Dylan. His popularity started increasing when he moved from Hibbing to Dinkytown, attended university and started performing. He was young, original, courageous and he was doing things his own way. All of that made him very attractive for the young generation which was also a big part of the folk scene (mostly college and university students) (Dalton

2012: 29). A part of the same young people was involved in the protest movement, if they were not actually the ones who stood by the beginning of it. Among others there was also

Dylan’s girlfriend Suze Rotolo who was also involved in the civil rights movement.

1.4. Bob Dylan’s Most Significant Lovers and Their Influence on Him

Throughout his life, Dylan has been finding inspiration for his music in various areas and aspects of his life, and women were one of them. His lovers and platonic loves are the ones to be thanked for his many famous love songs.

1.4.1. Suze Rotolo

Suze Rotolo was seventeen when she met Bob Dylan and she became one of his early girlfriends – probably the first one after his moving to New York. Rotolo was, as was already said, involved in the civil rights movement and she partially dragged Dylan into the movement too. Next to his political awakening, Dylan can be allegedly thankful to her for helping him start his musical career. Dalton mentions that around 1960, Rotolo and her two friends sent a tape of Dylan to Columbia Records. Bob dedicated his young love cover of his

11 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963). In the photo the pair can be seen walking down the street in Greenwich Village. However, their relationship was over when Dylan started seeing his next big inspiration, Joan Baez, more than professionally. Dylan’s and Rotolo’s relationship most likely inspired several famous songs, among others Don’t Think Twice, It’s

All Right and It Ain’t Me, Babe (Dalton 2012).

1.4.2. Joan Baez

As well as Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez also had a significant influence on Dylan’s career and political engagement. She was the same age as Dylan but by the time he started performing, she had already been quite popular. As mentioned before, Baez helped Dylan achieve popularity as well, by performing together and going together on tours. Although

Joan Baez was Dylan’s big inspiration, support and probably also a reason for his breakup with Suze Rotolo, their relationship was allegedly rather platonic and likely not very happy

(Dalton 2012: 54–55).

1.4.3. Sara Lownds

When the two met, Sara Lownds worked as an assistant in the Time-Life film company. She introduced Bob to the director D. A. Pennebaker who later made the movie

Don’t Look Back. By that time (1964), Sara was divorcing her husband and Dylan was still partially in a relationship with Joan Baez – but a year later the pair got married. His first wife gave Bob four children and also inspiration for many of his songs, among others Sara, Love

Minus Zero/No Limit or Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, an eleven minutes long love song different from most of Dylan’s work. The marriage of Sara and Bob Dylan lasted till the year

1977 (Dalton 2012).

1.5. Bob Dylan as a Poet

Did Bob Dylan help his poetic route along by choosing his pseudonym after the famous poet Dylan Thomas, as one of the theories says? (Dalton 2012: 16) Or else – is Bob

Dylan even a poet? When trying to dig deeper into the life of this mysterious personality, there usually occur several “camps” with different opinions. As Dalton notices as well – the theories about Dylan (was it about his origin, his loved ones or his inspiration) have never been neither clear nor unanimous. The same case occurs when arguing whether Dylan is or is not a poet. However, in the year 2016 some of the people standing on the side recognising

Dylan as a person with significant qualities in the field of poetry got together and awarded

Dylan the Nobel Prize for Literature. This has without a doubt been quite a controversial step that raised opinions on both sides.

One of the many disputants, Scottish author Irvine Welsh posted on his Twitter a sarcastic tweet about the event that clearly showed which side he stands on. “If you’re a

‘music’ fan, look it up in the dictionary. Then ‘literature’. Then compare and contrast” (Welsh

2016). However, the thread under Welsh’s post shows many comments that stand up for

Dylan as a poet.

Anna North, a New York Times writer and editor, was also one of the people voicing an opinion against awarding the prize to Dylan. In 2016, she published an article called Why

Bob Dylan Shouldn’t Have Gotten a Nobel. She recognizes Dylan as a “wonderful musician, a world-class songwriter and an enormously influential figure in American culture“, on the other hand she says that by giving the prize to Dylan, the committee took away the chance to award a writer (North 2016). She adds:

Yes, Mr. Dylan is a brilliant lyricist. Yes, he has written a book of prose poetry and an autobiography. Yes, it is possible to analyze his lyrics as poetry. But Mr. Dylan’s writing is

13 inseparable from his music. He is great because he is a great musician, and when the Nobel committee gives the literature prize to a musician, it misses the opportunity to honor a writer.

(North 2016)

Her point of view however does not entirely degrade Dylan’s contribution to the field of poetry, it aims more on the fact that, simply said, Dylan is already “famous enough” and does not “need” a Nobel Prize as much as, e.g., some very talented, yet unknown authors from the developing countries.

Some of the opinions on the opposite side defend the committee’s choice by reminding the criticizers of ancient Greek poets’ works which were in fact meant for singing and performing. After all, the word lyrics has its roots in the word lyre, which was an ancient musical instrument. Others say that Dylan manages to create a bridge between literature and music and creates a new poetic expression. That was actually part of the committee’s justification for giving the prize to Dylan. The official website of the Nobel Prize contains only a short comment: “The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 was awarded to Bob Dylan ‘for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition’” (Nobel

Media AB 2020).

Sara Danius, the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, commented on the

Academy’s decision with following words: “He is a great poet. He is a great poet in the

English-speaking tradition and he is a wonderful, original sampler. He embodies the tradition, and for 54 years now has been at it, reinventing himself constantly and creating a new identity” (The Local 2016).

Till now we have looked at what foreign sources say about whether Dylan was or wasn’t a poet. But because we will be dealing with his lyrics translated into Czech, let us now look at how some Czech sources talk about Dylan’s poetic talent.

Czech websites obviously do not list that many articles as the foreign ones, but some opinions on his Nobel prize and his poems/lyrics can be found as well. Most of the articles from online zines just coldly give information about him receiving the award and do not lean to one side or the other, but there are some voiced opinions as well.

For example, Karel Veselý (2016) writes that Dylan was without a doubt the first musician that was able to establish musical lyrics as a poetry. The author also reminds the readers of the fact that Dylan has always inclined to literature – both passively and actively.

In 1971 he published his experimental novel Tarantula, a dreamy piece full of surrealistic elements and nonsense poetry, and later in 2004 he published his autobiography Chronicles,

Volume One. Veselý finishes with a reassurance that although Dylan might be a fairly non- conventional poet, he deserves the Nobel prize (Veselý 2016).

Daniel Konrád, a journalist who also writes for Aktuálně.cz, published an article on another web, where he calls Dylan a poet the whole time. He only asks, why Dylan got his

Nobel prize now, when his best and most influential pieces of lyrics come from the 60s

(Konrád 2016).

There are also some voices on the other side of the barricade, but there have not been enough relevant articles to be cited. There is for example Mik Herman, the founder of the controversial web Čítárny.cz, who views Dylan being awarded rather critically. However, his article, as well as the whole website, appears to support some conspirative theories about politics as well as the cultural sphere, so this website will not be viewed as a relevant source.

Professor and a literary theorist Petr A. Bílek (2019) does not ruminate about whether

Dylan deserves the award, but takes a different approach and asks if we do view him differently after the Nobel prize; if we used to read his lyrics as musical texts and now we see them in a different light and read them as poetry (Bílek 2019).

It is probably rather obvious that this question as well as the question whether Dylan is or is not a poet cannot be answered easily. However, this thesis will lean more towards the poetic approach to Dylan’s work. It will be elaborated later, what approach did the Czech translators choose and how they treated Dylan’s work.

2. Poetry Translation

Literary and especially poetry translation is quite a difficult discipline in the field of translation. In comparison to other texts, literary and poetic texts carry much more than just an information value. Those types of text carry an aesthetic function achieved through the use of poetic language, the use of specific rhythm and rhyme, tropes (metaphors, onomatopoeia, alliteration, puns), or even certain graphic elements (including layout, length of lines, length of words, punctuation) and other features. When translating poetry, the translator has to look not only at all of the features mentioned above, but also has to take the cultural value of the poetic text into account.

2.1. The Difference Between Literary Texts and Non-literary Texts

From the lay point of view the difference between literary and non-literary texts may seem pretty clear and distinguishable but let us dig a little bit deeper into it.

For this distinction we will now look at the paper by Christiane Nord (1997)

Translating as a Purposeful Activity. Nord tries to look at literary translation from the point of view of functionalism. She first analyses the actional aspects of literary communication by analysing the following features: the author of the text, author’s intention, the text receivers, medium, place, time and motive, the message and effect or function of the text; later she shows her theories on practical examples. Now let us take a peek at some of the mentioned features.

The author of a literary text according to Nord is usually a writer in the source culture.

Whether the author is known or unknown in the target culture can play a significant role in the reception of the translation of that literary text. (Nord 1997: 80-82) We could probably agree that the knowledge about an author of, for example, a user manual for a washing machine does not play such a significant role.

When speaking about the intention of the author, Nord (1997) says that “in contrast to non-literary text-production, a literary author’s intention is usually not to describe the ‘real world’ (as it is seen and acknowledged in the culture community) but to motivate personal insights about reality by describing an alternative or fictional world” (Nord 1997: 80). This description cannot be probably fully applied to Dylan's poetic lyrics as they often describe the real world or real events, even though they do it in metaphors or a bit differently than the events have actually happened, but some of his more dreamy and surreal lyrics or his novel

Tarantula cannot be spoken about as a “description of the real world”.

Speaking about the receivers of a literary text, Nord suggests that they are in the first place aimed at an audience with a certain knowledge of literature and, therefore, some specific expectations.

She describes the ability of comprehending and interpreting literary texts as a “literary competence” (Robert de Beaugrande speaks about something similar in reading and translating poetry and calls it a “poetic competence”) (Nord 1997: 80–81).

In the other features that Nord describes, literary texts are pretty similar to non-literary communication. At the end she comes to the conclusion that there is not a single feature that can clearly mark the difference between a literary and non-literary text. There are, however, some “literary markers” – intratextual features that can be found in literary texts. Those types of texts differ also in the terms of sender's intention and receiver's expectation. Nord’s

17 conclusion is also that the decision if the text will be interpreted as literary or non-literary depends on the reader.

Intratextual features are not marked ‘literary’ as such (they may also occur in advertisements or newspaper texts) but they do function as signals indicating the sender’s literary intention to the readers. Receivers then interpret these features as literary in connection with their own culture-specific expectations, which are activated by certain extra- textual signals. The reader thus decides to read a text as literature. The decisive factor is that they are willing to take part in the game. (Nord 1997: 82)

When analysing the sender’s intention, Nord also mentions the character of literary language and says that from a linguistic point of view, it can be viewed as a “deviant” form of usual communication, or as a creative use of the language system. Further she claims that there is no doubt that literary language can have a particular aesthetic, expressive or connotative meaning of its own. This is clearly related to the sender’s intention (Nord 1997:

80).

Whether literariness is seen as a particular choice of subject matter, as use of a literary code, or as a relationship with language conventions (originality vs conventionality), there is little doubt that a literary text can produce a particular aesthetic or poetic effect on its readers.

This could be referred to as the specific effect or function of the literary text. It gives the literary text a specific value of its own, affecting the interaction between writer and reader.

(Nord 1997: 82)

The view about the different intention in literary and non-literary texts holds for example also the British linguist Peter Newmark form the University of Surrey. In his article for the Journal of Specialised Translation he wrote: “The main intentional difference between literature and non-literature is that the first comprises the world of the mind and the imagination; the second, the world of reality, of facts and events” (Newmark 2004).

In conclusion we could also agree that, according to Nord and Newmark, literary and non-literary texts differ in following features: the author’s intention, the specific language which is closely related to the author's intention, and the receiver’s expectation and participation. Regarding the specific language in poetry, it would include tropes and schemes, rhyme and specific rhythm and other features.

2.2. Why is Translating Poetry Valuable

At this place we could actually ask why translation in general has its value, but let us assume that we do not doubt its usefulness. But poems are not medical prescriptions that someone’s health depends on. Poems are not official documents needed to be translated for administrative procedures, and poems are not IKEA manuals necessary for building your

KLEPPSTAD wardrobe. So, what is the value (or are the values) of poetry that make(s) it worth translating?

So why is this map of modern poetry translators’ action worth drawing? The main answer is that poetry translation matters. Reading poetry is a valued experience – because we enjoy it, because it moves or mentally enriches us. And with translated poetry, hearing voices from beyond the boundary fence of our own language can give added value. This may be the excitement of meeting a major poetic voice or exploring a rich and maybe new literary culture. (Jones 2011: 6)

The quote above comes from Francis. R. Jones’ (2011) book Poetry Translation as an

Expert Action from a part where he describes, why translating poetry actually makes sense – and as written in the quote, the enjoyment and mental enrichment plays a significant role.

In 2007, the British poet Carol Rumens (2007) tried to answer the question, why is poetry translation valuable, in an article in The Guardian. With that article, she partially attempted to answer James Buchan who, reviewing Paul Celan’s parallelly translated poems in Snow Part/Schneepart and Other Poems, started the review by posing this question.

Buchan reminds the readers of the fact that was also mentioned here before; that poetry does not contain important information. Here the examples were some official documents or medical prescriptions, Buchan mentions signposts or warning notices. Rumens agrees with this claim and says that the “modern lyric poetry, with its symbols and metaphors, its arcane allusions and teasing line breaks, is fairly bad at giving us the facts” (Rumens 2007).

Although she would sometimes prefer, as she jokingly remarks, rhymed instructions for putting together her furniture, the time where we could receive information in verses are long gone (she mentions Virgil’s Georgics).

But a poetry book is probably not the first place one would go to look for some information. Maybe it was different in Virgil’s days, but today we do not seek poetry to get information. It is the language features, the mood or the aesthetics in general that makes readers want to read it; moreover, poetry broadens the horizon in the landscape of one’s own language, thinks Rumens (2007).

It opens up new language worlds within our own tongues, as every good poem does. It revitalises our daily, cliche-haunted vocabulary. It disturbs our assumptions, jolts us with rhythms flatter or stronger than we're used to. It extends us in the way real travelling does,

20 giving us new sounds, sights and smells. Every unique poetry village sharpens us to life.

(Rumens 2007)

After reading this claim, one could also say that translated poetry is not valuable only because of its aesthetic function, but also because it can have an educational function in the matters of a foreign culture or art. For example, translating a poem in a form that does not exist or is not common in the target culture is for sure enriching – as well as translating a piece soaked with cultural references and allusions. But again, as many parts of poetry translation, these two can be a “slippery slope”.

