THE POETICS OF IRISHNESS: 2Oth-CENTURY ANGLO-IRISH POETRY TRANSLATED INTO GREEK
by
Theodora Valkanou
A thesis submitted to the Department of Translation and Intercultural Studies, School of English, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece,
in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
September 2012
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments v Abstract vii Abbreviations ix
INTRODUCTION 0.1 The Scope of Research: Initial Definitions 1 0.2 Aims of the Study 3 0.3 Method and Limitations 5 0.4 Significance of the Thesis 6 0.5 Chapter Outline 11 0.6 Notes 13 0.6.1 The Concept of Anglo-Irish Literature 13 0.6.2 A Note on Punctuation, Capitalization, and 14 Transliteration
CHAPTER 1 – IDENTITY AND TRANSLATION Introduction to the Chapter 16 1.1 The Quest for Irishness: An Identity Quest 17 1.2 The Concept of Identity 18 1.3 The Construction of Identity 19 1.4 National Identity (and Its Connection to Ireland) 22 1.5 The Formation of Irish Identity 24 1.5.1 Ireland Imagined as England’s Other 24 1.5.2 Historical Overview of Irishness 28 1.5.3 Why is Interest in National Identity So Accentuated 35 in Ireland? 1.5.4 Ireland’s Colonial/ Postcolonial Experience 39 1.6 National and Cultural Identity: The Traits of Irishness 41 1.7 Is National Identity a Suitable Unit for Cultural Analysis? 48 1.8 Literatures Defined as “National” : The Case of Irish 50 Literature 1.9 The Role of Literature for Irish National Identity: 53 Representation 1.10 Cultures in Contact 56 1.11 The Translation of Culture and Cultural Translation 57 1.12 Representation through Translation 61 1.13 Translation as Ethnography: Translators as Interpreters of 62 Cultures 1.14 Τhe Translatability of Culture: A Path to Reception 65 1.15 Translation in the Context of Postcolonialism 68 1.16 Postcoloniality and Translation: Translation and Ireland 72
ii 1.17 The Multiplicity of the “Other”: The “Other” in Translation 75 Conclusion 77
CHAPTER 2 –MATERIAL AND METHOD Introduction to the Chapter 78 2.1 Why Poetry 79 2.2 The Writers 83 2.2.1 William Butler Yeats 84 2.2.2 Patrick Kavanagh 88 2.2.3 Seamus Heaney 92 2.3 The Translations of Yeats’s Work into Greek 96 2.4 The Translations of Kavanagh’s Work into Greek 100 2.5 The Translations of Heaney’s Work into Greek 101 2.6 Methodology 104 Conclusion 111
CHAPTER 3 – MACROANALYSIS Introduction to the Chapter 112 3.1 What Gets Translated: The Importance of Selection 113 3.1.1 What Gets Translated: W. B. Yeats 113 3.1.2 What Gets Translated: Patrick Kavanagh 118 3.1.3 What Gets Translated: Seamus Heaney 121 3.2 Peritextual Analysis 125 3.2.1 Peritextual Analysis: W. B. Yeats 127 3.2.2 Peritextual Analysis: Patrick Kavanagh 130 3.2.3 Peritextual Analysis: Seamus Heaney 133 Conclusion 135
CHAPTER 4 –ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSLATIONS: FORM Introduction to the Chapter 138 4.1 From the Source Culture to the Target Culture 139 4.2 The Particularities of Anglo-Irish Poetry: Orality 142 4.3 Orality in Greek Poetry: The Case of “Political Verse” 143 4.4 The Irish Ballad 145 4.5 Yeats and the Irish Ballad 146 4.6 The Translation of Yeats’s Ballads 148 Conclusion 158
CHAPTER 5 –TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSLATIONS Introduction to the Chapter 161 5.1 The Use of Translation Strategies: Domestication or 161 Foreignization? 5.2 Factors Determining the Use of Different Strategies 165 5.3 The Structure of the Analysis 169 5.4 Culture-Specific Elements 170 5.5 Culture-Specific Elements as Markers of Irish Identity 176
iii 5.5.1.1 Place Names 176 5.5.1.2 Place 186 5.5.2 Politics, History, and Memory 202 5.5.3 Religion, Mythology, and Folklore 214 Conclusion 240
CHAPTER 6 –CONCLUSIONS 6.1 Overview of Significant Findings 245 6.2 The Representation of Irishness through Greek Translations 248 6.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Further Research 252
APPENDICES 255 APPENDIX A: LIST OF TRANSLATIONS OF YEATS’S POETRY 256 APPENDIX B: LIST OF TRANSLATIONS OF KAVANAGH’S POETRY 270 APPENDIX C: LIST OF TRANSLATIONS OF HEANEY’S POETRY 271 APPENDIX D: To Alfadi Cover 278 BIBLIOGRAPHY 279
iv
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to the three-member committee who supervised my thesis. First and foremost, I offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof David
Connolly for his constant support over the years. Not only has he followed closely every step of the process of my PhD writing, but he has been more than generous in sharing his knowledge, guiding without patronizing, as well as always offering moral support and encouragement. I would also like to thank Dr Effie Yiannopoulou for discussions, communication and her meticulous corrections over several drafts of my thesis. Her patience is greatly appreciated. Last but not least, I wish to express my appreciation to Dr
Nick Kontos for his understanding and his prompt assistance with my manuscripts.
Special thanks go to Dr Tatiani Rapatzikou; her encouragement during rough times was invaluable. Thanks also go to Foteini Stavrou, and Kleoniki Skoularika— members of staff in the library of the English Department—and Chrysoula Papiopoulou and Effie Kapetanaki from administration for their assistance—practical and moral. I am especially indebted to Dafni Moustaklidou, for all her help and friendship.
Over the years I have been lucky to be surrounded by fellow students, friends and relatives who have helped me in various ways. My friends Karen Emmerich, Areti
Leopoulou, Natalia Kouremeti, and I have been on parallel tracks for several years, sharing the disappointments and joys of completing our PhD theses. Infinite appreciation goes especially to Karen for dedicating her precious time in discussions and careful readings of my work. I cannot thank enough Ivi Kazantzi for our stimulating academic
v discussions, but, most importantly, for her precious friendship. I am also grateful to my uncle Nikos Valkanos and my aunt Mary Plastira-Valkanou for their faith in me. Words cannot describe my infinite gratitude to my mother, Maria; I could never have achieved anything without her help and support. Last but not least, I wish to thank my my sons
Alexandros and Yiorgos, who have been the most adorable and patient toddler and baby, as well as my partner Kyriakos Apostolopoulos. He has borne patiently (and often heroically) the brunt of my anxiety, shared my moments of excitement, offered invaluable insight into various aspects of my work. Equally importantly, though, he has managed to relieve me from everyday stress, doing more than his share around the house, constantly making sure I always had sufficient resources to go on. Thank you—words are not enough.
vi
Abstract
The present thesis sets out to explore how Irish cultural identity is rendered in the Greek translations of 20th-century Anglo-Irish poetry, and more specifically in the translated works of William Butler Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney. Taking as a starting point the notion that the distinct national culture of Ireland is both shaped by and reflected in its literary production, this thesis investigates how the literary image of
Irishness is represented when Irish writing in English is translated—an issue which has received scant attention in the literature.
For the purposes of this thesis, Irishness is understood as fluid and multifaceted, owing its formation to the colonial/postcolonial experience. Its traits are described with the help of various definitions of culture and nation; its specific cultural markers— namely place, politics, history; memory, religion, mythology and folklore—are located and discussed in the original poems and their translations.
The study involves not only a textual analysis of the translations with emphasis on the way culture-specific elements are rendered into Greek, but also an analysis of the form of the translated poems, an examination of the peritexts, as well as a macro-analysis of what part of the three poets’ work has been selected for translation. Having contextualized the poems in the source culture from which they originated, this study explores the extent to which cultural specificity comes across in the Greek translations.