So, there is no doubt that poetry translation is problematic. Poetry translation is challenging. But poetry is a valuable piece of literature which enriches its reader’s life, so it is hard work that pays off.

2.3. Translation of Musical Lyrics

Translating musical lyrics is similar to translating poems in many parts, yet there are specific tasks that make lyrics translation different and partially even more tricky or specialised. There is music that comes to the stage, and suddenly the translator has to deal not only with literary features and their ideal equivalence, rhyme and rhythm, but also has to consider further formal features such as the potential singability, the position of syllables and vowels, length of words and lines etc.

When translating song lyrics, the translator has to decide if he is going to handle it as song lyrics or as poetry. There is the dilemma whether he tries to reach the ideal equivalence and tries to transfer the meaning as closely as possible, or whether he decides to prefer the singability (the quality to be sung to a corresponding melody) and tries to recreate very similar lyrics with (ideally) the same rhythm in the target language. Of course, preferably, the

21 result would be a combination of both qualities, yet sometimes one of the sides could be given a preference (as we will see later on the example of Dylan’s lyrics).

2.3.1 Pitfalls of Singable Translations

Translating lyrics to be singable is tricky and can also be a bit frustrating. Every language is different, and this kind of translation is the case where the form usually has at least the same value as the meaning, in some cases even a bigger one. Of course - a translation between two Romanic languages (say Spanish and French) would be presumably easier than a translation between English and Chinese (or some other languages from two different language groups); it is a matter of stressing of syllables, length of words, pronunciation, accent and other language features, but keeping the text as equivalent (and culturally adapted) as possible while maintaining the key features for the singability can be almost impossible. So the translator usually has to give up a part of meaning to achieve the ideal singability.

James Levine, the American conductor and the former director of the Metropolitan Opera in

New York said, that “in order to fit the music, a singable translation must sacrifice some literality, some meaning” (Apter & Herman 2016). Levine and other musicologists or musicians agreed on the claim that a work for the musical stage consists of both words and music – and if one changes one of them, one “betrays the work”.

So, the biggest problem when choosing the preference of singability is that it is very hard to achieve a great accuracy together with a perfect rhythm, what is more, this all has to be combined with a similar aesthetic value as the song has in the source language. Fulfilling all those criteria can be a very difficult task.

2.3.2 Achieving Singability

Despite this kind of translation being a tough one, there are examples of well-handled translations of musical lyrics which are proof that such a result is achievable. Apter and

Herman offer one good example for all: the translation of the Christmas carol Stille Nacht that was originally written by Franz Xaver Gruber (music) and Joseph Mohr (lyrics).

“‘Silent night, holy night,’ a translation of the German Christmas carol “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht”, has become so standard in English that many English speakers are unaware of its German origin,” say Apter and Herman (2016).

The English translation partially comes from the priest John Freeman Young and partially from an anonymous author or more authors. The German original has 6 strophes, the official English version uses only 3 (1, 6 and 2). There are subtle changes in the music and the syllable count; in some cases, a single syllable spreads over 2 notes, whereas there are two syllables in the original.

This case can be seen for example in the very first verse line. German Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht is translated as Silent night, holy night, where hei-li-ge has 3 syllables and ho-ly only two, but there are 3 notes corresponding to the word at this location (heilige or holy). However, those changes are subtle and according to Apter and Herman, they are hardly noticeable and allowable (Apter & Herman 2016).

3. Methods of Translation

In the previous chapter, we have, hopefully, agreed that poetry translation has its value. Let us now direct our attention to the methods and strategies through which we are able to read foreign poems in our own language.

There are several strategies elaborated by linguists and translation theorists. We will first have a look at some translation strategies in general and then at some strategies for translation of poetry.

3.1. Translation Methods According to Newmark

Peter Newmark, a British linguist, translator and translation theorist wrote in 1988 a

Textbook of Translation where he defined some of the translation methods. The basic distinction of translation methods could be basically in 2 types: a literal and a free translation, but this distinction would be too simple. Newmark distinguishes 8 basic types of translation methods that partially melt into each other.

3.1.1. Word-for-word Translation

Word-for-word translation is a method of translation where the word order remains the same as in the source text, and the words in source text are replaced in their position by words in the target text, while the common meaning of the words in target language (TL) is used

(Newmark 1988: 45–47).

3.1.2. Literal Translation

In this case the lexical words are translated out of context, while the grammatical constructions are converted as closely as possible to the TL. This can be used as a pre- translational process to identify issues that need to be solved (Newmark 1988: 45–47). 24

3.1.3. Faithful Translation

Faithful translation attempts to translate the text as faithfully as possible within the contextual meaning and grammatical structures in the TL. This kind of translation also seeks after the faithfulness to the intentions of the author in the SL (source language).

3.1.4. Semantic Translation

This translation method is fairly similar to the previous one. The different part is that semantic translation has to look at the aesthetic side of the translated piece as well, that is, as

Newmark says, “the beautiful and natural sounds of the SL text, compromising on ‘meaning’ where appropriate so that no assonance, word-play or repetition jars in the finished version”

(Newmark 1988: 45–47).

The distinction between faithful and semantic translation is that the first is uncompromising and dogmatic, while the second is more flexible, admits the creative exception to 100 % fidelity and allows for the translator's intuitive empathy with the original

(Newmark 1988: 46).

3.1.5. Adaptation

Newmark views adaptation to be the “freest” translation method. It is mostly used for the translation of plays and poetry, where the main formal things as characters, plot or topic remain the same, but the text can get rewritten. However, he does not seem fully convinced about this method (or maybe the way it is used). Further in the description he criticises the procedure, the fact that a play or a poem gets first translated literally and then gets adapted, but also admits that some of the better adaptations helped to preserve particular period plays.

3.1.6. Free Translation

“Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original” (Newmark 1988: 46). This kind of translation is basically a paraphrase of the original. The free translating translator usually produces a text much longer than the source text. Newmark also says that the text may sometimes significantly lose some qualities, if translated freely (Newmark 1988: 46).

3.1.7. Idiomatic Translation

Idiomatic translation transfers the meaning of the source text but uses idioms from the target language that do not exist in the source language. Therefore, as Newmark (1988) says, it distorts the nuances.

3.1.8. Communicative Translation

Communicative translation is one of the “most effective” methods. It reproduces the contextual meaning but prunes the text in such a way that content and language becomes readable and comprehensible for the audience in the TL.

When commenting on these methods, Newmark (1988) states the two main aims of translation: accuracy and economy, and says that only semantic and communicative translation methods fulfil these goals.

In general, a semantic translation is written at the author's linguistic level, a communicative at the readership's. Semantic translation is used for expressive texts, communicative for informative and vocative texts. (Newmark 1988: 47).

Newmark then further describes those two methods. He claims that both methods treat some features in similar ways. Those features are “stock and dead metaphors, normal collocations, technical terms, slang, colloquialisms, standard notices, phaticisms, ordinary

26 language” (Newmark 1988: 47). When translating expressive texts with expressive components, a translator using a semantic method attempts to render them as closely as possible. In communicative translation, they, however, have to be normalized or toned down.

Semantic and communicative translation also treat expressive terms or cultural-specific terms differently. So despite some similarities in treating specific items, those two kinds of translations are different, which is strongly caused by the fact mentioned in the quote, that semantic translation is created at the author’s level and communicative at the audience’s.

Newmark finishes this description with a remark that a communicative translation can be often better than the original, while semantic translation usually causes pragmatic and cognitive loss during the process (Newmark 1988: 47–48).

3.2. Methods of Poetry Translation According to Lefevere

In the previous chapter we had a look at the general translation methods by Peter

Newmark. As this thesis deals specifically with poetry translation, let us now look at some methods and strategies for translating this type of text.

In 1975, Andre Lefevere, a Belgian translation theorist, published a book Translating poetry: Seven strategies and a blueprint where he presented 7 strategies for this type of translation.

3.2.1. Phonemic Translation

This strategy takes the phonemic side of the text into account and tries to replace a phoneme in the SL with a corresponding phoneme in the TL. So the translation reproduces the sound of the text in SL and at the same time tries to create an equivalent (or at least acceptable) reproduction of the meaning in the TL. This type of translation is best used between languages with a similar phonemic system, otherwise the function is questionable.

3.2.2. Literal Translation

Literal translation according to Lefevere (1975) is different from Newmark’s literal translation. Lefevere does not say that the grammatical structures have a preference in literal translation – he says rather the opposite. In literal translation, according to him, the syntax gets distorted and the meaning of the poem (or prose) is given preference.

3.2.3. Metrical Translation

Meter in poetry is “the rhythm of syllables in a line of verse or in a stanza of a poem.

Depending on the language, this pattern may have to do with stressed and unstressed syllables, syllable weight, or number of syllables” (Literary Devices n.d.). Meter also sets the rhythm of the whole poem. The aim of a metrical translation is to reproduce the meter of the poem as closely as possible. Lefevere (1975) however claims that the downside is the worse or poor quality of other features of the poem.

3.2.4. Prose Translation of Poetry

Another method that Lefevere (1975) mentions is “transferring poetry into prose”.

Opposed to the previously described method, this method concentrates a lot on the meaning and the contextual features. What may not be a big surprise - the rhythm and the formal qualities get neglected.

3.2.5. Rhymed Translation

In rhymed translation, the translator attempts to transfer the rhyme of the original to the target language so that the result has the same rhyme pattern. However, some distortions might affect the content of the poem.

3.2.6. Blank Verse Translation

Blank verse translation has, according to Lefevere (1975), a good potential in achieving accuracy in transferring the content. The form, however, tends to be distorted by the restrictions imposed on the translator.

3.2.7. Interpretation

Lefevere (1975) distinguishes 2 types of interpretation strategy – version and imitation. A version is the kind of interpretation where the substance of the SL poem is preserved, but the form is changed. Imitation preserves the original poem’s character only partially, and the translator in fact creates a poem of his own (Lefevere 1975).

As you can see, Lefevere does not seem to be fully convinced of one or the other strategy for poetry translation. In most cases, according to his theories, either the content or the form gets distorted. The fact that we do have quality translated poems might indicate that the practice is (as probably expected) a little bit different from the theory; the strategies can get mixed and/or the translator can take his own new approach and it may lie somewhere between Lefevere’s and Newmark’s strategies.

4. Potential Problems in Poetry Translation

For every kind of translation, it is important to become conscious about the possible problems and pitfalls that may occur during the process. In poetry translation the pitfalls are similar as in literary translation, but there are more of them that relate to the formal structure

(rhyme, rhythm etc.) For our purpose we will use a division into two types of problems. First will be presented the type related to the structure and formal aesthetics, and then the linguistic and lexical problems that relate more to the meaning and content. Of course – some of the pitfalls can be applied not only on the translation of poetry but also on translations in general.

4.1. Structural and Aesthetic Problems

The structural and aesthetic translation problems are bound to the aesthetic and formal side of the poem. The structure of the poem is built mostly through her formal elements such as position of words and vowels, rhyme, rhythm and schemes (alliteration, chiasmus etc.)

Those formal elements affect the syntax of the poem, the form, but not so much the meaning.

Sugeng Hariyanto, a translator and a researcher from the State Polytechnic of Malang in Indonesia wrote a paper aiming directly at the problems of poetry translation. To the aesthetic problems he says the following:

Aesthetic values or poetic truth in a poem are conveyed in word order and sounds, as well as in cognitive sense (logic). And these aesthetic values have no independent meaning, but they are correlative with the various types of meaning in the text. Hence, if the translator destroys the word choice, word order, and the sounds, he impairs and distorts the beauty of the original poem. Delicacy and gentleness, for instance, will be ruined if the translator provides crude alliterations for the original carefully-composed alliterations.

(Hariyanto 2003: 3)

In this claim, Hariyanto (2003) bases on Peter Newmark, who describes this in his book Approaches to Translation. Newmark further claims that, as said above, the aesthetic value is dependent on the structure, metaphor and sound. By structure Newmark means how the text looks as a whole and how is the balance and length of sentences. Metaphor here stands for visual images that may also approach other senses than just vision. By sound

Newmark means rhyme, rhythm, schemes (alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia) and metre (Newmark 1981: 65).

The translator can order those 3 factors, but cannot ignore any of them. So we could say that it is necessary to sort this out before the translation process, and decide, which factor will be given priority. The translator can choose an order for each text separately, or in general.

Hariyanto (2003) in his paper continues with a reminder that we have to look at the structure of a poem as a whole and we also have to take the balance of each sentence into account. The translation would thus be a recreation of the original sentence structure and sentential balance.

4.2. Linguistic and Lexical Problems

4.2.1. Collocations

Another translation theorist, Mona Baker (1991), defines collocations as “semantically arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of a word”

(Baker 1991: 21–22). She also offers another definition, based on which, collocation is “the tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly in a given language” (Baker 1991: 59).

At one level, the tendency of certain words to co-occur has to do with their propositional meanings. For example, cheque is more likely to occur with bank, pay, money and write than with moon, butter, playground or repair. However, meaning cannot always account for collocational patterning. If it did, we might expect carry out, undertake or even perform to collocate with visit. Yet, English speakers typically pay a visit, less typically make a visit, and are unlikely to perform a visit. (Baker 1991: 59)

Although words are used in collocations in their propositional meaning, there are also exceptions. Words in some expressions can co-occur in a combination with another word outside of its collocational pattern. As Baker (1991) writes in the cited passage, English speakers use the expression “pay a visit” although pay would not be expected to collocate with visit (but with bill or fee) and visit would be expected to collocate with the mentioned undertake or perform. Baker further says that a collocation of two words can work in all (or several) forms, but does not have to. She uses the example achieving aims, which works in several forms, and bend rules as the opposite (Baker 1991).

Mona Baker continues with the claim that the collocational patterns are rather random and independent of meaning, both within one language as between two languages. This variedness of the collocational patterns of synonyms and near-synonyms goes in two languages to the same degree as within one.

Regarding the collocational meaning, Baker (1991) says that the meaning of words is usually context-dependent and that it is hard to define the meaning of a word without a contextualization. In an example of the word dry, she shows how the meaning changes in a combination with several words (for example dry river vs. dry humour), and suggests that the meaning of the word would be dependent on its association with certain collocates (Baker

1991: 65).

When the translation of a word or a stretch of language is criticized as being inaccurate or inappropriate in a given context, the criticism may refer to the translator's inability to recognize a collocational pattern with a unique meaning different from the sum of the meanings of its individual elements. A translator who renders dry voice for instance as “a voice which is not moist” would be mistranslating dry in this context, having failed to recognize that when it collocates with voice it means “cold”, in the sense of not expressing emotion. (Baker 1991: 65)

Therefore, recognizing the collocational patterns is a very important part of the translation process and taking the collocational meaning into account is necessary.

Baker (1991) further speaks about some common problems related to the collocations in texts. She mentions something she calls “the engrossing effect of source text patterning” which is a case when the translator gets confused by some collocational patterns in the source language and their similar but not applicable counterparts in the target language. As a solution she suggests detaching from the text; putting the draft translation aside for some time and returning to it later.

Another common problem that Baker mentions is misinterpretation of the meaning of a SL collocation due to some interferences from the translator’s native language. A collocation in the target language can seem familiar to the translator because he would be able to find almost the same in the source language.

Sometimes a translator can also have a hard time finding the balance between accuracy and naturalness. On one hand, the meaning of the collocation has to be transferred as accurately as possible, on the other hand the expression has to sound natural in the target language. Sometimes the translator has to accept a slight change of meaning when using the

33 most typical collocation in the target language. Those changes of meaning are acceptable differently, depending on the context in which the slight change occurs.

Baker also speaks about culture-specific collocations, but we will look at this issue later in the paragraph about translating culture-specific terms.

4.2.2. Idioms and Fixed Expressions

Baker (1991) describes idioms as some “frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form” and “often carry meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual components” (Baker 1991: 76). Collocations are bendable to some degree, work in several variations, and the words from which the collocation is composed have an individual meaning on their own. For example, a strong taste “hits” our sense of taste; meanings of both strong and taste in this collocation are identifiable on their own at least to some degree

(something strong as something physically powerful, taste as the sense of taste or a flavour).

Idioms and fixed expressions work differently. By describing them as frozen patterns of language, Baker refers to their low flexibility of patterning and little or no variation. And as she says regarding the meaning of single elements separately, it can be often hardly deduced.

Under normal circumstances, many idioms allow no variations. By other than normal circumstances Baker means for example, when a speaker using the idiom would be making fun of it (for example by dismantling the idiom on purpose).

In two examples of idioms, bury the hatchet (to become friendly again after a disagreement or a quarrel) and the long and the short of it (the basic facts of the situation)

Baker demonstrates how inflexible they can be. She lists 5 variations that cannot be applied to those idioms.

a) The order of the words cannot be changed (e.g., the short and the long of it).

b) Any word from the idiom cannot be deleted.

c) Any word cannot be added (e.g., the very long and short of it).

d) Any word cannot be replaced (e.g., the tall and the short of it; bury a hatchet).

e) The grammatical structure of the idiom cannot be changed (e.g., the music was faced).

(Baker 1991: 77–84)

So while one could use the collocation the taste was strong, saying the hatchet was buried is impossible.

Fixed expressions behave similarly, they also allow little or no variations. However, the meaning of fixed expressions as a whole is more transparent in comparison to the meaning of idioms. Baker however points out that the meaning of a fixed expression is more than its elements taken together, it has to be taken as one unit (Baker 1991: 77–84).

Recognising that the translator is dealing with an idiom is also a necessary part of the translation process. Some of the idioms that are easier to recognize contain something that

Baker calls a violation of truth conditions, or include expressions that are formed incorrectly, as they do not follow grammatical rules of the language. The first ones are for example it's raining cats and dogs or storm in a tea cup, the second ones may be blow someone to kingdom come or the powers that be. Those expressions, along with idioms starting with like indicate that a literal translation is not the right approach here.

Regarding the most common problems with idioms and fixed expressions, Baker

(1991) claims it to be the ability to recognize and interpret them correctly and the difficulties in rendering the various aspects of their meaning. Idioms get mostly misinterpreted because

(a) they are seemingly transparent as they offer a reasonable literal interpretation or (b) they have a very close counterpart in the second language, which looks similar on the first look but is totally or partially different.

Once we have interpreted an idiom correctly, we have to translate it properly as well.

At this point, other difficulties occur. According to Baker (1991), those can be:

a) Idioms or fixed expressions with no equivalent in the target language

b) Idioms or fixed expressions that have a similar counterpart in the TL, which is

however used in a different context and has different connotations

c) Idioms that are used in the ST in both literal and idiomatic sense (and when the target-

language counterpart does not correspond in both form and meaning)

d) The convention of using idioms in written discourse, which is different between the

SL and the TL (Baker 1991: 80-84).

Regarding the translation strategies that can be used for translating idioms and fixed expressions, Baker points out that their applicability always depends on the given context.

They might or might not be suitable for the target language register, they may not have a counterpart in the target language etc.

The first strategy that she speaks about is the already mentioned finding an idiom’s counterpart in the second language. This counterpart should ideally consist of similar lexical items and has to convey the same meaning, but a match of those two qualities is not easy to find. This kind of match could be for example the Czech držet (někomu) palce, which means to wish someone luck. It would be literally translated as to press your thumbs for someone, but the English counterpart is to keep your fingers crossed for someone. This match would also work between German and Czech and German and English, as the German idiom for wishing someone luck sounds jemandem die Daumen drücken which also translates as to press your thumbs for someone.

Another strategy, and by Baker (1991) the most common one, is paraphrase of the idiom of fixed expression. It is used when there is no counterpart for an idiom in the target language or when the use of idiomatic language is inappropriate because of the register.

Last but not least, an omission is, of course, also an option, mostly in the cases when there is no match for the idiom, when the register does not allow its use or when a paraphrase of the expression cannot be easily created.

4.2.3. Cultural Collocations and Culture-specific Expressions

As the third problem that may occur in the translation of poetry and translation in general, we will have a look at culture-specific expressions.

Culture and translation are mutually linked. Most of the texts are culturally rooted to some degree and it is impossible to separate one from the other. First, the term culture, a term that has over 100 definitions in the English language, is quite problematic

(Eyckmans 2017: 2). David Katan, professor of language and translation at the University of

Salento, Italy, gathered several meanings of the term culture and elaborated them in a chapter of The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Culture. He mentions culture (from Latin cultura = cultivation) as the cultivation of the soil, and from that cultivation of mind as the

“prime ingredient for civilisation”, then culture standing for art, knowledge, morals, traditions and other societal items, follows by “formal culture” as an appropriate form of behaviour, and continues with many more possible meanings of this term. The amount of its meanings is why it is neither easy to define what are the culture-bound items in texts (Harding & Cortés 2018:

26).

For the sake of this chapter the definition of culture by the translation theorist Mildred

Larson will be used. Larson defines culture as a “a complex of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules which a group of people share” (Larson 1984: 431). According to this definition,

37 culture-bound items would be items that are connected to all of the mentioned above (e.g., morals, law, religion, art etc.)

Translating various culture-bound items and the meaning of specific paradigms (such as cultural identity or ideology) is also a tricky part of the translator’s job and requires a set of skills called cultural competence (sometimes transcultural or intercultural competence) of the translator.

Many concepts in translation studies are “a matter of terminology”, in other words, the same or similar concept can be called differently by different theorists. It is the same with the term cultural competence, as it has diverse names or can be divided into more levels. For this thesis, a general definition for this term and no dividing into levels will be used; the cultural competence will be understood as a set of skills that should be present both in the source language and the target language. In matters of language, it is expected for this competence to include sufficient language competences in both languages, knowledge of text-typological conventions in both languages and translation skills. Furthermore, the competence has to include subject-specific and culture-specific knowledge. According to Eyckmans, acquiring this set of skills should be a part of translator training (Eyckmans 2017: 6).

It is obvious that the more different the source culture and the target culture are, the more difficult will be the translation of the items and expressions that carry some strong marks of the culture. It might be expressions that have strong connotations which are completely strange for a foreign person, it might be some cultural symbols and also some specific collocations that are typical for the target language speaker but unfamiliar for the speaker of the source language.

When speaking about culture-specific collocations, Baker (1991) points out, besides what was previously said, that this type of collocations expresses ideas that have not been previously expressed in the target culture. Such collocations present concepts that are not

38 easily accessible to the target audience. She gives an example of such use between English and Russian. The problematic expression here is a small language meaning a less widespread language. She comments this as follows:

In English academic writing, it is common and acceptable to talk about “lesser-known

Languages”, as well as “major languages” and “minor languages”. Russian has no equivalent collocations. Furthermore, the political and social setting of Russian makes it potentially offensive to draw a distinction between better-known and lesser-known, or major and minor languages. (Baker 1991: 72)

Here we can see how problematic a simple expression, that is normally used in English, can be.

Baker (1991) further notes that a translation of such collocation means an increase of information, which is logical, as a new concept or an unfamiliar association cannot be introduced to the audience without a little clue how to interpret it.

In the end of the chapter, she criticises when translators have an excessive striving for accuracy. She gives an example where a translator From English to Arabic, trying to be as accurate as possible, uses, citing Baker “every possible aspect of meaning conveyed in the source text, regardless of whether the source collocations are likely to have any significance in the Arabic context” (Baker 1991: 73).

It is clear that translating culture-specific expressions and collocations is a tricky part of the process. In the end, we can surely agree that an appropriate cultural competence is a very important trait of a translator. It is also good to know and expect that translation of such expressions cannot be performed without an increased amount of information. Keeping in mind that “less is more” can be also quite useful if we do not want to fill the text with every

39 possible aspect of meaning that a collocation or an expression can have. However, every text and every translator are different, and there is no universal strategy that could be applied to solve this issue.

5. Czech Translations of Dylan’s Lyrics

5.1. Gita Zbavitelová

Gita Zbavitelová was born on the 17th January 1954 in Prague. She went to a gymnasium in Prague and graduated in 1973. After graduation she was planning to go to Charles

University, but for political reasons she did not get in. Later between the years 1975 and

1977, despite the political difficulties, Zbavitelová managed to study Japanese studies for 4 semesters, however, without the possibility of getting a diploma. After graduation she started translating and interpreting from and into English which remained her main occupation since then. Next to translating she has worked in the radios Svobodná Evropa and Český rozhlas as a reporter (Český rozhlas Plus n.d.).

5.1.1. Lyrics/Texty 1961–2012

Zbavitelová is the author of one of the primary sources used in this thesis. Several years she and her colleague Michal Bystrov worked on the translation of Dylan’s lyrics. Their work reached its peak in 2018 when the Czech publishing house Argo published the book

Lyrics/Texty 1961–2012. Zbavitelová’s and Bystrov’s magnificent piece of work contains all of Dylan’s lyrics written till 2012 next to their translations.

The Lyrics published in 2018 were however not the first publication of Zbavitelová’s translations of Dylan. In 2007, the publishing house Kalich published its “predecessor”

Lyrics/Texty 1962–2001. This version contained, as the name suggests, Dylan’s translated lyrics till the year 2001, also to the album Love and Theft. The 2017 version contains all the

40 albums till 2001 and also the 3 new ones after that: Modern Times (2006), Together Through

Life (2009) and Tempest (2012). The Czech literary theorist and historian Petr A. Bílek wrote an article for the Czech magazine about culture, A2, where he reminds the readers of this fact, and says that the 3 albums that are missing on the older version of the book are in fact very essential (Bílek 2019).

5.1.2. Gita Zbavitelová and Bob Dylan

Shortly after the Lyrics/Texty 1961–2012 were published, Zbavitelová gave an interview to the Czech newspaper Lidové noviny in which she spoke about her relationship to

Dylan’s music and lyrics (Bezr 2018).

The translator got to know Dylan as a 12-year-old girl, according to her, when she heard his song I Want You on the radio. Later her classmate’s brother made her a tape with

Dylan’s songs that she apparently could not stop listening to and then a family friend living in

England started bringing her Dylan’s records. Although she had been learning English since she was 10 years old, back then, she was hardly able to understand the lyrics, it was mainly the music that attracted her back then so much. An important breaking point regarding the lyrics for Zbavitelová came in 1978, when she met the literary critic Chistopher Ricks who was in the phase of becoming a “dylanologist”, and engaged in a discussion just about the lyrics, Dylan’s personality and his poetic talent (Bezr 2018).

5.1.3. Zbavitelová About Translations of Dylan

Zbavitelová says that Dylan’s lyrics are, and always have been, far from simple; they have remarkable rhymes and rhythm and are full of allusions, metaphors and paraphrases. In the interview for Lidové noviny, she admits that it was a struggle for her to find the proper approach for translating his texts (Bezr 2018).

5.2. Michal Bystrov

Michal Bystrov is the second translator who together with Zbavitelová worked on the book Lyrics/Texty 1961–2012 and its previous version. Bystrov was born on the 17th

November 1979 in Prague. He graduated from the musical theatre at the Jaroslav Ježek

Conservatory in Prague and then studied Czech studies at Charles University in Prague - however, unsuccessfully. He works mainly as a journalist and a translator; beside that he is also a writer and composes his own music (Bystrov n.d.).

5.2.1. Bystrov and Dylan

The book Lyrics/Texty 1961–2012 is not Bystrov’s first meeting with Dylan in translation. As said before, he worked with Zbavitelová on the previous version; he also translated a book about Dylan’s life called Down the Highway by Howard Sounes.

Bystrov is responsible for a smaller number of translated songs in the Lyrics/Texty 1962–

2001. His translations in the second complete publication of Dylan’s lyrics were apparently edited (or re-translated) by Zbavitelová (Bílek 2019).

5.3. František Novotný

František Novotný is one of the authors of the second primary source of this thesis – the book Víc než jen hlas, which will be spoken about later. Novotný was born in Prague in

1943. He studied the Faculty of Arts at the Charles University, after that he studied journalism and communication theory. He has worked in radio as an author and as a host of several programs and has also been working in the literary field as an author and a lyricist. Novotný is

Dylan’s big admirer and views him together with other musicians of his generation as a singing poet (Český rozhlas Dvojka n.d.).

5.4. Jiří Vejvoda

The second author of Víc než jen hlas, Jiří Vejvoda, was born in Louny in 1951. He studied linguistics and translatology at the Charles University in Prague. As well as all of the other authors of our primary sources, Vejvoda has also worked in a radio. For several years he has been a scriptwriter; he has also worked as a host for radio shows about music and was a radio manager (Český rozhlas n.d.).

5.5. Víc než jen hlas

The anthology Víc než jen hlas was published in 1980. The book contains short portraits of several musical artists, followed by some of their lyrics translated by Novotný and

Vejvoda. Next to Dylan, we can find here Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Jacques Brel and others.

5.6. Reception of the Translations

The book Víc než jen hlas is already 40 years old, also much younger than the second source, and therefore it is not easy to find neither any information about the book’s reception, nor a review on the book online. What can be found are several references to this anthology mentioned in some articles about Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, Dylan, or about the authors.

The book is overall appreciated mostly for its relative uniqueness, because such an anthology was rather uncommon by that time - the texts are seen as translated rather literally. Singability does not have a priority (or even a role) here.