The findings of this study suggest that domesticating practices have prevailed, obscuring to a certain extent the cultural particularities of the source texts. Moreover, the
vii various conceptions of Irishness as manifested in the work of the three poets are not fully captured in the Greek translations. Although the translation of Anglo-Irish poetry undeniably creates a meeting point between source and target culture, the image of
Irishness is altered in the process. Taking into consideration the issue of translatability, this thesis offers an insight into the way cultural transfer between two minor cultures performs.
viii
Abbreviations
ΒΤΤ Back Translation of Text NIV New Testament: New International Version
28Π 28 Ποιήµατα 70Ε 70 Ερωτικά ΑΒ Αλφάβητα ΤοΑλφ Το αλφάδι ΑγγλΕπ Αγγλοελληνική επιθεώρηση ΑγγλΛ Άγγλοι λυρικοί ΑγγλΦ Αγγλόφωνη φιλολογία:συγκριτικές µελέτες ΑΑΠΕΕ Ανθολογία άγγλων ποιητών εµπνευσµένων από την Ελλάδα ΑΕΑΠ Ανθολογία της ευρωπαϊκής και αµερικανικής ποιήσεως Αντι Αντιγραφές ΑπΕπ Η απόγνωση της επίγνωσης Βακχ Βακχικόν ΒΘΠΚ Βασικά θέµατα της ποίησης του Καβάφη ∆εν Το δέντρο ∆ια ∆ιαβάζω ΕΚ Εθνικός κήρυξ Εντ Το εντευκτήριον Επ Εποχές ΕρΜετ Το εργαστήρι του µεταφραστή Ευθ Ευθύνη ΕφΣπ Εφήµερον σπέρµα ΚΕ Καινούρια εποχή ΚΛ Κυπριακός Λόγος ΜΠ Η µεγάλη πείνα Μ & Ο Μυθολογίες και οράµατα ΜυθΕ Ο µύθος της Ελένης ΝΕ Νέα εστία ΝΠΠΑ Νέα παγκόσµια ποιητική ανθολογία ΝΓ Νεοελληνικά γράµµατα ΝοµπΛ Οι νοµπελίστες της λογοτεχνίας ΞΠο Ξένα ποιήµατα ΠΠΑ Παγκόσµια ποιητική ανθολογία ΠΜΜ Τα πέτρινα µάτια της Μέδουσας ΠοΕΘ Ποιήµατα, Εκδοτική Θεσσαλονίκης ΠοΜΙΕΤ Ποιήµατα, Μορφωτικό Ίδρυµα Εθνικής Τραπέζης
ix ΠΒ Τα ποιήµατα του βάλτου Ποι Ποίηση ΑνΑπ Σ’αναζήτηση του απόλυτου: Ιστορική ανθολογία της παγκοσµίου ποιήσεως ΦΠ Φιλολογική πρωτοχρονιά
x INTRODUCTION
0.1 The Scope of Research: Initial Definitions
In his best-seller The Truth about the Irish, Terry Eagleton wonders what it is we are referring to when talking about Irishness:
Like mercury, then, Irishness is a slippery thing to wrap one’s fingers
around…So is being Irish a matter of belonging to a state, or is it a state of
mind? Is it cultural, or ethnic, or political, or territorial? Is it like being
Belgian, or is it more like being a Buddhist? Are you Irish if you think you
are? (108)
Eagleton addresses one of the primary issues that concern Irish literature and Irish criticism: the search for Irishness. The concept of “Irishness” needs to be further explained, beyond its apparent significance. Within the frame of this thesis, what I mean by this term is an assumed cultural and national identity (that is expressed in the works of
Irish literature). So, up to a certain extent, the core topic of the thesis—primarily in the first part—is national and cultural identity and its relation to Irish poetry or, to shift the emphasis, Irish poetry as an expression of a national and cultural identity.
Although Ireland has been traditionally considered a marginal culture, it is not peripheral anymore. It has even been claimed that Ireland has been receiving such a disproportionate amount of attention that it has become an “international notice box”
1 (O’Toole 2). And even though one would expect debates about identity to have cooled down, the issue of identity is still pressing today. Some of the older causes leading to identity debates—the division of the island, religious differences, and old wounds on account of decades of violence—still pertain. What should be added to them is the increasing interest in national and/or cultural identities in an era of globalization, as well as the widening of the idea of Irish communities both on the island and worldwide— which may claim to be part of a broader Irishness.
A glance at the Irish past, however, reveals that despite the multiplicity of identities within the Irish context, it is a single, rather unitary identity that has been favored in Ireland: an identity that overemphasizes aspects of national belonging.
Consequently, potential identity variables (such as gender, class or race) were paid very little attention, especially in the twentieth century. The issue of national identity in
Ireland has distended in a disproportionate manner at the expense of other aspects of identity, and Irish culture has, by and large, been haunted by a myth of cultural homogeneity (Brannigan 332).
Nonetheless, Irish (national) culture, as manifested in arts and its discourses, is particularly multilayered and diverse. Its richness increases whether we approach it by taking into consideration the particular geopolitical conditions in Ireland or comparatively, through a global lens, validating the various cosmopolitan hues and exilic experiences that contribute to its formation. There is no single definition of Irishness, but rather a plethora of identities fostered under this umbrella term.
This thesis seeks to trace these multiple instances of Irishness in poetry and to examine how they are treated in Greek translations. It is, in other words, an examination
2 of the poetics of Irishness both in original texts and in translations. Lefevere offers an interesting definition:
A poetics can be said to consist of two components: one is an inventory of
literary devices, genres, motifs, prototypical characters and situations, and
symbols; the other concept of what the role of literature is, or should be, in
the social system as a whole. The latter concept is influential in the
selection of themes that must be relevant to the social system if the work
of literature is to be noticed at all.” (Translation, Rewriting and the
Manipulation of the Literary Fame 26)
Drawing on this definition, I propose to examine the literary texts I have chosen with reference to Irishness, placing them in context: in the original frame in which they originate on the one hand, and in terms of the receiving culture, whose literary system they become part of after being translated, on the other.
0.2 Aims of the Study
The analysis will be limited to literary production in the twentieth century and will focus on poetry. The poets whose work I chose to focus on are William Butler Yeats, Patrick
Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney. The first criterion for this choice is time-specific; the time span in which the three poets produce their literary oeuvre covers the whole twentieth century. The second is the fact they are placed among the most canonical figures of Irish letters, being at the same time extremely popular with the Irish readers.
3 Last, but nor least, they are the Irish poets who have been most widely translated into
Greek (especially Yeats and Heaney).
I shall focus in particular on certain questions that concern identity and translation which can be presented in the following schematic way:
- How are issues of cultural and national identity related to literature (poetry)?
- What are the features responsible for the specificity of Irish literature/poetry?
- How is Irish cultural identity presented in Greek translations?
- Has Irishness been rendered in the target texts?
- Are domesticating strategies prioritized over foreignizing ones?
- What conclusions can be drawn as far as the representation of Irish culture is
concerned?
Through the answers to these questions, broader issues will also be addressed: a general discourse about translation, its purposes, its impossibility and possibilities, its potentials and limitations.
My aim is to show that Irishness is not a single thing, but it rather articulates itself in different forms. These different forms of Irishness are manifested in the poetry of
Yeats, Kavanagh and Heaney, composing a representative image of the culture from which they originate. However, I intend to demonstrate through my analysis that the image of Irishness, as it reaches the Greek culture through translated literary texts, is rendered in an altered manner. This is owing not only to the fact that poems which are mostly evocative of the particular Irish cultural identity have not been translated, but also to the use of domesticating strategies by Greek translators, as well as translation choices which modify the notion of Irishness as conceived and articulated by each poet.
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0.3 Method and Limitations
One of the first points that needs to be underlined right from the start is that this thesis will only be examining certain aspects of the translations, since as Tymoczko argues, “In conducting research on translation … it is a given that one cannot look at most texts exhaustively” (“Connecting the Two infinite Orders” 15). The analysis will focus on the elements of national and cultural identity. I shall first isolate certain features from selected definitions of culture and nation, locate them as identity markers in the chosen literary texts, and then examine how Greek translators have dealt with them.
A top-down approach will be employed in the analysis of the material, moving from the more general to the more specific. A discussion of the selection of poems by
Greek translators will allow for considerations regarding both texts and context. Whether the body of Irish poems translated into Greek includes the most representative Irish texts retaining their pragmatic value is of great interest. Still on the macro-level, a critical description of the peritextual elements of the translations will offer an insight into the reception of the Irish literary works. An analysis of the poetic forms employed in the translations will demonstrate whether domesticating or foreignizing approaches prevail.