In the book Víc než jen hlas we can find a foreword written by a lyricist and publicist

Miloš Skalka. Skalka appreciates the book’s uniqueness, as it was apparently one of the first or the first ever book of this concept, introducing several artists of one generation together

43 with their translated lyrics, but does not really comment on the quality of translations

(Vejvoda & Novotný 2018: 9–14).

More comments can be found about the much younger book by Zbavitelová, but many of them only describe the book’s form, which is Dylan’s originals on one side of the book and their translations on the other. Who comments on the content and the quality of the translations is the already cited Petr A. Bílek. Bílek describes Zbavitelová’s translations as literal, says that she was trying to preserve the lexical meaning and resigned on the formal side of the lyrics which is rhythm, rhyme or alliteration. Bílek appreciates the accuracy of the translations - on the other hand he also claims that with this approach Dylan’s lyrics lost a little bit of their magic and are not so “hymnic” anymore. In the end he states that even though the translations have their imperfections, we should be thankful for having Dylan translated at least somehow (Bílek 2019).

Another review has a similar view as Bílek – it admits that Zbavitelová’s translations have their shortcomings. However, it also claims that translating Dylan for the lyrics and the rhythm to be in harmony would be a task for at least twenty years. The review cites Petr

Onufer, a specialist for English and American studies and Czech studies, who claims

Zbavitelová’s approach in the given circumstances to be the best possible (Kaňková 2019).

6. Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues (1961)

Subchapter 1.2. mentioned the fact that the first of the songs Bob Dylan performed were often not his own. At the beginning of his musical career, he was either singing popular folk songs written by some other author (although in his own original way) or was at least using popular or traditional melodies with his own lyrics. One of the songs that were created in that period is Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues. The song uses the melody of

Brennan on the Moor (originally by The Clancy Brothers) and appeared on the album The

Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 despite being created apparently in 1961 (Dalton 2012).

Bob Dylan Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues

I saw it advertised one day Bear Mountain picnic was comin’ my way “Come along ’n’ take a trip We’ll bring you up there on a ship Bring the wife and kids Bring the whole family” Yippee!

Well, I run right down ’n’ bought a ticket To this Bear Mountain Picnic But little did I realize I was in for a picnic surprise Had nothin’ to do with mountains I didn’t even come close to a bear

Took the wife ’n’ kids down to the pier Six thousand people there Everybody had a ticket for the trip “Oh well,” I said, “it’s a pretty big ship Besides, anyway, the more the merrier”

Well, we all got on ’n’ what d’ya think That big old boat started t’ sink More people kept a-pilin’ on That old ship was a-slowly goin’ down Funny way t’ start a picnic

Well, I soon lost track of m’ kids ’n’ wife So many people there I never saw in m’ life That old ship sinkin’ down in the water Six thousand people tryin’ t’ kill each other Dogs a-barkin’, cats a-meowin’ Women screamin’, fists a-flyin’, babies cryin’ 45

Cops a-comin’, me a-runnin’ Maybe we just better call off the picnic

I got shoved down ’n’ pushed around All I could hear there was a screamin’ sound Don’t remember one thing more Just remember wakin’ up on a little shore Head busted, stomach cracked Feet splintered, I was bald, naked . . . Quite lucky to be alive though

Feelin’ like I climbed outa m’ casket I grabbed back hold of m’ picnic basket Took the wife ’n’ kids ’n’ started home Wishin’ I’d never got up that morn

Now, I don’t care just what you do If you wanta have a picnic, that’s up t’ you But don’t tell me about it, I don’t wanta hear it ’Cause, see, I just lost all m’ picnic spirit Stay in m’ kitchen, have m’ own picnic . . . In the bathroom

Now, it don’t seem to me quite so funny What some people are gonna do f’r money There’s a bran’ new gimmick every day Just t’ take somebody’s money away I think we oughta take some o’ these people And put ’em on a boat, send ’em up to Bear Mountain . . . For a picnic

Table 1. Bob Dylan: Talkin‘ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues

Gita Zbavitelová František Novotný & Jiří Vejvoda Bluesový vyprávění o masakru při pikniku na Medvědí Blues o tom jak neslavně dopad piknik na Medvědí hoře hoře Jednou jsem viděl reklamu Jednoho dne vidím plakát na piknik na Medvědí hoře Koná se piknik na Medvědí hoře „pojeďte s námi na výlet pojeďte s námi všichni na výlet svezeme vás lodí poplujeme tam lodí hodinu vezměte ženu i děti vemte děti i manželku zkrátka celou rodinu” vemte i celou rodinu Jupí! Hurá!

Hned jsem tam běžel a koupil si lístek Hned sem si běžel koupit lístek na ten piknik na Medvědí hoře na ten piknik na Medvědí hoře jenom jsem netušil a přitom sem vůbec netušil jaký překvápko mě na tom pikniku čeká že mě ten piknik pěkně vypeče s horama neměl nic společnýho s horama neměl nic společného a medvěda jsem nezahlíd ani z dálky natož abych na medvěda narazil

Přived jsem na molo manželku i děti Přived sem ženu a děti na molo a tam stálo šest tisíc lidí asi šest tisíc lidí tam stálo okolo všichni měli lístek na ten vejlet a všichni měli lístek na piknik “no co,” pomyslel jsem si, “loď je celkem velká No nazdar povídám to je ale pořádná loď a navíc, čím víc nás bude, tím bude větší psina” ovšem zase – čím víc lidí tím větší sranda

Tak jsme se všichni nalodili, a co myslíte – A tak sme nastoupili

ta stará bárka se začala potápět a co myslíte že se stalo lezli do ní pořád další lidi Ta velká loď se začla potápět a loď šla pomalu ke dnu jak se furt víc a víc lidí do ní cpalo dost divnej začátek pikniku ten starej krám šel zvolna ke dnu – zvláštní začátek pikniku co? Děti a žena se mi brzo ztratily tolik lidí jsem snad v životě neviděl Brzy sem ztratil z očí ženu i děti loď mizela ve vodě tolik lidí sem v životě neviděl a šest tisíc lidí se snažilo vzájemně pozabíjet ta stará loď šla ke dnu štěkaj psi, mňoukaj kočky šest tisíc lidí se snažilo navzájem pobít ječej ženský, lítaj pěsti, řvou mimina psi štěkali kočky mňoukaly jsou tu policajti a já zdrhám ženský ječely pěsti lítaly děti brečely snad bysme ten piknik měli odpískat policajti se sbíhali já se dal na útěk – co kdybysme ten piknik jaksi odvolali? Pořád do mě někdo vrážel a strkal neslyšel jsem nic než vřískot Strkali do mě vláčeli mě sem a tam víc si nepamatuju slyšel sem jenom ječení to vám povídám vím jen, že jsem se probudil na břehu pak už si vůbec nic nepamatuju s hlavou jako škopek, břichem zmláceným akorát že sem se probudil někde na pláži zpřelámanejma nohama, holou hlavou a nahej… hlavu jak zvon v žaludku kámen měl jsem kliku, že jsem vůbec naživu nohy přelámaný a celej holej a nahej a to sem měl ještě kliku Cejtil jsem se, jako bych vylez z rakve že se mnou nebyl ámen popad jsem piknikovej koš vzal ženu a děti a pelášil domů Bylo mi jako bych vylez z rakve kéž bych to ráno vůbec nevylezl z postele! popad sem košík na piknik vzal sem ženu a děti a hurá domů Je mi fuk, co kdo dělá měl sem ten den radši zůstat v posteli když si chcete udělat piknik, je to vaše věc jen mi o tom neříkejte, já to slyšet nechci Kašlu na to co vy děláte na pikniky mě přešla chuť jestli chcete piknik – jen si dejte zůstanu doma v kuchyni, udělám si vlastní piknik ale nic mi o tom neříkejte v koupelně nechci o tom nic slyšet já na pikniky ztratil jednou provždy náladu radši zůstanu doma v kuchyni udělám si svůj vlastní piknik v koupelně

Víte mně to moc legrační nepřipadá co některý lidi dokážou pro peníze každej den vymyslej novou reklamu jen proto, aby někoho pořádně obrali Na tyhle lidi co to vymejšlej mě napad príma trik měli bysme je posadit na loď a poslat do Medvědích hor na piknik Table 2. Talkin‘ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues: Parallel Translations

6.1. Analysis of the Meaning

This story-telling song speaks about a man who finds an advertisement in the newspaper for a picnic on the Bear Mountain (a mountain on the Hudson River). The attendees are supposed to go there by boat, so he rushes to buy the tickets for him and his wife

47 and children. When the day of the picnic comes, the character comes with the family to the pier and sees that there are around six thousand people waiting for the boat ride. As soon as all the people get on the boat, it starts sinking, which leads to a lot of chaos, injuries, screaming and crying. The hero soon loses track of his family and gets injured, yet in the end he somehow gets his family together and they head home, swearing to never go to a picnic again. In the last stanza the protagonist expresses a slight outrage over what some people are willing to do for money.

Before Dylan wrote this song, he had allegedly read a newspaper article about a

Father’s Day trip to Bear Mountain that turned into a riot. As the master of making up stories that he was, he made the whole story “juicier” than it actually was. Originally, there were about 4000 people on the pier waiting for the boat ride, and also, as the articles tell, there were not any deadly injuries, although some people fainted or were injured during the rush to the boat. In the end the ride was cancelled. Unlike the song, the articles mention the actual reason why the ship got overcrowded – apparently three young boys had sold about a thousand counterfeit tickets for the trip.

The story is told in the first 7 stanzas, ending with the protagonist and his family taking their possessions and returning home. The last 2 stanzas contain the protagonist’s remarks on his future potential picnic plans (he plans on never going to such an event anymore) and his indignation over some people’s acquisitiveness. The whole song ends with the protagonist’s suggestion to take “some o’ these people” (meaning the greedy people willing to cause something like that for money) and send them to the Bear Mountain with a picnic, which most likely means that the hero would wish them the same fate as of the attendees who got injured during the day. The last stanza could be told from the protagonist’s point of view but it may be also Dylan intervening in the song and saying the last lines.

The song tells the story quite clearly and does not contain many expressions or references that need to be deciphered. As written above, Dylan exaggerated the whole story a bit, but the original plot can still be clearly recognised.

6.2. Formal and Lexical Elements

There are 9 stanzas in this song. The first seven tell a story in a chronological order and they use mostly past tense. Last two stanzas are in the present tense.

The song has a form that may be deducted from the title – it is a “talking blues”. This song type has a specific form with 4 rhyming lines in every stanza followed by a sort of a punch line called the comment.

The length of the stanzas in lines is 7-6-5-5-8-7-4-6-7. The stanzas have overall rather an irregular scheme but there can be found some regularities. As it is typical for talking blues, every stanza contains 4 lines with an AABB rhyme scheme. Those four lines have different syllable count, but always end with a rhyme (wife – life, more – shore). The comment is built from an irregular number of unrhymed lines also with an irregular syllable count.

Stanzas 5 and 7 stand out. The 7th stanza does not contain the ending as the other stanzas, it consists only of those 4 rhymed lines. The 5th stanza does have a similar type of ending line as the others, but there is also something between those 4 rhymed lines and the ending line. We can find here 7 couples of subjects and predicates that dynamically describe the scene. Those 7 couples build together 3 lines and add more tension and drama to the scene.

The language is quite informal with some non-standard expressions. Dylan uses informal contractions and short forms such as d’ya instead of do you, ‘n’ instead of and or non-standard forms of verbs created by dropping the -g at the end such as wishin’, wakin’ up etc. Aside from those features the lyrics contain some idioms and irony.

6.3. Accuracy of the Translations

Zbavitelová chose the title Bluesový vyprávění o masakru při pikniku na Medvědí hoře which is quite a literal translation. She did not add any words to the title – just the necessary prepositions Czech needed. The English word blues is a noun in the original, Zbavitelová made it an adjective in Czech. If she would have used it as a noun and the title would be Blues o masakru o pikniku na Medvědí hoře, it could seem less “playful” than the original and could be less fitting for the rest of the song. What is more, Czech does not have an official expression for talking blues, although sometimes “mluvené blues” is used, so Zbavitelová is proposing a solution.

Novotný and Vejvoda went for Blues o tom jak neslavně dopad piknik na Medvědí hoře. They did not attempt to find a translation for the song type talking blues, so they chose a different path. The used a demonstrative pronoun and a sort of a periphrasis, but formally the title works. What may be less ideal is the fact that the title gets less expressive in Czech due to the omission of the word massacre.

As said in the beginning, the story and the text does not have many layers and is in fact quite simple, which is probably in compliance with the song type. Therefore, the translation process could have been more challenging on the formal side than in the matter of the meaning.

Overall, Zbavitelová’s translation is very close. The text gives us the very same information as the original. The division in the stanzas is the same, 7 of them tell the story that happened to the protagonist, the last two stanzas express the protagonist’s outrage and meaning. What may be up to discussion is the end of the 4th stanza where Zbavitelová used the word divný for the original funny. The whole song text has an ironic tone, Dylan is in fact

50 slightly making fun of the whole situation, therefore we could argue if there could not be used any word with a connotation leaning more towards a comical story.

Vejvoda and Novotný’s translation is also quite accurate. In comparison to

Zbavitelová, we could find here elements that can be considered an explicitation in translation. Explicitation has been defined for example by the translation theorists Kinga

Klaudy and Krisztina Károly. Klaudy and Károly comment on explicitation as follows:

Explicitation takes place, for example, when a SL unit with a more general meaning is replaced by a TL unit with a more specific meaning; when the meaning of a SL unit is distributed over several units in the TL; when new meaningful elements appear in the TL text; when one sentence in the ST is divided into two or several sentences in the TT; or, when SL phrases are extended or “raised” to clause level in the TT etc. (Klaudy & Károly 2005: 15).

Using Klaudy and Károly’s definition, we can find such explicitation for example in the first and the last stanza. The first line in the original speaks about an advertisement but does not say anything specific about it, while the Czech translation speaks about plakát, a poster, which is a specific type of advertisement. Also, while the 4th line in the original speaks only about means of transport, Czech translation uses a specific duration. This is obviously for the sake of rhyme. Otherwise, in the matters of accuracy, there are not any significant differences between this and Zbavitelová’s translation.

6.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations

The accuracy of the title has been commented on in the previous part. Regarding the form, Zbavitelová is a little bit more accurate than Novotný and Vejvoda – but in both cases there is the question of the translation of “talking blues” as a song type. Unlike the original

51 title, both translations use non-standard expressions, dopad instead of dopadl and bluesový vyprávění, but it is fitting for the language of the rest of the song.

The language of the translated versions is quite interesting to look at. The original is non-standard mostly by the use of contractions and without them, the text would be rather standard. The words do not really refer to any specific city or a part of a country. However, the Czech versions do use some kinds of contractions as well (such contractions are built by dropping the -l at the end of the verb, for example nezahlíd, přived in Zbavitelová or dopad, vylez in Novotný and Vejvoda) and apart from that, they also use some verb and adjective endings that in Czech have a connotation with a specific part of the country – Bohemia. Both translations are written in the style of Common Czech (obecná čeština) which is a nonstandard variety of the Czech language that is mostly associated with Prague and the surrounding area, now used in a bigger part of the country. Common Czech words found in the translations are for example společnýho instead of společného, vejlet instead of výlet, nahej instead of nahý.

Both translations preserve the same number of stanzas as well as the chronological order of the story and the tenses. Neither of the translations strive for singability, but we can find occasional rhyming in the translation by Novotný and Vejvoda. That rhyming seems rather random, it does not preserve the original AABB scheme and it is not always in the first

4 lines. Neither of the translations preserve the original form of talking blues. Zbavitelová’s translation keeps the same number of lines in every stanza while the one of Novotný and

Vejvoda does not.

Regarding the idiom in the 3rd stanza, the more, the merrier, both translators dealt with it in a similar way. What is different here is the beginning of the line which is more accurate in Zbavitelová’s translation. She used the word navíc which is more accurate for besides than ovšem or ovšem zase; the solution of Vejvoda and Novotný indicates that the

52 previous part of the sentence would be negative – it is an adversative conjunction. The back translation of Zbavitelová would be:

Well, I said to myself, the ship is pretty big, additionally, the more of us there are, the more fun we will have.

Vejvoda and Novotný’s translation would sound roughly so:

Holy moly, that is a big ship! Nevertheless, the more people there are, the more fun it will be.

An interesting difference can also be found in the beginning of the 5th stanza where

Novotný and Vejvoda translate the English idiom to lose track of someone by an appropriate

Czech counterpart ztratit z očí, while Zbavitelová does not use an idiom.

At the end of the 6th stanza both translations use the same Czech idiom mít kliku as a translation for to be lucky, which is quite fitting for the whole text style.

Overall, it is obvious that Zbavitelová was trying to be as accurate as possible while

“ditching” the form. She preserves the same length of the stanzas, though, which is different for Novotný and Vejvoda, whose stanzas are mostly longer than the original. Novotný and

Vejvoda were trying to get close to the original form at least in some way, by rhyming some of the lines. It is debatable how effective this was, as the rhyming seems rather haphazard.

7. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (1963)

It has been stated that it is not clear to what degree Dylan has been a “voice of the protest movement”, yet many of his songs could be marked as protest songs. Many of his songs contain more or less hidden references to the political and social matters in the 20th century USA, but are in many cases rather timeless. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll is one of them. The song was recorded in 1963 and became a part of the album The Times They

Are a-Changin’.

Bob Dylan The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger At a Baltimore hotel society gath’rin’ And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him As they rode him in custody down to the station And booked William Zanzinger for first-degree murder But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears Take the rag away from your face Now ain’t the time for your tears

William Zanzinger, who at twenty-four years Owns a tobacco farm of six hundred acres With rich wealthy parents who provide and protect him And high office relations in the politics of Maryland Reacted to his deed with a shrug of his shoulders And swear words and sneering, and his tongue it was snarling In a matter of minutes on bail was out walking But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears Take the rag away from your face Now ain’t the time for your tears

Hattie Carroll was a maid of the kitchen She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage And never sat once at the head of the table And didn’t even talk to the people at the table Who just cleaned up all the food from the table And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane That sailed through the air and came down through the room Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears Take the rag away from your face Now ain’t the time for your tears

In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel To show that all’s equal and that the courts are on the level And that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded And that even the nobles get properly handled Once that the cops have chased after and caught ’em And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom Stared at the person who killed for no reason Who just happened to be feelin’ that way without warnin’ And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears Bury the rag deep in your face For now’s the time for your tears

Table 3 Bob Dylan: The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

Gita Zbavitelová František Vejvoda & Jiří Novotný Osamělá smrt Hattie Carroll Osamělá smrt Hattie Carrollové William Zanzinger zabil nebohou Hattie Carroll Wiliam Zanzinger zabil ubohou Hattie Carrollovou holí, kterou roztočil kolem prstu s diamantovým prstenem Holí kterou točil kolem prstu s prstenem a diamantem na společenském dýchánku v hotelu v Baltimore v baltimorským hotelu na večírku nóbl společnosti zavolali policajty a ti mu vzali zbraň Přivolali na něj policajty a odvedli do vazby na policejní stanici který mu odebrali zbraň Williama Zanzingera zatkli pro vraždu prvního stupně když ho vezli zatčenýho na strážnici ale vy, kdo mudrujete o hanbě a kritizujete zbabělost pak ho zabásli pro vraždu prvního stupně si teď nezakrývejte tváře ještě nenastal čas na vaše slzy Vy co tu filozofujete o tom kolik zla se děje a kritizujete ty který se bojí William Zanzinger, který je ve čtyřiadvaceti letech strhněte si jednou masku z obličeje majitelem tabákové farmy o šesti stech akrech O vaše slzy teď sotva kdo stojí a má bohaté a zámožné rodiče, kteří ho živí a chrání a konexe v nejvyšších politických kruzích v Marylandu Wiliamovi Zanzingerovi bylo sotva čtyřiadvacet reagoval na svůj čin pokrčením ramen Vlastní famu na tabák o šesti stech akrech a nadávkami a úšklebky; jazyk mu jen kmital Vlastní bohaté rodiče během několik minut byl venku na kauci který se o něj staraj a sou mu ochranou ale vy, kdo mudrujete o hanbě a kritizujete zbabělost ve vysoký politice státu Maryland si teď nezakrývejte tváře co na jeho čin jen pokrčila rameny ještě nenastal čas na vaše slzy Zapřísahal se posměšnýma slovama a jeho jazyk vrčel Hattie Carroll pomáhala v kuchyni a za několik minut bylo jí jednapadesát a porodila deset dětí na kauci byl venku nosila nádobí a vynášela odpadky ani jednou neseděla v čele stolu Vy co tu filozofujete o tom kolik zla se děje a s lidmi u stolu ani nemluvila a kritizujete ty který se bojí jen z něj uklízela jídlo strhněte si jednou masku z obličeje a vysypávala popelníky – byla na úplně jiné úrovni O vaše slzy teď sotva kdo stojí byla zabita ranou, zavražděna holí která přiletěla vzduchem, přeletěla místnost Hattie Carrollová byla služkou v kuchyni předurčena a rozhodnuta zničit všechno laskavé bylo jí jedenapadesát nikdy nic Williamu Zanzingerovi neudělala a dala život deseti dětem ale vy, kdo mudrujete o hanbě a kritizujete zbabělost odnášela špinavý talíře a vynášela odpadky si teď nezakrývejte tváře a nikdy v živote neseděla v čele stolu ještě nenastal čas na vaše slzy nikdy ani nemluvila s těma co tam sedí jenom odklízela zbytky po těch co nóbl jedí Soudce v ctihodné soudní síni bouchl kladívkem a vyprazdňovala popelníky na zcela jiný úrovni aby ukázal, že všichni jsou si rovni a soud je na úrovni a teď je zčistajasna zabitá Zavražděná holí že tady nikdo netahá za nitky a nenechá se přemluvit která vzduchem jen tak proletěla že i se vznešenými se zachází, jak je třeba přes celej pokoj na ni doletěla když už je policajti pronásledujou a dopadnou s cílem zahubit to všechno jemný že žebřík zákona nemá horní a spodní příčku přitom Wiliamu Zanzingerovi nikdy neublížila hleděl na toho člověka, který zabil bez důvodu ani slovem protože se mu jen tak zachtělo a promluvil ze svého taláru, tak moudrý a vážený Vy co tu filozofujete o tom kolik zla se děje a důrazně, kvůli trestu i pokání a kritizujete ty který se bojí odsoudil Williama Zanzingera k šesti měsícům strhněte si jednou masku z obličeje ale vy, kdo mudrujete o hanbě a kritizujete zbabělost O vaše slzy teď sotva kdo stojí teprve teď si zakryjte tváře až teď nastal čas na vaše slzy Na ctěným soudním dvoře zaťukal soudce kladívkem aby ukázal tak všem že jsou si všichni rovni a soud je na úrovni že za provázky tu nikdo netahá a nikdo neovlivňuje a že i nóbl lidem se dostane slušnýho zacházení když už je policajti honí a lapnou a že žebřík zákona nemá dna ani vrcholu Soudce se díval na člověka kterej bezdůvodně zabil jenom tak že se mu prostě chtělo a bez nejmenší výstrahy

A díval se jak jeho porotci zpoza veleváženejch talárů plamenně odsoudili Wiliama Zanzingera k trestu a pokání na dobu šesti měsíců

Vy co tu filozofujete o tom kolik zla se děje a kritizujete ty který se bojí Nestrhávejte si masku z obličeje O vaše slzy teď právě někdo stojí Table 4. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll: Parallel Translations

7.1. Analysis of the Meaning

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll similarly to Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic

Massacre Blues narrates a story; here in four stanzas. The first stanza starts with an announcement that a man we know nothing about, William Zanzinger, killed a woman called

Hattie Carroll. The story then unfolds pretty quickly, the song continues with a description of the place where the murder happened and the narrative part of the fist stanza ends when the killer is taken to court by the police. The stanza itself ends with an apostrophe, behind which can be Dylan, turning to a group of people who he describes as the ones who “philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears”, telling them that now is not the time for their tears. Those 3 lines repeat at the end of the first 3 stanzas.

The 2nd and the 3rd stanza describe the characters in the story. In the 2nd stanza the reader meets the killer, William Zanzinger, who is described as a young, arrogant sort of

“whippersnapper” with wealthy parents. It is also said that Zanzinger reacted to his crime with a “shrug of shoulders” and had not really been punished for what he did. At the end of the stanza, we have the apostrophe again.

The 3rd stanza speaks about Hattie Carroll, a 50-year-old kitchen maid with 10 children. Carroll is described as a hard-working maid who kept her head down and never

“bothered” the people at the table, who were probably some guests or her superiors. The following is the description of her tragic death (she had been beaten to death by Zanzinger).

The stanza ends with the apostrophe, too.

The last stanza speaks about the process with Zanzinger. It starts with a comment on the state of the law – the cause happened in Maryland, one of the states of the USA, but the comment could be more or less taken generally. In the first lines it seems that the law would work properly and the judges would not make differences between colours or social status, however, in the next few lines the reader or listener finds out the ridiculously short sentence

Zanzinger gets – and now it is obvious that the previous lines had an ironic tone. This stanza ends also with an apostrophe. However, this one ends with a different line than the previous ones – “For now’s the time for your tears”.

This song was also inspired by a real incident that Dylan read in a newspaper article about (Guesdon & Margotin 2015). In comparison to Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre

Blues, Dylan allegedly deviated from the original story much more. According to some sources, Hattie Carroll had been suffering for many years from elevated blood pressure and weight problems (Heylin 2009: 163). Although she died of a heart attack that may have been provoked by Zantzinger’s hurtful comments (he was actually called Zantzinger which Dylan changed in the song), there is no proof for that. The testimonies of the incident’s witnesses also described the beating with the cane in a different way – in fact, it might have been a

“single tap on the shoulder”. There is also a possibility that Zanzinger gave himself up to the police voluntarily, as he had already been out of prison when Carroll died (Heylin 2009: 164).

However, despite having many facts wrong or baseless, Dylan’s Hattie Carroll fulfilled the purpose as a protest song, says English author and Dylanologist Clinton Heylin in his book Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan 1957–1973.

He duly delivered such a compelling performance that viewers couldn’t help but be convinced of the singer’s civil rights credentials. And though on the verge of detaching himself from the topical song genre, “Hattie Carroll” stayed a favorite of Dylan’s – the one

58 topical song he was (justifiably) proud of on a technical level, it being a remarkable synthesis of words, tune, performance, and philosophy. But when it came to the underlying story, Dylan never sought out the truth. (Heylin 2009: 167)

The song text is in the matters of accuracy problems more complex than Talkin’ Bear

Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues. The reader can probably manage to understand the story from the story-telling lines, but the endings of every stanza are not so clear. Dylan expresses rather in an abstract way whom he turns himself to, and what he means by the rag on the face of those who “philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears” is also not readable that well.

The song further contains several expressions that may have different connotations between Czech and English or that are atypical to hear in Czech. At the beginning of the 2nd stanza there is information about the size of Zanzinger’s farm. The size is in acres, which is a unit that is not typically used in the Czech Republic, therefore the reader very likely cannot imagine how big the farm is. However, this is a less important information in the lyrics, so it does not change the meaning if it stays in acres in the translation. Otherwise, the translator could consider transferring it into kilometres or omitting the information and replacing it with an indefinite statement about the size.

The fourth line of the second stanza describes Zanzingers connections with the politicians in Maryland. Because the Czech Republic has a different political system than the

USA, the Czech audience will probably imagine something else under those connections than an American reader.

Judge’s gavel that the 4th stanza speaks about is an item that is not used in Czech courtrooms. Nowadays, when there are many foreign criminal series broadcasted in the Czech

Republic, the viewers have the opportunity to see such gavel and understand the reference,

59 but it might have been different for the audience in 1980, and in a context where the judge’s gavel works as a symbol, this reference has to be understandable.

None of the described elements carries such a strong meaning that it would significantly change the reader’s understanding of the whole lyrics, but as for elements that are typical for a specific culture, their knowledge should be at best a part of translators’ cultural competence.

Speaking of that, there is also another feature of the text that has something to do with this translators’ knowledge. Another point regarding the accuracy is here the whole song topic as well as the mood and the transfer of the both. Some knowledge of the history of racial injustice and inequality in the USA should also be part of translators’ cultural competence if they have to deal with such topics in their translations.

It would be interesting to examine how people perceived this text in 1980, when Víc než jen hlas was published, and how they perceived it by the time of publishing Zbavitelová’s translation. Even more interesting could be a comparison with today’s audience, the more after the 2020’s events in the USA and the Black Lives Matter movement. Unfortunately, this thesis does not offer that much time and space.

7.2. Formal and Lexical Elements

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Caroll is divided into 4 story-telling stanzas. The order of the narrative is not chronological; the stanzas mix previous and present events, but the 4th stanza is chronologically the last event. The whole song has quite a regular pattern.