Last but not least, a micro-analysis on the textual level will focus on the translation of culture-specific elements.
In the present study I employ a methodology for locating identity markers in literary texts and then examining the way these elements have been translated into Greek which may seem dangerously reminiscent of the essentialist approach of discussing
5 national literatures and their defining characteristics. Nevertheless, one should bear in mind that I consider these texts to be discursive constructions shaped through cultural codes that were dominant in twentieth-century Ireland. My approach to the texts actually demonstrates that Irishness is not concrete and unitary: this is evident in its multifaceted character that emerges through the work of Yeats, Kavanagh and Heaney.
Of all potential identity markers, the culture-specific elements selected for the analysis are the ones which I consider to be the most representative of Irishness: elements related to place, myth, religion, folklore, history, memory, and politics. Although language is one of the most important identity markers, purely linguistic matters will not be treated in the analysis, as the vastness and significance of this topic would exceed the limits of this thesis.
0.4 Significance of the Thesis
Although there is a growing volume of scholarly work that is concerned with translation in relation to Irish literature and culture (Tymoczko, Translation in a
Postcolonial Context; Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland), it focuses—exclusively, to my knowledge—on the strand of the Gaelic language.1 And despite the fact that there is a plethora of works on Irish cultural identity and its manifestations in Anglo-Irish literature, there is a lack of writing on the topic of its translations in other languages, especially minor, peripheral ones, as is the case of Greek. What makes the case of such
1 There is also research conducted on the challenges Gaelic faces in the global context and its odd connection to translation. See Cronin’s discussion of the paradoxical relationship between minority languages and translation in his Chapter “Translation and Minority Languages in a Global Setting” in Translation and Globalization, 138-172.
6 translations particularly interesting is that the transfer of the texts into Greek involves a series of translation acts which create a literary and cultural palimpsest. The aim is to investigate what part of the Irish national culture comes across through this palimpsestic procedure. This thesis seeks to contribute towards this direction, by exploring a previously neglected area of research.
The issue of cultural and/or national identity as manifested in literature has been the object of much research. Approaches to the topic range from theorized discourses on the relationship between nation and its narratives (Drescher and Völkel; Bhabha, Nation and Narration; Dirlik) to more concrete studies that focus on particular national and cultural identities as expressed in literature; Englishness, for instance (Dodd; Baucom;
Childs; Easthope). Of particular interest are writings whose major concern is the impact colonialism and/or postcolonialism and nationalism have on literary representations of cultural identity (Eagleton, Jameson, and Said; Innes; T. Reiss; Hawley; Szeman, Zones of Instability), along the lines of which much of the discussion in my thesis takes place.
Similarly, there have been numerous studies dealing with theoretical aspects of cultural transfer in translation. Since the 1980s, the “cultural turn” in translation studies
(Bassnett and Lefevere, Translation, History and Culture 1) has brought about an upsurge of writing on the complex process of cultural transfer, as opposed to mere linguistic transfer (Hönig and Kußmaul; Reiss and Vermeer; Holz-Mäntäri; Bassnett;
Lefevere; Hermans, The Manipulation of Literature; Snell-Hornby). The work of these theorists involves the examination of translation as “rewriting”, discussions on the role of
“patronage” and the ideological tensions around literary texts (Lefevere), as well as the role of translations within a certain literature and the interaction between literary systems
7 (Hermans, The Manipulation of Literature). Susan Bassnett discusses, for instance, how the significance of literary texts may change when they are translated and thus removed from their original context (Translation Studies, 83-101); a position the findings of this study agree with. The core issue in all these approaches is the culture-bound character of all translations. It is within this context that cultural translation is addressed; it is within the field of cultural translation that the present thesis is inscribed.2
Several issues arise with reference to cultural translation: power-relations between cultures and their literary systems, issues of the representation of the foreign, the degree of translatability, and, consequently, the extent to which cross-cultural understanding can be achieved. Cultural translation is considered by many as an activity that not only allows for the foreign to come across, but actually as one that ought to highlight cultural distinctiveness (Snell-Hornby, Translation Studies 39-64; Venuti, The Translator’s
Invisibility; Berman). Nonetheless, the findings of the present study demonstrate that in practice domestication strategies which dictate assimilation of the foreign to target- culture norms prevail. Irishness only comes across partially in Greek translations of
Anglo-Irish poetry, since priority seems to be given to making literary texts more accessible to target-culture readers at the expense of the cultural specificity of the source texts. Moreover, the distance and low degree of familiarization between the two cultures make the translators’ task of accentuating alterity even more difficult. These conclusions confirm the view that cultural identity is difficult to translate (Bhabha, The Location of
Culture 5, 224; Brisset, “The Search for a Native Language” 338). Some theorists even
2 The term “cultural translation” is currently used in a wide range of disciplines outside translation studies to address issues in cultural hybridity, postcolonialism, and migration, to name a few, all of which are associated to the broader concept of translation. A more extensive discussion on the topic is included in the first chapter of the present thesis.
8 argue that cultural translatability is actually not possible. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, for instance, underscores the necessity but impossibility of cultural translation (“More
Thoughts on Cultural Translation”), while similar points with regard to literal translation had been made earlier (Benjamin; Derrida, Monolingualism of the Other 57). These views challenge the existence of stable, unchangeable meaning and, by extension, the existence of an intrinsic cultural identity that is knowable and could thus be objectively represented. Hence, the impossibility—according to these positions—to translate; or, in other words, to transfer in another language/culture the meaning/identity involved in the original, since meaning and identity are always provisional and can never be fully grasped. I find this notion of provisionality very adequate to elucidate the complex ways in which meaning is articulated in the construction of cultural/national identity and its manifestations. To my mind, however, this provisionality of meaning does not necessarily render the cultural aspects of literary texts untranslatable. The concept of absolute untranslatability is something that the conclusions I have reached actually contest: Irish cultural identity is translatable, even if cultural transfer is achieved only to a certain extent. Despite the fact that certain aspects of Irishness are “misrepresented” in
Greek translations due to the misunderstanding involved in cross-cultural communication, it cannot be denied that cultural difference can be and is eventually transferred through literary translation at least up to a point.
The shift of focus on the interaction between translation and culture, which has given rise to various approaches to cultural translation, has led to an increased interest, in recent years, in the different ways culture-specific elements are treated in translation,
9 very often between specific pairs of languages.3. There are also a number of writings that concentrate on the relation between identity and translation.4 Nevertheless, the two afore- mentioned areas of research—the study of the enunciation of cultural and/or national identity in literature, on the one hand, and the manner in which the specificity of a particular national culture is transferred through the translation process, on the other— have seldom been combined, resulting in a lack of monographs on the topic of the translation of specific cultural and/or national identities.5 More specifically, to my knowledge, there is no previous study that includes both an examination of specific identity markers of a particular foreign culture as located in its literary texts, according to parameters set by the researcher, and an investigation of the way they are treated when translated into another language/culture.
The originality of my research lies not only in the exploration of an area that has not been investigated before, but also in the method employed in the analysis. This study adds to the body of scholarly work that concentrates on cultural identity in translation by incorporating three different levels of analysis: an overview of the concept of Irish cultural identity as reflected in literature during the twentieth century, a structuralist analysis of the features which make up national and cultural identity and an analysis of how these features register in the translated texts, and finally an approach to the translatability of culture. In other words, in this study, the translation of cultural identity
3 Studies on the translation of culture-bound elements are discussed in detail in Chapter Five.
4 Special attention has been paid to the role of translation in the construction of identities (Ellis and Oakley-Brown; House, Martín Ruano, and Baumgarten; Sidiropoulou, Identity and Difference; Wolf, “Interference from the Third Space?”).
5 I have only been able to locate one completed PhD thesis dealing with a similar topic: Lara Cain’s Reading Culture: The Translation and Transfer of Australianness in Contemporary Fiction, which focuses, nonetheless, as the title implies, on the ways in which images of culture are understood through the reading process.
10 as articulated in Irish poetry is examined in a holistic way: from a contextualization of the literary texts in the source culture, to an analysis of the identity markers that distinguish
Irish poetry as such, to an examination of the translations. The fact that my approach includes the investigation of the body of poetry selected for translation, and the peritextual material, as well as a formal and textual analysis, allows for a better understanding of the larger picture in which cultural transfer takes place. What this thesis offers is a singular examination of the reception of Irish culture through literary translation. It broadens the scope of Translation Studies by focusing on the issue of cultural translation.