The stanzas have an irregular count of lines, 9-10-14-14, but there is a repetition at the end of every stanza – the apostrophe that has been already mentioned in the previous part, which is the same for the first 3 stanzas and different in the last one. Occasional rhymes can be found in the lyrics as well. Regular rhyming occurs at the end of every stanza in the 1st and

60 the last line of the apostrophe. Otherwise, the rhyming is rather irregular and there is only a hint of a rhyme scheme.

There are several schemes in the lyrics, the stanzas contain anaphoras (mostly and) and epistrophes (table in the 3rd stanza), frequent alliterations can be found as well (provide and protect him, doomed and determined to destroy, pulled and persuaded, shrug of his shoulders,).

The language is rather standard with some non-standard expressions. Contractions such as ain’t, feelin’, gath’rin’ can be found there, as well as some non-standard sentence structures such as: And she never done anything to Wiliam Zanzinger or In a matter of minutes on bail was out walking. There are some understandable collocations in the text that should not be a problem transferring to Czech, for example ring finger or to give birth. The text also contains an idiom in the last stanza – to pull strings. The line And that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded also raises the question what books are being talked about here.

There is a theory by Robert Shelton, a music critic and the author of a book about

Dylan No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan, that Dylan inspired himself regarding the form by François Villon (Guesdon & Margotin 2015).

7.3. Accuracy of the Translations

This song is a challenging task on the formal side as well as in the matters of the meaning.

Regarding the accuracy of the title, there are not any differences and the only one is in the form of Hattie Carroll’s surname, but otherwise the two translations are quite different.

In both translations, the chronological order is the same as in the original, but the division in the stanzas is different, as Novotný and Vejvoda split the story-telling part of the

61 stanza and the apostrophe at the end. This is however more of a formal issue that does not necessarily change the meaning - but it might add a feeling of more distance of the author.

Regarding the 1st stanza, some differences can be found in the 2nd and the 3rd line. In the 2d line Zbavitelová is more accurate as she translates the diamond ring finger as prst s diamantovým prstenem. Novotný and Vejvoda went for prst s prstenem a diamantem which is in Czech rather an unnatural expression. The 3rd line speaks about the society gath’rin’ in

Baltimore hotel. Here Novotný and Vejvoda add a new information – that the society was

“posh” (here nóbl společnost), while Zbavitelová keeps simply společnost without a further specification.

Zbavitelová’s 2nd stanza is also more accurate than Novotný and Vejvoda’s translation. Their translation seems to have misunderstood some parts of the stanza. In their interpretation, it looks like Zanzinger’s parents would protect him from their high posts in the politics of Maryland, although the original says that Zanzinger himself would have some relations with the politicians. The translation also uses the expression vlastnit (to own) in relation to the parents, which is rather an atypical expression; another problem is the description of Zanzinger’s reaction to his crime – Novotný and Vejvoda translated the line as the politics of Maryland would react to it with “a shrug of their shoulders”.

The 3rd stanza is, in the matters of accuracy, similar in both translations. However, the

7th line was interpreted differently in each case. Zbavitelová connects the expression on a whole other level with a person – Hattie Carroll. Novotný and Vejvoda translated the line in a way that it seems that they would associate it with her way of emptying ashtrays. In the 10th line there is also an interesting difference. Zbavitelová’s translation of gentle as laskavý is typical in a description of a person – it is a human trait, while the other translators used jemný which can be used as a human trait but can be also associated with inanimate objects or abstract things.

The 4th stanza seems to be partially misunderstood by Novotný and Vejvoda as well.

The 4th line speaks about the court's attitude towards “nobles” and assures the audience that all people, even the rich and influential ones, are even in front of the law and will not get any advantages. This can be understood from Zbavitelová’s translation, but Novotný and

Vejvoda’s solution is a little bit misleading. Although proper can be sometimes translated as slušný, it is maybe not ideal in this context, as the whole expression slušný zacházení has some positive connotations.

It is also interesting to look at how the translators handled the apostrophe at the end of every stanza. Specific attention should be aimed at the second line, take the rag away from your face.

(Vy) si teď nezakrývejte tváře, translates Zbavitelová, while Novotný and Vejvoda use strhněte si jednou masku z obličeje.

Zbavitelová’s translation advises not to cover their faces, which can be interpreted as covering the faces because of crying. This could indicate the crying to be honest and real. The second translation says to those who “philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears” to take their masks down as nobody wants to see their tears now. This translation indicates that the crying could be fake. It is up to the reader’s interpretation how Dylan meant those 3 lines, but it is an interesting comparison.

7.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations

The first differences regarding the form can be found in the title. While Zbavitelová used the original form of Hattie Carroll’s name, Vejvoda and Novotný added the suffix -ová that is used for Czech female surnames. This suffix is used throughout the whole translation.

An immediately visible difference is in the text layout. While Zbavitelová keeps the number and form of stanzas, Novotný and Vejvoda divide the song into eight parts by

63 splitting the story telling part of the stanza and the apostrophe. Zbavitelová also preserves the number of the lines while Novotný and Vejvoda do not – in their translation, the apostrophe has 4 lines instead of 3, too.

As well as in Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues, Novotný and Vejvoda use rhyming in their translation, but at different locations than the original. In comparison to

Zbavitelová, they tried to preserve some of the alliterations in text. None of the translators preserved the epistrophes in the 3rd stanza.

Zbavitelová’s translation contains several expressions that increase the text’s naturalness, as those words do not indicate that they are a translation. Those expressions are for example the Czech collocation společenský dýchánek or the expression mudrovat that can be found in the apostrophe.

In the 4rth stanza, all of the translators omitted the books in the 3rd line and kept the rest. At the end of this stanza, Novotný and Vejvoda slightly changed the meaning. The original speaks about a judge who sentenced Zanzinger to six months in prison - this judge becomes porotci = jury in the translation.

Overall, the form of Zbavitelová’s translation is closer on the surface – she kept the same number of stanzas as well as of the lines, while Novotný and Vejvoda did not, and furthermore, they also split the stanzas. On the other hand, Novotný and Vejvoda made an effort in translating the alliterations and in rhyming.

8. Oxford Town (1962)

Oxford Town was created as a result of an informal competition in the magazine

Broadside by the editors called Sis and Gordon. In 1962, James Meredith, the first African-

American student got accepted to until then a segregated university (University of

Mississippi). Sis and Gordon, among others, considered it one of the most important events of the year and therefore they announced a contest for a song that would sum it up. Several artists took part in the competition, however, only Dylan and a young protest song writer Phil

Ochs created remarkable pieces (Heylin 2009: 108). The song appeared on Dylan’s album

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. There are more versions in which the song was recorded. Some of the versions do not include the last stanza.

Bob Dylan Oxford Town

Oxford Town, Oxford Town Ev’rybody’s got their heads bowed down The sun don’t shine above the ground Ain’t a-goin’ down to Oxford Town

He went down to Oxford Town Guns and clubs followed him down All because his face was brown Better get away from Oxford Town

Oxford Town around the bend He come in to the door, he couldn’t get in All because of the color of his skin What do you think about that, my frien’?

Me and my gal, my gal’s son We got met with a tear gas bomb I don’t even know why we come Goin’ back where we come from Oxford Town in the afternoon Ev’rybody singin’ a sorrowful tune Two men died ’neath the Mississippi moon Somebody better investigate soon

Oxford Town, Oxford Town Ev’rybody’s got their heads bowed down The sun don’t shine above the ground Ain’t a-goin’ down to Oxford Town Table 5. Bob Dylan: Oxford Town

Gita Zbavitelová František Novotný and Jiří Vejvoda Město Oxford Ve městě Oxfordu

V městě Oxford, v městě Oxford Ve městě Oxfordu ve městě Oxfordu chodí všichni s hlavou sklopenou tam narovnat hřbet to se nesluší ani slunce tam nedosvitne slunce tam sotvakdy zem vysuší do města Oxford nejedu raděj se vyhnout vyhnout Oxfordu

Jeden do města Oxford jel Vydal se do města Oxfordu a hned po něm šly pušky a hole každej ho klackem či flintou provázel to proto, že měl hnědou tvář jen proto že tvář zamračenou měl od města Oxford se radši držte dál lepší je mazat pryč od města Oxfordu

Za rohem v městě Oxford Za rohem ulice v Oxfordu ho potkáte přišel ke dveřím, ale dovnitř ho nepustili přišel ke dveřím ale dovnitř nesmí jít to kvůli barvě pleti to by musel bílou kůži mít co ty na to, příteli? co vy na to vážení co na to říkáte

Na mě a moji holku i jejího synka Kamaráde mě a moji holku tam čekal slznej plyn dal dohromady slznej plyn nechápu, proč jsme sem jeli co já vím proč jsme se tam připletli jedem zpátky, odkud jsme přišli tak raděj pryč dřív nežli by nás vymetli

V městě Oxford odpoledne Ve městě Oxfordu je vodpolední klid všichni zpívají smutnou písničku a každej píská si truchlivou písničku za svitu měsíce v Mississippi přišli o život dva chlapi dva lidi umřeli při Mississipským měsíčku někdo by to měl rychle vyšetřit měl by to někdo raděj už rychle vyšetřit

V městě Oxford, v městě Oxford chodí všichni s hlavou sklopenou ani slunce tam nedosvitne do města Oxford nejedu Table 6. Oxford Town: Parallel Translations

8.1. Analysis of the Meaning

Oxford Town contains 5–6 stanzas. The last stanza is the same as the first one and is not always included in the recorded version. This thesis is going to work with 6 stanzas.

The song’s title can be a bit misleading on the first look because it may seem to be referring to the British city Oxford – but it allegedly refers to the city of Oxford in

Mississippi.

The whole song mainly follows a story of some coloured man and next to that also some side-stories. All of the stanzas are written in a rather abstract way and they only narrate the stories very roughly.

The first stanza expresses that there is something wrong with Oxford Town, something that makes people walk with their heads down. It gives the audience a feeling of uneasiness, the reader knows that something bad is happening in there. Further it also raises reader’s questions – what happened or is going on in this town? Do people keep their heads down because of fear or are they pretending not to see something?

The next stanza starts telling the story of an anonymous man. At first the audience finds out that he visited Oxford Town and someone, probably the inhabitants, followed him with guns and clubs. The 3rd line reveals the probable reason for that – the man is dark skinned.

The third stanza mentions a door that the protagonist is not let through. It may be literally a door of some unknown building in the town. If the reader knows the occasion at which the song was composed, he may assume that it could be the door of the University of

Mississippi. However, it could also be a metaphorical door, symbolizing for example an inclusion into the society.

The fourth stanza suddenly speaks in the 1st person, while the previous stanzas speak in the 3rd. It tells another story, this time about (probably) a man and a girl and her son, who experience tear gas bombing in Oxford Town. At the end of the stanza, they contemplate their decision to come to that town and plan on leaving. This storyline may or may not be related to the previous story.

The fifth stanza pictures the inhabitants of the town singing some sorrowful songs because of two men who died there “under the Mississippi moon”. At the end of the stanza there is a suggestion to investigate this case. The sixth stanza, if used, is the same as the first one.

This song does not tell the story as clearly as Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre

Blues or The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. When the audience knows the background,

67 the meaning is decodable, otherwise it is more like a group of scenes or pictures than a compact story. Clinton Heylin explains some of the pictures:

Using all the “leaping” but little of the lingering generally found in olde worlde precursors,

Dylan found another use for that verbal bayonet: to make a polemical point – “He come in the door, he couldn’t get in / All because of the color of his skin,” a clear reference to Meredith’s courageous attempts to gain admission to the University of Mississippi. (Heylin 2009: 108)

An explanation for the other references in the stanzas can be found in articles on Meredith.

James Meredith had attempted to get to the University of Mississippi already in 1961, but he was denied admission because of racial reasons. Thanks to the US Supreme Court and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People he got admitted, however, in 1962 he was denied access to the campus several times. On September 30 as he was trying to enter the campus, a riot broke out, in which 2 people died (reference in the 5th stanza)

(Guesdon & Margotin 2015).

As Clinton Heylin further says, by using the first person in some of the stanzas, Dylan places the narrator at the centre of the unlucky events that James Meredith got met with, and so he makes it difficult for the reader or listener to dissociate from the events. Also, by mentioning neither Meredith nor the university, Dylan caused the song to be timeless (Heylin

2009: 108).

8.2. Formal and Lexical Elements

Dylan’s Oxford Town has a very regular form. The song contains 5–6 4-line stanzas.

Four of them have the same rhyme scheme, two of them have a different one, the schemes go in the following order: 1st stanza AAAA, 2nd stanza AAAA, 3rd stanza ABBA, 4th stanza

ABAB, 5th stanza AAAA, 6th stanza AAAA.

Like the previously analysed songs, Oxford Town, too, contains informal expressions and contractions. Here the reader can find expressions like ev’rybody, frien’, ain’t or gal and also incorrect grammatical forms like the sun don’t shine instead of the sun doesn’t shine.

Oxford Town is quite complex in the matters of meaning but not so much in the text itself. The language is also less complicated in comparison to other Dylan’s songs, the lines are quite short and there is a lot of repetition. The lyrics do not contain any complicated collocations or idioms, yet some rhetorical figures such as guns and clubs followed him down.

Although the lines alone are rather simple, the song scheme is thought-through.

8.3. Accuracy of the Translations

The title is translated accurately in both translations. It is very likely that an audience that does not know the context of the song will assume it to refer to the British city of Oxford, but there is hardly any possibility to explain the actual reference in the title and keep the accuracy at the same time. The only difference between the two translations is that

Zbavitelová does not use a declension while the two translators do.

In comparison to their translations of the previously analysed songs, Vejvoda and

Novotný here seem to have misunderstood several parts. The second stanza speaks about the protagonist’s brown face which they translated as zamračený (frowning). This is rather misleading and does not refer to any racial issue very much. Vejvoda and Novotný sort of

69 correct it in the next stanza where they already use a proper translation of a reference to the race.

In the fourth stanza it seems that the translators have misinterpreted the expression son and confused it with an address, as they translated it as kamaráde (pal, mate). Also, the phrase we got met with a tear gas bomb refers in the matters of the meeting to the bomb, while

Vejvoda and Novotný interpreted it as the couple would have been brought together by the tear gas. Of course – it could have happened that way, but the original does not say it, it says only that a couple and the girl’s son experienced a tear gas bombing.

Zbavitelová’s translation does not include such distortion of the meaning as the second one. Her racial references are hardly misleading and the beginning of the fourth stanza is translated in a more accurate way than by Vejvoda and Novotný. She also, in comparison to them, preserves the synecdoche in the second stanza: guns and clubs followed him down/a hned po něm šly pušky a hole.