0.5 Chapter Outline
The first chapter offers an approach to the concept of Irishness and sketches an overview of its evolution during the twentieth century and how this is reflected in literature. It also outlines some basic notions around the axis of identity; however, it should be emphasized that, although I draw upon them to portray Irishness, it is not my primary aim to extend the theoretical understanding of national and cultural identity. The chapter moves on to explore the contribution of translation in intercultural transfer and its role in the representation of foreign cultures. The connection of translation to postcoloniality is also briefly dealt with, and so is its significance for Ireland.
The purpose of the second chapter is to present the selected authors with reference to their Irish identity as well as the primary material: the Greek translations. Nonetheless, it also includes a section that explains why poetry was selected as opposed to other literary genres; the specific works are, thus, contextualized and the relation between the
11 two literary systems is discussed. A section on methodology is also included at the end of the chapter in which the type of analysis employed in the next chapters is explained in more detail.
Chapter Three deals with the macroanalysis of the texts. The examination consists of two parts. Firstly, there is a discussion on the material selected for translation.
Conclusions are drawn on account of the selection of poems, while what is left out is also discussed. The analysis demonstrates that the poems translated into Greek are not always the most representative ones in terms of a specific cultural and national identity. The second section examines the peritexts, i.e., the elements immediately surrounding the texts, such as book covers, titles, and prefaces. The analysis of the peritextual features provides answers as to whether Irish identity is underlined or obscured.
Chapters Four and Five, on the other hand, are dedicated to the microanalysis of the translations, as specific poems are examined. The former explores the issue of poetic form, and more particularly the translation of the traditional Irish form of the ballad. The significance of poetic form lies not only in the fact that it is an organic part of any poetic composition, but also in the fact that, in the case of Irish poetry, it is linked to cultural politics, as is demonstrated in my analysis. After a discussion of the importance of orality for Irish poetry and a comparison to its manifestation in Greek poetry in the metrical form of “political verse”, I proceed with an examination of the treatment of this genre in
Greek translations.
Chapter Five involves a textual analysis that focuses on culture-specific elements.
To begin with, there is a discussion of translation strategies with regard to the concepts of foreignization and domestication. Moving on to specific procedures and methods in the
12 treatment of culture-specific elements, this chapter offers a brief overview of the different methodologies and typologies proposed. The greatest part of the chapter, however, is dedicated to the textual analysis of the culture-specific elements that designate a particular Irish cultural identity as outlined in the previous chapters. Finally, general conclusions are discussed in the last, concluding chapter.
0.6 Notes
0.6.1 The Concept of Anglo-Irish Literature
A complex terminological challenge arose from the need for a suitable adjective to describe Irish literature written in the English language. A similar problem arises in the description of the English language spoken in Ireland;6 in this case, however, there is a distinction between the terms Anglo-Irish, Hiberno-English and Irish English, each of which bears different political and ideological connotations. In the case of Irish writing in
English, though, the term Anglo-Irish has been generally used, despite its Protestant
Ascendancy connotations. Hence, the term Anglo-Irish will also be employed in this thesis, on account of its established usage, despite the debates that describe it as inaccurate or politically misleading.7
6 For overviews and discussions on the different terminologies proposed by various scholars, see Raymond Hickey, Dublin English: Evolution and Change (2-4), and Irish English: History and Present- day Forms (3-5); Filpulla (34-35); Todd; Walshe (15-16).
7 See, for example, Patrick Leo Henry who has pleaded for a change in the usage of the term “Anglo-Irish” so as to refer to the English variety that is to a great extent influenced by the Irish language. For an interesting overview of the usage of the term “Anglo-Irish”, see also A. MacCarthy, who proposes the term “Irish writing in English”, instead (85-110).
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0.6.2 A Note on Punctuation, Capitalization, and Transliteration
Throughout this thesis I have used the “single-stress system” (monotonikò) wherever texts are quoted in Greek, regardless of the stress-system that appears in the editions I have used (earlier editions use the old diacritical marks). On the other hand, I have retained the use of capitalization at the beginning of the lines of the translated poems and in their titles, as employed by the translators.
As far as the transcription of Greek words into English is concerned, I have followed the ISO 843 1997 TR script, as it is the closest one to the alphabet conversion scheme proposed by Linos Politis in the History of Modern Greek Literature, where he notes: “I have proceeded on the double principle that transcription ought first of all to render the modern pronunciation and not the historical spelling (Politis, not Polites), but at the same time that it should preserve the image of the word” (xiii).
ISO 843 1997 TR8
Α α a αι ai άι ái αϊ aï αυ av, af, ay Β β v Γ γ g γγ ng
8 ISO 843 1997 TR is the scheme for the transcription of Greek characters into Latin characters, according to the International Organization of Standardization (
14 γκ gk γξ nx γχ nch ∆ δ d Ε ε e ει ei έι éi εϊ eï ευ ev, ef, ey Ζ ζ z Η η i ηυ iv, if, iy Θ θ th Ι ι i Κ κ k Λ λ l Μ µ m µπ b, mp Ν ν n ντ Nt Ξ ξ x Ο ο o οι oi όι ói οϊ oï ου ou, oy Π π p Ρ ρ r Σ σ, ς s Τ τ t Υ υ y υι yi Φ φ f Χ χ ch Ψ ψ ps Ω ω o
Punctuation Marks
; erotimatiko ? . teleia . · ano teleia ; : ano-kato teleia : , komma , ’ apostrofos ’ - enotikon -
15 CHAPTER 1
IDENTITY AND TRANSLATION
“The question of cultural, national, and ethnic identity is
particularly noticeable in the field of literature, which of all
art forms is most explicit in reflecting and shaping the
awareness of entire societies and which often counts as the
very formulation of that society’s cultural identity.”
(Leerssen, “The Rhetoric of National Character” 268)
Introduction to the Chapter
One of the keywords in the title of this thesis is Irishness, which denotes a type of identity. The term identity, however, is very vague, ambiguous and over-used. In the first part of this chapter I am going to narrow it down to the concept of national and cultural identity. After a very brief overview of the existing literature on identity, I will present some key concepts for its formation (constructedness, difference, the Other). Moving on from the general discussion of these identity issues, I will go on to examine them with reference to Ireland and Irish literature. I shall argue that England has played an
16 important role in the formation of Irish identity (as it has traditionally constituted
Ireland’s Other), and then provide an overview of the evolution of the concept of Irish cultural identity in its historical context, with special reference to literature, in order to establish the key themes of Irishness. I shall then explain the reasons why Irish literature offers itself for a discussion of discursive practices linked to national and cultural identity. Then I will try to anticipate some of the objections that may be raised to my arguments, before I turn to the concept of national literature, its role in the formation of
Irish identity and the concept of representation.
The second section of this chapter will focus on the role of translation in intercultural transfer and how foreign cultures are represented through translation.
Special attention will be paid to the issue of “cultural translation”. In order to point out the role of the translator as a mediator between cultures, I shall discuss the connection between translation and ethnography and elaborate on how the notion of translatability affects reception. Then I shall proceed with a discussion of translation and postcoloniality, focusing on the case of Ireland. I shall argue that the Irish experience inscribed in literary texts written in English, which are then transferred to foreign audiences, constitutes a palimpsestic procedure and involves multiple instances of translation. Translation should be seen in a broader sense, as a site of hybridity, within which the Other assumes different meanings. Whether this alterity—in this case
Irishness—comes across in translation of literature will be examined in the following chapters.
1.1 The Quest for Irishness: An Identity Quest
17
The quest for Irishness is an identity quest. The first thing the term identity brings to mind is the self, individual identity,9 which may embrace various notions such as gender, class, ethnicity, and race, among other things. Nonetheless, when discussing Irishness, it is collective identity we refer to; it is cultural identity. A second path along which
Irishness can be pursued is closely connected to the notion of the nation as a constituent of identity; so, seen from a different angle, Irishness may be also seen as assuming the meaning of national identity. In this chapter I shall attempt to briefly sketch the concept of Irishness, as it was formed and negotiated during the twentieth century.
1.2 The Concept of Identity
The notion of identity is admittedly a challenging and usually a problematic one when it is used to define or describe. Moreover, the term “identity” is assigned different meanings depending on different users and their purpose. The need for a definition is, therefore, imperative.
The term identity has been used extensively in various fields over a very long time. It is a technical term which became central in Western philosophy very early– originally in philosophical Latin, further elaborated on by John Locke (306-344),
Immanuel Kant and later particularly by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (The Science of
Logic)—a key concept in psychoanalysis (the term “identification” was initially used by
Sigmund Freud and then the term identity was popularized and diffused by Erik Erikson
9 Bennett, Grossberg, Morris and Williams actually note that the first uses of the term “identity” with reference to the individual only date back to the seventeenth century, according to the OED (172).
18 in the 1950s), and the social sciences, and has of lately been introduced to almost every field of the humanities, on account of the interdisciplinary nature research has assumed.10
Cultural studies and studies related to literature are no exception.
An important fact to keep in mind when discussing identity is that, although individual identity is still central in research within the fields of psychology, sociology, as well as cultural and literary practices, there is also an increase of interest regarding collective identity. The study of identity, which has been dominated by research on the individual until the 1970s, is now focusing on the collective (Cerulo).
1.3 The Construction of Identity
As a starting point for this discussion it is important to consider some basic notions for the formation of identity, as a specific form of subjectivity. There are two different approaches to questions of identity, the traditional, essentialist one, on the one hand, and the anti-essentialist, discursive one, on the other, with the former viewing identity as
“fixed and transhistorical”, and the latter considering it “fluid and contingent”
(Woodward 4).11 If we are to make a rough distinction, in premodern societies identity is seen as fixed, while modernity brought about the view that identities can be multiple and subject to change (Kellner 231); subjectivity is fractured.
10 For an interesting taxonomy of the approaches to identity formation, see Côté and Levine 3-6. For a sampling of articles which also provide an interesting overview of the use of the term “identity” in various disciplines, see: Gleason; Cerulo; and Brubacker and Cooper. More specifically, on cultural identity, see Lecours.
11 Similarly, Straub makes a distinction between two types of identity: the normative and the reconstructive type (69-72). See also Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”; and Grossberg 87-89.
19 The move towards less rigid meanings of identity, away from static, ontological, essentialist connotations, which are now largely considered outdated, characterizes the literature of the social sciences and of cultural studies in recent decades. The fact that identity is not intrinsic in either individual or groups, but is rather a social construction has been observed by various scholars in several fields. Prominent authors have also shown and established the constructedness of such concepts as nation and tradition.
Benedict Anderson, in Imagined Communities, and Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, in The Invention of Tradition, challenge the notion that cultures contain intrinsic and primordial elements, viewing them instead as temporal and invented, as the titles of their works indicate. Alongside these theorists, three of the most important theorists that I draw upon when discussing identity are, inevitably, Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, and
Edward Said.
Stuart Hall’s positions have given rise to an important shift in the way we think about issues of identity. Denying any essentialist notion of the concept of identity and defining it as a “strategic and positional one” (“Who needs ‘Identity’?” 3), Hall expands his theoretical position that identity is always in flux, to consider cultural identity.
According to Hall, “identities are never completed, never finished; … they are always as subjectivity itself is, in process. … Identity is always in process of formation. … identity means or connotes the process of identification …” (“Old and New Identities” 47).
Bhabha’s seminal work on hybridity also challenges essentializing conceptions of identity as static and uniform. For Bhabha, identities are fluid and plural, characterized by hybridity and fragmentation, especially in colonial and postcolonial contexts. The same core concepts are found in Said’s work, where he maintains that there is no such thing as
20 a pure culture: “all cultures … are heterogeneous, extraordinarily differentiated and unmonolithic” (Culture and Imperialism xxix). Much of the above is based on the proposition that identity is constructed and enacted within discursive practices (Easthope,
Englishness and National Culture 12, and Poetry as Discourse 43; Davies and Harré 46;
Stuart Hall, “Who needs ‘Identity’?” 4; Said, Orientalism).
One of the core ideas involved in thinking about the construction of identity is that identities are formed through difference: differentiation is indispensable for identities to exist (Laclau; Derrida; Butler; Cohen; Stuart Hall, “Who needs ‘Identity’?”; Gilroy;
Woodward), or else, in Lawrence Grossberg’s words: “Identity is always a temporary and unstable effect of relations which define identities by marking difference” (89).
Another key concept, closely related to the process of differentiation, is the concept of the Other in relation to and against which identity is formed. The concept of the Other has been used extensively in philosophy (initially by Hegel, especially in the form of the master-slave dialectic (Phenomenology of Spirit), but also by Husserl, Sartre,
Lévinas, and later Derrida, among others), psychology and social studies (Laclau; and
Butler).12 Introduced by Jacques Lacan in psychoanalytic theory, it denotes the way in which the subject confirms and defines itself through the apprehension of separateness and difference. More precisely, the subject becomes itself by seeking to identify with the
12 The concept of the Other has been initially developed in relation to gender and the feminist dialectic (“Woman as Other” in Simon de Beauvoir’s writings). It was later applied to representations of race and ethnicity (especially in Said’s Orientalism, and also in Clifford and Marcus; and Fowler and Hardesty) and has been effectively used in postcolonial theory. I will soon come back to the importance of this concept for the formation of Irish identity, and the multiple meanings it may also assume to mark alterity in translation.
21 Other and it is this unavoidable separation of the self from the other that forms the subject at the mirror stage (Lacan 1-7).13
1.4 National Identity (and Its Connection to Ireland)
The formation of collective identities follows the same procedure.14 Freud notes that group identity is formed against what differs from the group. By the same token, the formation of national cultures owes much to the concept of differentiation from other national cultures. In his influential and much-cited Imagined Communities, Anderson notes that the individuals that form a nation are conscious that their group is limited and that it does not coincide with the whole of humanity. What can therefore be deducted from this notion is that nations are conceived and formed through the realization that they are different from other nations.
Anthony D. Smith, acknowledging the fact that nations are “inventions”,15 underscores the role played by nationalisms in the formation of nations and national identities (National Identity 71); he goes on to consider them as “a form of culture and identity” (National Identity 72). As will be argued in the following sections, nationalism
13 What should be noted about personal identity is that “identity as a specific form of subjectivity is acquired in transition, or in the psychological processing of transitions and transformations, not in static, repetitive situations” and emphasis should be given to “a historically and culturally specific form of subjectivity” (Straub 65).
14 Valeria Bello makes a useful distinction between two different ways of identity construction at group level, using the concepts of collective identity and social identity. The former refers to hierarchical, top-down dynamics in which mechanisms such as the state and institutions play a very important role, while the latter refers to horizontal dynamics, which operate through the interaction among individuals. In this sense this thesis is concerned with collective identity.
15 As with culture and identity, the fact that nations, in the “modernist” sense, are “inventions” and came into being in the late eighteenth century has been underlined by various scholars. See Anderson, Imagined Communities; Gellner, Thought and Change; Kedourie.
22 has indeed played an important role in the formation of a dominant Irish identity, and has led to a tendency to overemphasize nationhood in all Irish matters. This can be justified by the historical circumstances and the colonial/postcolonial context in which the Irish experience is inscribed. Nonetheless, it is at the same time in tune with the view that national identity is the most overwhelming of all potential identities.
Some of Anthony D. Smith’s observations are of value here: “Of all the collective identities in which human beings share today, national identity is perhaps the most fundamental and inclusive.…Other types of collective identity—class, gender, race, religion—may overlap or combine with national identity but they rarely succeed in undermining its hold, though they may influence its direction” (National Identity 143). A similar remark is found in the introduction to Nationalism (co-edited by John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith): “what is often conceded is the power, even primacy of national loyalties and identities over those of even class, gender, and race” (4). Benedict Anderson affirms the same view when he writes, “nation-ness is the most universally legitimate value in the political life of our time” (Imagined Communities 3), while Jonathan Hall notes that, “in the smaller, more interconnected and cosmopolitan world in which we live, ethnic and national categorization has assumed an ever increasing importance” (5). Brian
Porter-Szücs also refers to the “centrality of the concept of ‘the nation’ as a means of organizing identity in the modern world” (3), and Raphael Samuel observes that,
“Whatever the uncertainties surrounding it, the idea of nationality remains deeply embedded in the political unconscious” (xxxii). Besides, it has been argued that, “The imagined community of the nation-state remains a very special case, as it seems
23 unimaginable except as superordinate to and sovereign over all other imaginable communities” (Milner and Browitt 141).