The group of scenes or short stories that are narrated in the song are quite understandable in both translations, yet the meaning of the whole song is not easily comprehensible without any context. However, there is not much that the translators could have done about it – if they would not want to squeeze much more information in the stanzas.

8.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations

It is probable that Vejvoda and Novotný again sacrificed some meaning for the sake of the form. They kept the same number of lines and either preserved the original or created their own rhyme schemes. Their stanzas have the following schemes: ABBA, ABBA, ABBA (3rd stanza scheme matches the original), ABCC, ABBA. Their translation uses 5 stanzas.

Zbavitelová preserved the number of lines, used 6 stanzas and tried to achieve maximum accuracy while ignoring the rhyming.

Zbavitelová’s translation, as mentioned above, does not use declension compared to the second translation. Furthermore, she uses some punctuation, while Vejvoda and Novotný do not.

The language of Zbavitelová’s translation is more standard than the one in the second translation. Her Město Oxford contains overall only 1 non-standard (slznej) and 1 informal word (chlapi). Vejvoda and Novotný’s language again can remind the reader of the Common

Czech language because of the use of expressions that are associated with it, such as každej, slznej, vodpolední etc. Here, Vejvoda and Novotný’s language can somehow be more accurate compared to Zbavitelová’s language, as the original also uses mostly non-standard and informal expressions.

9. Love Minus Zero/No Limit (1965)

As written in the subchapter 1.4.3, the unusual love song Love Minus Zero/No Limit was inspired by Dylan’s first wife Sara. It was written in 1965 and appeared on Dylan’s album Bringing It All Back Home.

Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues as well as The Lonesome Death of

Hattie Carroll are sort of story-telling songs. In the previously analysed Oxford Town, there are also some indications of a story-line, even though a lot weaker than in the first two songs.

Love Minus Zero/No Limit is very different to all three songs. A colourful description of a beloved person is mixed with a bunch of puzzling metaphors.

Bob Dylan Love Minus Zero/No Limit My love she speaks like silence Without ideals or violence She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire People carry roses Make promises by the hours My love she laughs like the flowers Valentines can’t buy her

In the dime stores and bus stations People talk of situations Read books, repeat quotations Draw conclusions on the wall Some speak of the future My love she speaks softly She knows there’s no success like failure And that failure’s no success at all

The cloak and dagger dangles Madams light the candles In ceremonies of the horsemen Even the pawn must hold a grudge Statues made of matchsticks Crumble into one another My love winks, she does not bother She knows too much to argue or to judge

The bridge at midnight trembles The country doctor rambles Bankers’ nieces seek perfection Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring The wind howls like a hammer The night blows cold and rainy My love she’s like some raven At my window with a broken wing Table 7. Bob Dylan: Love Minus Zero/No Limit 72

Gita Zbavitelová František Novotný & Jiří Vejvoda Láska minus nula/Bez omezení Láska pod nulou bez omezení

Moje láska mluví jako ticho Má láska mluví jako ticho bez ideálů či násilí bez ideálů a hrubostí nemusí říkat, že je věrná nemusí říkat že je věrná a přece je stálá jako led, jako oheň je opravdová jako led jako oheň lidi nosí růže Lidi nosej růže a každou hodinu něco slibujou a každou chvíli něco slibujou moje láska se směje jako ty kytky Má láska se usmívá jako ty květiny a valentýnky si ji nekoupí a nedá se koupit dárečky

V obchodech s levným zbožím a na autobusových nádražích V samoobsluhách a na autobusovejch zastávkách lidi probírají situace lidi probírají poměry čtou knihy, opakujou citáty čtou knihy opakujou výroky jinejch a po zdech píšou závěry a na zeď píšou závěry někteří mluví o budoucnosti Někteří mluvěj o budoucnosti moje láska mluví tiše má láska mluví tiše skoro bez dechu ví, že největším úspěchem je prohra Ví že není větší úspěch než prohra a prohra není úspěchem ani trochu ale že prohra není vůbec znakem úspěchu

Plášť s dýkou vlaje Plášť a dýka se pohupujou bordelmamá zapalujou svíčky dámy svý svíce rozvěcujou na jezdeckých slavnostech tahle slavnost jezdců musí cítit nevraživost i pěšák ta by pěšáka naštvala sochy ze zápalek Sochy postavený ze sirek padají jedna přes druhou jedna po druhý se hroutí moje láska to přehlíží, ta se tím nezabývá má láska oko přimhouří ona se tím netrápí ví toho příliš, než aby se hádala nebo soudila ví až moc na to aby se přela aby pořád posuzovala Most se o půlnoci chvěje venkovský doktor se toulá Most se o půlnoci začne třást neteře bankéřů hledají dokonalost venkovskej doktor se toulá zas a očekávají všechny dary, které přinášejí mudrci neteře bankéřů dokonalost hledaj vítr skučí jako kladivo od moudrých mužů dary čekaj noc bouří chladem a deštěm Vítr kvílí zvukem kladiva moje láska je jako nějaký havran noc fičí chladná a deštivá se zlomeným křídlem u mého okna má láska je jak havran u mýho okna s křídlem zlomeným Table 8. Love Minus Zero/No Limit: Paralell Translations

9.1. Analysis of the Meaning

This Dylan’s love song is sort of a “cluster” of metaphors, the stanzas are full of symbols inspired by various stimuli. Because of being full of unconventional symbols and unusual pictures, it is not easy for this song to be analysed. The title itself is also not superficial.

The authors who deal with Dylan’s work (here Clinton Heylin, Dennis McNally or

Philippe Margotin) also do not seem to completely understand all the references, but they have several explanations for parts of the lyrics. They often mention Eastern philosophies or

Zen when speaking about this song. Allegedly, both Dylan and Sara were interested in those kinds of philosophy or spirituality by that time (Guesdon & Margotin 2015).

Regarding the title, the author and music publicist Dennis McNally claims it to be inspired by poker, because no limit is a poker term and “love is a game” (McNally 2014:

369). Originally the title was Dime Store, as in the beginning of the 2nd stanza. At the end a more cryptical title prevailed. The original label to the album is the only place where the title is written correctly, looking like a mathematical formula (Heylin 2009: 225).

The first stanza begins with an affectionate description of the beloved woman. The very first line of the song starts with the words my love, expressing the author’s feelings towards her. The next part could be connected to Sara’s mental state, which seems to be also

Guesdon’s and Margotin’s theory.

Who is this woman he’s singing about, “My love she speaks like silence / Without ideals or violence”? Sara, Dylan’s future wife, for sure. She was sensitive to Eastern philosophies and Zen, while Dylan himself discovered the I Ching and Buddhism under the influence of Allen Ginsberg. (Guesdon & Margotin, 2015: 378)

Clinton Heylin comments on how Sara’s attitude worked on her surroundings: “On the evidence of this song, her Zen-like detachment – commented on by everyone who knew her – was catching” (Heylin 2009: 225).

The first stanza further continues with abstract lines that compare the author’s loved one to other people and speak of her in metaphors, as well as the next stanza. From the 1st

74 and the 2nd stanza it seems that in comparison to other people, Sara (or simply the female protagonist) is soft, quiet and in sync with the events happening around her (which may be the way Dylan perceived her by that time and also an influence of her tendency to Eastern philosophies and Zen).

The most lines in the 3rd and the 4th stanza further contain other abstract metaphors which were according to some theories inspired by several works of literature.

Guesdon and Margotin (2015) claim the atmosphere of the song to be “languid” and inspired by the poem The Sick Rose by William Blake. Some parts are allegedly inspired by

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven (the last stanza). The 3rd stanza, according to Guesdon and

Margotin, refers to the biblical book of Daniel. In this book there is a story about the

Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar whose statue built of precious metals got destroyed by a stone (Guesdon & Margotin 2015). Another biblical reference that Margotin does not speak about may be in the 4th stanza: [banker’s nieces] expecting all the gifts the wise men bring.

This may refer to the Three Kings, sometimes called Three Wise Men, who brought presents after the birth of Jesus (Brittanica 2020).

Heylin (2009) claims that behind some of Dylan’s metaphors may be inspiration by the poet John Keats.

For here Dylan begins to speak in irreconcilable opposites: she “speaks like silence,” all the while managing to be “like ice” and “like fire.” Most memorably of all, “She knows there’s no success like failure / And that failure’s no success at all.” John Keats, a poet Dylan grew to greatly admire, had a term for such mental balancing acts – “negative capability” – a notion he defined as “when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.” (Heylin 2009: 225)

The deciphering of all the hidden references in this song is very likely difficult even for a native English speaker and someone who is well-read, the more it has to be complicated for a non-native English speaker. However, it is a question to what extent a translator should understand all the symbols, references and backgrounds to be able to translate the song accurately.

9.2. Formal and Lexical Elements

There are 4 stanzas in this song and each of them has 8 lines. Despite the 8 lines in each of them, the stanzas seem to be possible to split in a half and create two 4-line stanzas.

The couples of 4 lines in the stanza are usually topically split and they also have different rhyme schemes.

The rhyme scheme throughout the whole song is quite regular. In the 8-line stanzas, the 4th and the 8th line always rhyme with each other.

In comparison to the previously analysed songs, this song uses standard language.

There are not any non-standard words and just a few contractions that are used in spoken

English such as she’s or can’t. As has been said several times, the lyrics contain metaphors and similes. Several indications of an alliteration can be found as well: dagger dangles, speaks softly, made of matchsticks etc.

9.3. Accuracy of the Translations

As has been said in the beginning, it is not easy to analyse all of the metaphors and hidden references in these lyrics. Therefore, it cannot be judged to a full extent how well the overall meaning was transferred. It can rather be guessed how some specific parts were meant and what the translators should have thought about while translating them.

If McNally is right and the expression no limit in the title refers to a poker term, the translator has to do a research on how this term is usually translated. Both translations use the conventional Czech expression bez omezení. Besides that, Zbavitelová uses a slash between the parts of the title – like the original. Vejvoda and Novotný translated Love Minus Zero as pod nulou, which means below zero and in Czech, as well as in English, has a connotation with the weather. This may not have been the best choice.

Both translations are overall similarly accurate with some differences in certain expressions. In the 2nd line of the 1st stanza, the authors of Víc než jen hlas used hrubosti as a translation for violence, which is a possible translation but may sound milder in comparison to

Czech násilí. The last line of the 1st stanza mentions Valentine which is not originally a

Czech holiday. Vejvoda and Novotný avoided this expression and simply replaced it with dárečky, while Zbavitelová used valentýnky. Zbavitelová’s valentýnky is a literal translation, but dárečky has very likely the same effect on the reader.

In the 1st line of the 2nd stanza there are the already mentioned dime stores, which originally gave the name to the song. Zbavitelová chose obchody s levným zbožím, which is basically a definition of a dime store (Cambridge Dictionary n.d.) The second translation uses samoobsluhy, meaning a self-service shop. This is less accurate than the first solution, but it sounds probably more natural – or could have been more appropriate in 1980.

The second part of the line speaks of bus stations, and here Vejvoda and Novotný used a little more accurate translation zastávky for stations. The second line, saying people talk of situations, is quite accurate in Zbavitelová’s translation, but sounds a bit less natural in comparison to the two translators’ solution.

The 6th line of the 2nd stanza is the same in both translations, yet Vejvoda and

Novotný added some words to it. Their translation does not only say that the author’s love speaks softly – here she is also almost breathless. Now, there are several reasons why

77 someone can be breathless – it can be excitement or an illness – but maybe it is a bit of an unnecessary addition here. Furthermore, the reader has to search for causes of the woman’s breathlessness.

The beginning of the 3d stanza is translated differently. The choice of the verb in the

1st line invokes different imaginations of the scene. Zbavitelová chose the verb vlát, which sounds more dynamic than pohupovat se, what Vejvoda and Novotný wrote. Again, their translation here is more accurate, although the verb vlát is in Czech probably easier to imagine with a cloak (but not so much with a dagger).

The second line uses the expression madams, which has more meanings both in

English and Czech. Here is a visible difference in the interpretation. While Vejvoda and

Novotný went for a polite translation dámy, Zbavitelová interpreted it as brothel-keepers.

The last two lines are similarly accurate – however, the authors of Víc než jen hlas could have used a shorter expression – theirs seems slightly clumsy.

In the last stanza there is another significant difference in interpretation. If the 4th line should be connected to the Bible, there has to be an appropriate Czech translation for that.

Zbavitelová used the word mudrci, which is a more acceptable translation in such connotation. Mudrci s dary immediately refers to the Bible, while moudří muži s dary (as in

Vejvoda and Novotný) is a more general expression.

9.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations

As in the previous translations, Zbavitelová preserved the line count, while in the other translation there are 9 instead of 8 lines in the 3rd and the 4th stanza. Zbavitelová was again mainly striving for the accuracy of the meaning (she rarely used an expression that would not be an appropriate fit for the original), and the number of stanzas, the line count and the slash in the title are the only things she preserved regarding the form.

Vejvoda and Novotný also kept the 4 stanzas, but the line count is slightly different.

They were trying to use rhymes, yet the rhyme scheme of the original is so strict (the 4th and the 8th line rhyme with each other) that the line count is crucial. The rhyme scheme here is probably the “weakest” of all the analysed songs – rhymes can be found only in the 2nd and the 4th stanza and they are close to the original neither by their scheme nor in their form.

Another difference between the two translations is the use of punctuation. As we can see, it is typical for Vejvoda and Novotný not to use it in these translations.

In the matters of the language, Vejvoda and Novotný kept the style of the previously analysed songs (it seems as if they would have used it for all of the translated Dylan’s songs in Víc než jen hlas). They use non-standard Czech expressions like čekaj, nosej, autobusovejch etc., which can be less appropriate for this song than for the others that were analysed before, as the original uses standard language with some informal elements.

Zbavitelová uses standard Czech with some informal elements such as slibujou, zapalujou and is in the language more accurate.

10. All Along the Watchtower (1967)

All Along The Watchtower is a short metaphorical song that was recorded in 1967 and appeared on Dylan’s album John Wesley Harding. It is one of the most frequently played songs at his concerts. Several musical artists made a cover of this song, and probably the best- known is the version by Jimi Hendrix.