All these views underline the fact that national identity is still largely considered more influential than other collective identities, with “nation” being used to a greater extent as a means of categorization. The importance of national identity for the construction of Irishness will be examined in more detail in the next sections.
1.5 The Formation of Irish Identity
1.5.1 Ireland Imagined as England’s Other
A question that arises when considering Irish identity is the following: What were the formative conditions that led to the construction of a particular Irish identity as such?
If difference is required for identities to be formed, and there is an indispensable
Other for this procedure to take place, it stands to reason that there has to be an Other against which Irishness has been forged. In the case of Ireland, it can be argued that
England (as Britain’s primary imperial master) has acted as Ireland’s Other.16 The truth is that until the end of the nineteenth century Irish society itself was not homogenous and unitary. In fact, it has been argued that the “coexistence of several cultures has made it difficult, if not impossible for Irishmen to have a coherent view of themselves” (Lyons
16 In a reciprocal way, actually, as it has been repeatedly pointed out that Ireland has played the same role for England, serving as the primary Other for the construction and definition of British and/or English identity (Cairns and Richards, Writing Ireland 2; Declan Kiberd; Arrowsmith, 163-164). Similarly, Terry Eagleton maintains that “Ireland figured as Britain’s unconscious” (Heathcliff and the Great Hunger, 9). We are, therefore, talking about two countries which stand in a sort of binary opposition in the collective consciousness. Others, however, such as Andrew Murphy, reject the idea that the Irish constitute securely the Other for the English.
24 2). The importance of English culture, which served as Other for the Irish culture, is clear in Lyons’s observation concerning Ireland before the nineteenth century: “To review the different cultures that collided within Irish society, we shall have to bear in mind always that these cultures are principally to be defined not so much by their relations with each other … but by their relations with the English culture under whose shadow they existed and to which they had to respond” (Lyons 7). Indeed, as it has been noted, from the nineteenth century onwards, in the mind of the Irish it was Ireland’s difference from
Britain that would provide a solid, diversified, national essence for Ireland (B. Graham,
In Search of Ireland, 7).
It would, thus, be interesting to see briefly what the main concept of Englishness was around that time, so that we can understand what Irish identity was trying to juxtapose itself to. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that the primary identity of
England was imperial, promoted through war, trade, and religion. In reference to the formation of Englishness, Stuart Hall points to the importance of “the nation’s position as a leading commercial power … its position of leadership in a highly international and industrializing world economy, and … the fact that this society and its centers have long been placed at the center of a web of global commitments” (“The Local and the Global”
20). Ian Baucom also underscores the importance of lieux de memoire for the construction of Englishness, in which the glory of the imperialist past is inscribed and cherished (18).
The formation of Irish cultural identity shares none of the above conditions.
Although until the first decades of the previous century Ireland was still part of the
United Kingdom, it had a different economic and social structure. Its peripheral status as
25 a colony allowed for none of the glory reserved for the colonizing power. Ireland was mostly rural and roughly divided between the few families of the Protestant Ascendancy and the great mass of tenant farmers, while an industrial middle class was absent. This of course was reflected both in the formation of Irish identity and in the shaping of Irish culture. The representation of Irish culture through its literature offers an image of Ireland different from that of England’s. The ideals of a great nation whose glory owes to conquest and imperialist power are not to be found in Irish culture and by the same token in Irish literature.
Another important factor as far as the formation of Irish identity is concerned is the opposition to the pre-existing image attributed to the Irish by their colonizers. Declan
Kiberd argues that, “the English did not invade Ireland—rather, they seized a neighbouring island and invented the idea of Ireland. The notion ‘Ireland’ is largely a fiction created by the rulers of England in response to specific needs at a precise moment in British history” (Field Day 3:637) and that, “if Ireland had never existed, the English would have invented it” (Inventing Ireland 8). One should not disregard the way the
English saw—and often looked down upon—the Irish. The qualities ascribed to them were far from flattering; Ireland was regarded as a primitive, uncivilized place, inhabited by a barbarian species inferior to humans.17
The need for a positive identity and a new self-perception was therefore very urgent for the Irish. So was their determination to invert the negative stereotypes ascribed
17 The depiction of the Irish as apes and chimpanzees in English newspapers during the Victorian period is a very good indication (see Lyons 11-12).
26 to them and replace them with positive values and images.18 As Lyons points out, the
Irish “constructed against ‘barbarism’ a consoling image of an ancient civilization, a land of saints and scholars, a commitment to monastic Christianity” and “they opposed against the almost casual English assumption of superiority, a highly artificial concept of nationality which stressed alike the difference from the English masters and the aspiration towards complete independence from them” (11).
On the other hand, Ireland was also viewed by the colonizers as a fantasy land, which was closer to nature and myth, in contrast to the aesthetic values of the English.
Matthew Arnold’s lectures on the Celts in Oxford in the 1860s had paved the way for the establishment of a very specific conception of Irishness, strands of which linger on as stereotypes even nowadays. Arnold described the Celts as “sensual” (80), “of sentimental temperament” (77), effeminate (82), essentially irrational (77), and “undisciplinable, anarchical and turbulent by nature” (82). It was in fact this portrayal that was seen as a basis for the binary relation between Ireland and England. Ireland’s primarily rural structure was opposed to materialist, urban England and the Irish imagination and
“whim” (Arnold 74) was juxtaposed to English rationality. As Eagleton argues, the
English created an image of Ireland as an edenic place, where nature was aestheticized, and culture naturalized (Heathcliff and the Great Hunger 3-11).
18 The attempt to defy and undo the externally imposed stereotyping by juxtaposing a positive self- image is in tune with some basic principles in the formation of identity. Grossberg observes that “Struggling against existing constructions of a particular identity takes the form of contesting negative images with positive ones, and of trying to discover the ‘authentic’ and ‘original’ content of the identity. Basically, the struggle over representations of identity … takes the form of offering one fully constituted, separate and distinct identity in place of another” (89). This type of identity building may also be viewed as what Castells has described with the term “resistance identity”, whereby “those actors who are in positions/conditions devalued and/or stigmatized by the logic of domination, [are] thus building trenches of resistance and survival on the basis of principles different from or opposed to, those permeating the institutions of society” (8).
27 What is interesting about the construction of Irish identity is that while the process of recovery and transformation actually started off from the very basis of
Arnold’s descriptions—for instance, Yeats, the greatest advocate of Irishness, embraced the dreaminess attributed to Ireland and built his own conception of it around this transcendental element19—the formation of Irishness eventually evolved in a very different manner. As the twentieth century progressed, the work of subsequent writers demonstrated differentiated renegotiations of identity, through the deconstruction of stereotypical images.20
1.5.2 Historical Overview of Irishness 21
The concept of Irishness has not been stable throughout the centuries, but has undergone various alterations and re-constructions. Nonetheless, it is characteristic that until recently the nationalist aspect of Ireland's socio-political life and culture has been accentuated due
19 For an account of the influence of Matthew Arnold and also Ernest Renan’s preceding writings on Yeats’s conception of Irishness, see John Rickard.
20 Seamus Deane stresses the difficulty of Irish writing to fit into the traditional canonical forms of representation which led to a search of alternative forms (“The Production of Cultural Space in Irish Writing” 120). If England was urban and “mechanical”, Ireland had still a more “romantic” culture to present. Terry Eagleton makes a similar observation, i.e., that Ireland was viewed as industrialized, materialistic England’s Other, as an edenic, uncivilized, but virgin place (Heathcliff and the Great Hunger). This was also apparent in the depiction of landscape. A similar view is stated in Anthony Cronin’s criticism, when he writes that “an anti-materialistic land of Heart’s Desire” was invented by Yeats and his fellow-writers to satisfy the “British needs” (qtd. in A. Warner 8).
21 It should be noted that the term “Irish” is used in an inclusive sense, in order to encompass the diverse cultural identities that inscribe themselves as such, both North and South of the border, as well as outside the island itself. Irish national and cultural identity transcends the frontiers of a nation-state. Although a state for the nation was the aspiration of the Irish in the beginning of the twentieth century, Irish identity is also claimed by the Northern Irish and the Irish diasporas all over the globe. (For an account of how modern Irish poetry evokes Irishness through myth beyond the borders of the Republic of Ireland, see Kearney, Postnationalist Ireland 99-114).
28 to the particular territorial and political relationship with Britain. In this section, I shall briefly sketch an historical overview of what Irishness has come to be in reference to manifestations of culture and particularly literature.
According to Steven Ellis, the medieval identification and coincidence of land and people, in other words the idea of the Irish being confined on the island called Ireland, was an English imposition, which replaced the more cultural—and for this reason broader—rather than geographical sense of identity that the Gaelic peoples had (4).
Indeed, it has been argued that the forms Irishness took during its construction until the end of classical modernity have their roots in the sixteenth-century colonial and imperial discourses Britain imposed on the Irish (Cairns and Richards, Writing Ireland 1;
Gibbons). As is common with colonial practices of the time, the Irish were treated as second-class citizens, in an historical frame where civilization was equated with
Protestantism, while Catholicism became synonymous with barbarism (Lyons 11). It was against this image that an idealized Irish self-image began emerging as a response. The need of the Irish for self-definition and self-determination eventually became more pressing, opposing itself to the definition which came from the outside. Seamus Deane notes that it was “since the Act of Union (1800) [that] the problem of representing the country became more imperative and more complicated than it had been before” (“The
Production of Cultural Space in Irish Writing” 117), while Patrick Crotty remarks that,
“from the rise of the Home Rule and Land League movements in the 1870s to the setting up of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, cultural identities were rendered problematic, as power relations with Britain and between the various population groups within Ireland shifted” (2). After the split of the Home Rule party in 1890 the need for a
29 re-negotiation of Irish identity became even more pressing. An increasing anxiety about
“the distinguishing marks of Irishness,” according to M. E. Collins, “a culture and language that was different to Britain’s” set in, as the Irish felt that an English culture was developing in Ireland “that was indistinguishable from that in Britain” (170).
The rebuilding of Irish identity—as an alternative to English identity—had become more fervent already since the beginning of the nineteenth century with the help of Young Ireland and similar organizations which aimed at reviving Ireland’s ties with its
Celtic past, expanding the use of the Irish language and creating an all-Irish national consciousness. The cultural aspect of the attempt went side by side with armed struggle, which culminated with the Easter Rising of 1916, confirming the view that in Ireland cultural matters are inextricably linked with politics.
The search for an Irish cultural identity which would be differentiated from its
English counterpart was already well under way by the end of the nineteenth century, with the establishment of organizations such as the Gaelic League (1893), the Gaelic
Athletics Association (1884), and the National Literary Society (founded by Douglas
Hyde and W.B. Yeats in 1892), whose goal was the promotion of national Irish politics.
Philip Dodd asserts that, “through such institutions … what was sought was an Irish cultural identity unsullied by, and morally superior to English culture” (13). As S. J.
Connolly notes, by the end of the nineteenth century, Irish politics and culture had already been “reshaped round a simple dichotomy in which religious and political loyalties could be taken as largely interchangeable” (57). The need of the Irish—who were under colonial rule—to express a unique, oppositional cultural identity led to the construction and maintenance of a distinct, homogenous vision of Irishness, dictated by
30 nationalist doctrines, which defined overwhelmingly all political, social and cultural life.
This was the time, as Declan Kiberd puts it, of a “narrow-gauge nationalism and theocratic Catholicism … [of] the equation of ‘Gaelic’ and ‘Catholic’ as a basis for
‘Irishness’” (The Irish Writer and the World 7).22 Karen Steele asserts that, “While the imperative of advancing the national cause in all facets of Irish intellectual life has been felt since the late eighteenth century, the era of the revival and the end of Anglo-Irish dominance encouraged the reception and canonization of Irish writers based on their ability to articulate national self-definition” (667).
The same nationalist conceptualization of Irishness was maintained throughout the beginning of the twentieth century, and well after the creation of the new Irish State in 1921. In the beginning of the century, when the idea of national emancipation and independence was expressed through, and to a great extent identified with, the Irish
Literary Revival, the notion of cultural identity was to a great extent essentialist and static adhering to nationalist ideals. As most nationalist movements dictated at the time, the idea of Irishness was inevitably based primarily on binary oppositions of Us/Them, on the elements that distinguished the Irish nation and its cultural life as such, a practice that accords with the basic notions for the formation of identity: differentiation and othering.
During this period, representations of a united nation were greatly prioritized, while differences within the various groups (social, religious or of different ethnic origin) were largely ignored or simply obliterated in an attempt to construct a uniform cultural image.
The idea of national emancipation and the new celebrated Irish identity were manifested in the romantic, subjective literature of the Literary Revival, in works by
22 This conception of Irishness as exclusively Gaelic and Catholic, especially during the first half of the twentieth century has been often underlined (Graham, In Search of Ireland 8; Crotty 2).
31 William Butler Yeats, Augusta Gregory and George Russell, where the heroic and the mythic became core features. Yeats, the leading writer of the Revival, established the use of a primarily Irish, Celtic subject matter, drawing on tradition and mythology, on the ancient Irish heroes and their deeds, and brought to the stage plays of intense political and nationalist character in an attempt to reveal and promote those elements, which in his view, should define his “compatriots” nationally and culturally. The goal of this form of cultural resistance was clearly the assertion of national identity for a people who were emerging from a colonized situation and who sought national independence and self- determination. In other words, the Irish Literary Revival emerged as a response to the historical and cultural condition of Ireland in the nineteenth century, in an attempt to reverse the under-representation of the Irish experience until that moment. The notion of
Revivalism is best described by Richard Kearney: “Revivalism may be characterised … as a movement from cultural ‘provincialism’ (the experience of being a secondary or dispossessed culture) to cultural nationalism (the experience of being a primary or self- possessed culture)” (Transitions 12).
Irishness was steadily becoming “a central preoccupation for writers in the post- revolutionary period” (Harmon 45), as well. The end of the Ascendancy had marked a deep social change with the creation of a new middle class, which projected the need to question, analyze and re-evaluate what it meant to be Irish. Writers who promulgated cosmopolitanism and fragmentation—such as Joyce and Beckett—emerged with modernism,23 while disparate voices attempted an extended investigation of the new
23 All manifestations within the Irish literary production may be explained by the need to form a cultural identity. Interestingly enough, even when considering the modernist, international writers, such as Joyce or Beckett, who deliberately moved away from the traditional forms of Irish writing, it is clear that the dismissal of the old identity and the search of a new one plays a key role in their work.
32 society. For example, the playwright Sean O’ Casey wrote about the Dublin working classes, or Louis MacNeice from Northern Ireland distanced himself from the mainstream cultural values of his time. Still, the nationalist rhetoric was the dominant current, while at the level of practical politics, cultural essentialism still prevailed, and this was much evident in every aspect of political and social life, and applied very meticulously in the field of education.
The long period of the nationalist narrative, which covered the better part of the twentieth century, was followed by different approaches to Irish history and culture.
From the mid-1960s onwards there was a period of revisionism concerning all things
Irish, such as politics and culture among other things, and especially historiography, that lasted more than two decades. During this time revisionism attempted to offer an antidote to nationalism, or, in Seamus Deane’s words, “to demolish the nationalist mythology that had been in place for over fifty years, roughly from 1916 to 1966” (Nationalism,
Colonialism, and Literature 6).24 The beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in
1969, though, marked yet another retreat into identity formations that were based once again on binary oppositions (Catholics versus Protestants, Irish nationalists versus unionists). This turbulent period stirred literary production in Northern Ireland: the need to assert a palpable identity associated with the Northern Irish landscape is particularly evident in the work of poets such as Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon and, later, Ciaran
Carson and Edna Longley.
24 Seamus Deane and the rest of the contributors to the Field Day Company dismiss this revisionism as an inadequate approach to Irish matters, “because it shows little or no capacity for self analysis” (Deane, Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature 7), and propose postcolonial theory as more appropriate for the analysis of Irish history and culture. At the time Deane’s text was written, views over whether Ireland fits the profile of a colonial/postcolonial nation were incongruent.