Bob Dylan All Along the Watchtower

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth None of them along the line know what any of it is worth”

“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl Table 9. Bob Dylan: All Along the Watchtower

Gita Zbavitelová František Novotný & Jiří Vejvoda Okolo strážní věže Okolo strážní věže

„Musí odsud přece vést nějaká cesta,” řekl čtverák zlodějovi Řekl zlodějovi vtipálek „Je tu příliš velký zmatek, nemůžu si oddechnout Snad se odsud dostaneme vkrátku obchodníci pijí moje víno, oráči mi rozrývají zem tady není pomyšlení na oddech a nikdo z nich neví, jakou to má všechno cenu” je tu na můj vkus trochu moc zmatku

„Není proč se vzrušovat,” promluvil vlídně zloděj Kšeftman pochutná si na mém vínu „mnozí z nás mají za to, že život je jen žert oráč mou půdu obdělá a pohnojí ale my dva přece máme tohle už za sebou a náš osud to není nikdo mi nic nevysvětlí na rovinu tak nemluvme nemoudře, protože už se připozdívá” nikomu to za to nestojí

Okolo strážní věže střežili výhled princové Na to zloděj mírně povídá všechny ženy chodily sem a tam a bosí služebníci také Ztrácet nervy to je jedna z chyb spousta lidí kolem se jen domnívá Venku v dálce zavrčela divoká kočka že je život jenom špatnej vtip blížili se dva jezdci, začala kvílet meluzína Tohle však máme oba za sebou Na nás se osud jinak dívá tak přestaňte si stále něco namlouvat když vidíme jak se už připozdívá

Všude kolem řady strážních věží

princezniny hlídky všechno střeží všechny ženy přijdou a zas odejdou s nimi bosé služebnictvo běží

Venku v dálce začala divoká kočka kňučet dva jezdci se rychle blížili vichřice začala skučet Table 10. All Along the Watchtower: Parallel Translations

10.1. Analysis of the Meaning

This song follows a story of two main protagonists – a joker and a thief – although rather than a story it is a cluster of images. The first and the second stanza contain a dialogue between the protagonists. The joker speaks about a way out of somewhere – and the reader does not know from where. Similarly, it is not clear whether the joker speaks about a real place or if it is metaphorical. Next the reader finds out that for the joker there is too much confusion which may be caused by “businessmen, who drink the joker’s wine”, and

“plowmen, who dig his earth”, all of them without knowing how much all of it is worth.

The thief responds kindly, as the first line of the 2nd stanza shows, and starts speaking about people who feel like their life is a joke. This is, however, not the case of the two protagonists, as he further hopefully says. Then the dialogue ends, and the reader gets to another image.

In the 3rd stanza, there is now a watchtower (for the first and the only time in the song), princes, some women and some barefoot servants. Outside, so probably outside of the watchtower (or maybe a castle with a watchtower?) there is a wild cat growling. The wind begins to howl and two mysterious riders appear. The lyrics end there, leaving the rest of the story up to the reader’s imagination.

As well as with Love Minus Zero/No Limit, it was also not easy for Dylanologists and other authors writing about Dylan to analyse this songtext. There are several theories about what is going on among those lines. 81

The song may be circular, say Clinton Heylin and other theorists; the two riders appearing at the end may be the joker and the thief. Dylan allegedly said that the cycle of events can work in a reverse order as well, which supports the theory about circularity (Heylin

2009: 366).

Another theory mentions some passages that allegedly refer to the Apocalypse in the

Bible – as the Apocalypse mentions horse riders and watchmen. Furthermore, the Book of

Revelation speaks about the messianic One who is supposed to come as a thief (Heylin 2009:

366).

Timothy Hampton, a literature professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has another theory about the two protagonists: “They are robbed by ‘businessmen’ and

‘ploughmen.’ We might well see here an allegory of the entertainment business, with artists exploited by managers” (Hampton 2019: 115).

Hampton also supported the statement of the joker and the thief returning at the end as the riders. He claims that they reappear as marauders and are coming to take what is theirs

(probably the wine and their earth) (Hampton 2019: 116).

Some theory also claims the joker to be Jesus talking from the cross with one of the thieves crucified next to him or that both the joker and the thief represent both of the thieves on the cross (De Graaf n.d.)

Most of the theorists state the same theory, which is that the Joker and the Thief are symbols for something. There are however various theories for what they symbolise. The lyrics are not significantly leaning to one or the other theory, so the translators should deal with them in a similar manner.

10.2. Formal and Lexical Elements

All Along The Watchtower consists of three 4-line stanzas, sometimes written as two

4-line and two 2-line stanzas. The lyrics are richer and more analysable regarding the meaning than in the matters of the form and structure.

The song uses a simple rhyme scheme – throughout the whole text there is always an

AABB scheme and the rhymes are rather simple as well. Apart from that we can find here anaphora (there, there) and a two-word alliteration (all along). The main part of the song is direct speech – a conversation between the two main protagonists.

10.3. Accuracy of the Translations

Already on the first sight we can see that the translators used the same title, but otherwise the two translations are very different. But form is not the only factor that makes them dissimilar.

The reader can immediately see that one of the two main symbols – the Joker – is translated differently. The connotations of the word Joker are for sure different than 20 or 30 years ago because of the pop cultural figure of the Joker in the comics and movies from DC

Entertainment. Another possible connotation is with the card of Joker, which is a part of the standard playing 52-card deck. The Joker in the card deck looks like a Jester and is usually translated into Czech as žolík.

The authors of Víc než jen hlas translated Joker as vtipálek, which in Czech means a person who makes jokes. Zbavitelová used čtverák, which means basically the same but is older and used less frequently in today’s Czech (Trost 1979). Those are more neutral expressions than for example žolík or joker (if the original expression would be kept), however, it is difficult to give preference to one or the other if we are not sure about the meaning or about what the symbol stands for.

Apart from the translation of Joker, Zbavitelová’s translation is again overall quite accurate. Regarding the content, she sticks to the original very closely and most of the parts are translated literally. What may be worth noticing is the last line where she used the word meluzína for wind, which gives the line a more Czech “feeling”. Here the two translators used vichřice, which has a similar effect but a weaker connotation with a howling sound.

Vejvoda and Novotný have sort of transferred the meaning as well, but much less closely in comparison to Zbavitelová. Furthermore, they seem to have misunderstood certain parts of the lyrics – for example the last line of the 1st stanza.

Bob Dylan František Novotný & Jiří Vejvoda All Along The Watchtower Okolo strážní věže

Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth Kšeftman pochutná si na mém vínu None of them along the line know what any of it is worth” oráč mou půdu obdělá a pohnojí nikdo mi nic nevysvětlí na rovinu nikomu to za to nestojí Table 11. All Along The Watchtower: Comparison

In their interpretation the joker says that nobody (probably of the businessmen and plowmen) explains anything to him in an honest way, because it is not worth it for them.

Although the original speaks about worth, it is in the connection to the wine and earth.

Vejvoda and Novotný also added an explicitation to the end of the 1st stanza (which is the 2nd stanza in their version). Plowmen dig my earth, says the original, while their translation adds fertilizing to the digging.

Another misinterpretation is the following line:

Bob Dylan František Novotný & Jiří Vejvoda All Along The Watchtower Okolo strážní věže

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view Všude kolem řady strážních věží princezniny hlídky všechno střeží Table 12. All Along The Watchtower: Comparison

Here Vejvoda and Novotný probably misinterpreted the plural of the word prince and translated it as princezna, which is a singular of the word princess.

Overall, their translation sounds a little bit more natural than Zbavitelová’s due to the choice of words and a less literal translation, but it is much less accurate.

10.4. Formal and Lexical Elements of the Translations

Gita Zbavitelová, similarly to the previously analysed songs, preserved the number of the stanzas as well as the line count. As in the previous lyrics, she did not use rhyming.

Vejvoda and Novotný seem to have sacrificed the form for the sake of the rhyme.

Their translation of the song contains six 4-line stanzas. They use rhyme in every stanza, but the rhyme scheme is different from the original and seems to be rather random. The 1st stanza has an ABCB scheme, the 2nd ABAB, the 4th ABAB, the 5th AABA and the 6th an ABCB scheme again. The 3rd stanza was probably supposed to have an ABAB scheme, but the 1st and the 3rd rhyme do not go together very well and therefore it leans towards an ABCB scheme. Regarding the form, their translation slightly looks like a different song.

Conclusion

Bob Dylan has always been drawing inspiration from various artists, literary works, philosophical movements and other sources. The work of several Dylanologists, musical publicists or literary theorists shows that his lyrics cannot be analysed easily, as well as that their meaning can often be hardly agreed on. Besides the obscure meaning, many of his songs have a sophisticated form. The combination of those factors makes it difficult to translate these lyrics into another language accurately in both meaning and the form.

This thesis has analysed five of his lyrics from his early work. We have been witnesses to his inspiration gained from newspaper articles, we have seen some of his thought out (and well-known) protest songs and a metaphorical love song that he composed about his first wife

Sara.

In the beginning it has been said that this thesis is going to look at his lyrics from the poetic point of view, therefore works of translators who did not aim for singable translations have been picked for the analysis. Although this was a mutual feature of their work, it has been visible since the first analysis that the translators took a very different approach.

Gita Zbavitelová is overall very accurate in her translations. She translated an overwhelming majority of the texts literally and without many visible signs of her own interpretation, which gives the reader the opportunity to interpret it in his own way. Yet, she usually uses more standard or formal expressions than the original, which makes the lyrics lose a bit of their style. In the matters of the form, she is very strict in keeping the line count and the number of the stanzas. She does not use any rhyme scheme or figures of speech.

Vejvoda and Novotný were, regarding the form, apparently trying to achieve a more poetic effect. They use rhyme schemes as well as alliterations and other figures of speech.

However, their rhyme schemes are mostly different than the original and some single rhymes throughout the text have a different form and position. Due to some lexical choices, the

86 language of their translations may seem more Czech and possibly more poetic than

Zbavitelová’s literal translations, but this is slightly spoiled by the fact that they misinterpreted the meaning several times.

What the reader must bear in mind is the time span during the two translations.

Vejvoda and Novotný may have omitted or replaced some culture-specific expressions (for example Valentines) that would have been unusual in 1980 while Zbavitelová very likely had less such issues around the year 2000 or later (thanks, globalisation). It is possible for the 80’s translation to have a slightly different language as well. Last but not least, the possibility of using the internet and “googling” while translating could have influenced the accuracy of the newer translation as well.

Ironically, this is also one of the reasons to give some credit to Vejvoda and Novotný’s work. Czech fans of Bob Dylan in 1980 did not have the option to go online and get a translation of his songs with a few clicks, therefore it must have been great to be able to finally read some of them in Víc než jen hlas – even though with some imperfections.

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Summary

This thesis deals with the Czech translations of the lyrics by the musician Bob Dylan.

It analyses ten translations from three Czech translators – František Novotný and Jiří Vejvoda who worked on the translations together, and Gita Zbavitelová. The thesis compares those translations and analyses who of the translators achieved better accuracy. Both the meaning and the form are considered.

The first chapter speaks about the life of Bob Dylan, with emphasis on his involvement in the USA protest movement in the second half of the 20th century and also the women that influenced his life. Those topics were important to mention as they were one of the sources of inspiration for Dylan’s work. The subchapter at the end deals with the question if Bob Dylan’s work can be viewed as poetry – the more in the context with his Nobel prize in literature which he was awarded in 2016.

The second chapter deals with the theory of poetry translation. In the beginning, the differences between the literary and non-literary texts are stated. Another subchapter attempts to answer the question why is poetry translation valuable. One of the subchapters speaks about singable translation of musical lyrics and the pitfalls of this approach.

In the third chapter, the translation methods of two translation theorists, Peter

Newmark and André Lefevere, are introduced. The fourth chapter then mentions potential problems in poetry translation, especially regarding the collocations, idioms and the culture- specific expressions.

The fifth chapter introduces the three translators whose work is analysed in the further parts of the thesis – Zbavitelová, Novotný and Vejvoda. At the end of the chapter, a short subchapter describes the Czech audience’s reception of the translated lyrics.

The rest of the chapters contains the analysis. The sixth chapter analyses the song

Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues, the seventh chapter analyses The Lonesome

Death of Hattie Carroll, the eighth chapter deals with the analysis of a song called Oxford

Town, the nineth chapter deals with the text of Love Minus Zero/No Limit and the tenth with the song text of All Along The Watchtower. At the end of the thesis, the results of the analysis are summed up.

Resumé

Práce se zabývá analýzou českých překladů textů hudebníka Boba Dylana. Předmětem rozboru je deset překladů od tří překladatelů – Františka Novotného a Jiřího Vejvody, kteří na překladech spolupracovali, a Gity Zbavitelové. Práce tyto překlady srovnává a posuzuje, jak překladatelé k práci přistupovali a kdo dosáhl větší přesnosti. Analyzována je jak obsahová stránka textu, tak ta formální.

V první kapitole práce je nastíněn Dylanův životopis s důrazem na jeho účast v protestním hnutí v USA v druhé polovině 20. století a na ženy, které život tohoto umělce nejvíce ovlivnily. Obě tato témata bylo důležité zmínit, protože sloužily Bobu Dylanovi jako inspirace k jeho tvorbě. Na konci první kapitoly se krátká podkapitola věnuje otázce, zda tvorbu Boba Dylana můžeme brát jako poezii. Otázka je položena v souvislosti s tím, že hudebníkovi byla v roce 2016 udělena Nobelova cena za literaturu.

Druhá kapitola se zabývá teorií překladu poezie. Jsou zde zmíněny rozdíly mezi literárními a neliterárními texty a jedna z podkapitol se věnuje úvaze, proč má překlad poezie hodnotu. Další podkapitola rozebírá překlad písňových textů s důrazem na jejich zpívatelnost, zmiňuje možné problémy a uvádí příklad kladně hodnoceného překladu písně.

Ve třetí kapitole se práce věnuje metodám překladu poezie podle dvou teoretiků –

Petera Newmarka a André Lefevera. Čtvrtá kapitola pak rozebírá možné problémy při překladu tohoto druhu. Zmíněny jsou problémy týkající se formálních elementů básní i jejich obsahové stránky.

Pátá kapitola představuje tři překladatele, jejichž tvorba je v dalších kapitolách analyzována, tedy již zmíněnou Zbavitelovou, Novotného a Vejvodu. Na konci nalezneme podkapitolu, která popisuje to, jak překlady výše uvedených překladatelů přijalo české publikum.

Ostatní kapitoly se věnují samotné analýze. Šestá kapitola analyzuje píseň Talkin‘

Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues, sedmá kapitola The Lonesome Death of Hattie

Carroll, osmá kapitola se věnuje rozboru písně Oxford Town, devátá kapitola textu Love

Minus Zero/No Limit a desátá All Along The Watchtower. Závěrem práce je shrnutí výsledků analýzy.