33 By the 1980s, Irish criticism, but also the various political debates, began turning to accounts of postcoloniality in order to define the Irish experience; yet the oscillation between nationalist and revisionist readings had not ceased, nor had the need of the Irish for differentiation. Although emphasizing that the obsession with difference is perilous and divisive and that Irishness should be used to unite, not divide (28), Hugh Leonard acknowledged that the idea of differentiation is still of great gravity even in contemporary Ireland when he wrote in 1989 that, “when we speak of Irishness we are talking of Us, as opposed to Them. We enter what, by containing us, excludes others”, asserting that, “Irishness is what makes us different, what sets us apart” (27). The nationalist rhetoric and all its practices seemed to steam off slightly in the mid-1990s,
“with the advent of the Celtic Tiger [and] the IRA cessation,” when there seemed to be finally “a palpable sense that modern Ireland was at last shucking off a baleful historical inheritance” (Whelan 179). Yet, Irish cultural and literary representations seem to be still haunted, as Karen Steele notes that the nationalism embraced by the writers of the Celtic
Revival “has lingered even into the 1990s” (667).
In conclusion, it could be argued that Ireland has been in search of a cultural identity, or more precisely has been seeking the affirmation of a cultural identity for the entire past century. If one follows the construction of Irish identity during that period, one will soon discover that it assumed different nuances depending on the socio-political circumstances. There is, however, one characteristic that is dominant: it would not be an exaggeration to claim that the centrality of issues pertaining to national identity in Irish literature and Irish literary criticism became almost an obsession during the twentieth century.
34 Some literary theorists have criticized this insistence on identity thinking, pointing out that the notion of identity is overused, often uncritically. Peter McDonald, writes, for instance:
Identity often remains the goal of Irish writing, and the foundation of real
literary achievement; a certain amount of bad contemporary writing,
especially in the Irish Republic, takes the critical agenda of identity
entirely seriously, and often comes down to no more than a series of roots
proclaimed, allegiances declared, and set gestures rehearsed. (5-6)
Although the voices challenging the Irish obsession with a coherent, clear-cut identity are multiplying, traditional scholarship still tends to highlight matters of national identity and to stress unity both within individual texts and within the literary tradition they belong to.
Consequently, any approach to the terrain of Irish literature must necessarily consider the question of identity, whether identity is viewed as organic to the literary production or as a dated ideological/political stance one has to go beyond. Even the revisionist trends, or the latest trends for that matter, which challenge the homogeneity of culture and literature, cannot but take the notion of national identity as their starting point in order to claim the need for a more-inclusive, multicultural discourse.
1.5.3 Why is Interest in National Identity So Accentuated in Ireland?
The idea of a united nation was largely maintained by ignoring divisions and by projecting a homogenous Irish identity often constructed as the opposite of an English
35 one. Although the cultural manifestations of the Irish as well as their literary production are multifaceted, it was a solidified national profile that was put forth.
Other aspects of identity have been largely overlooked in favour of Irishness. The central role literature played in the construction of Irish identity may account for the insistence on the national aspect instead of other political matters such as class issues.
Colm Tóibín eloquently presents this argument when he writes that: “in this invention [of
Ireland] it was possible by using poems and plays, rather than pamphlets and economic arguments, to create a vague consensus and rhetoric of classlessness: a nation rather than a set of clashing interests” (15).
If new forms of identitification and fragmentation of identity were well under way elsewhere, Ireland has followed at a slow pace. Cultural nationalism in Ireland has failed to pay attention to gender, for instance.25 It should also be noted that, while within feminist discourse undertaken elsewhere nation is transcended, the field of Irish feminist studies still focuses on issues of nationalism and the national canon (Nolan 336-337).26
While an in-depth analysis of the reasons why national identity has become so central in Irish literature and Irish literary criticism is not feasible here, it is possible to indicate some of the factors that have contributed to this phenomenon. Kim McMullen argues persuasively that one of the reasons for the attention nationalism and national
25 Paul Gilbert offers the following useful description of “cultural nationalism”: “cultural nationalism holds that the common property of people which makes them a nation is participation in a common culture, of which a shared literature may be an important part. In order for the possession of a shared literature to be partly constitutive of a shared national identity realistically conceived, it must be the sort of thing that could help convince people they had that shared national identity and thus ought, perhaps, to have their own state, or in some other way associate together politically” (199).
26 It is within this context of marginalization that Irish feminist writers and critics are challenging the present status of Irish letters. The important contribution of poets and critics such as Eavan Boland, Edna Longley and Catherine Nash should not be overlooked and will hopefully be the central theme of my future research.
36 identity have received in Ireland was that nation’s need to oppose itself as a counter- culture to the British colonizers, since as Eagleton puts it, “The need for national definition is felt more by the underdogs, who have to define themselves against the dominant forces” (qtd. in Talib 4).27 Seamus Deane also stresses the “wish [of the Irish] to assert its [Ireland’s] difference from, and yet compatibility with, the British political and cultural system (“The Production of Cultural Space in Irish Writing” 117).
Furthermore, one of the most important reasons is that Ireland was formed as an independent country (the Irish Free State) relatively late, in 1921, and it is agreed that the role of national literature in the shaping of national identities in emerging nation-states is very important.28 The fact that Ulster remained under the dominance of the British Crown led to a concretization of national identity and the nationalist phenomena which are known to abound when an external threat to unity is felt. Henry Glassie, exploring the concept of identity and making a comparison between Turkish and Irish artists, writes:
“Ireland, England’s first and last colony, lovely green land of defeat, breeds anxieties that spread the surface with rage and complexity, that fuse in questions of identity requiring
27 It should not go unnoticed that the right of self-determination is held to be of such importance that it is declared in the first article of the Constitution of Ireland (1937).
28 Compare the view that literature and education serve to disseminate civilization, which was advocated in England by Thomas Babington Macaulay, who was actually the one to introduce English education in India. This concept was applied in places under colonial rule, where subjects were considered as inferior and in need of education and culture. The inversion/subversion of this view, whereby literature and education play the role of establishing one’s own culture and asserting the sense of national identity, especially in former colonies, has been in the heart of postcolonial thinking. Much of the work within this postcolonial frame came from Africa. The role of literature for the construction of a national consciousness is central in Fanon’s “anticolonial nationalism”. See also Chinua Achebe, who identified his political commitment with his literary and critical work in an attempt to help Nigeria (and the rest of the former African colonies) transcend the colonial past, as well as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, for whom education became central in his critique of postcolonial society, and who was especially concerned with the place literature occupied in the educational system (especially in Writers in Politics). For Ngũgĩ, literary works should bear a connection to the contemporary political conditions and a national literature should convey and support a national ethos.
37 ballads and bombs for answers. … The more tense the circumstance, the more likely identity is to rise into articulation” (239).
David Lloyd offers his own explanation why such importance has been attributed to identity in Ireland:
the constitution and reconstitution of the terms of Irish identity has
principally been aimed at the integration of a highly differentiated
population into the modern nation state, a project which has always sought
to transcend antagonisms, contradictions and social differences for the
sake of a unified conception of political subjectivity. This has meant that,
despite the invaluable work of cultural retrieval undertaken by successive
nationalist movements, one principal and consistent dynamic of identity
formation has been the negation of recalcitrant or inassimilable elements
in Irish society. (5)
As mentioned above, nationalism plays an overwhelming role in identity formation and the concept of hegemony is omnipresent in the process of assimilating subjects to turn them into citizens of a homogenous state. It should then be underlined that the dissemination of the knowledge of what Irishness is, or rather of national consciousness, is not as it has been hitherto assumed a natural process, but actually the hegemonic product of license and control, with education and literature being usually the most common apparatuses nationalist agendas use towards that end.29 Lloyd also notes that,
29 The promotion of nationalist ideals in Ireland (which offer monolithic readings of culture) through other forms of art has been observed by various scholars. The case of Irish cinema as one of the most eloquent media of representation, but also as a site for the employment of nationalist agendas, is also characteristic. See McLoone; and H. O’Brien.
38 because the cultural nationalists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century felt there was an urgent need to overcome the various divisions in Ireland (religious, class or ethnic), “the task of reproducing representations of a common identity was accordingly entrusted to literature” (90). Seamus Deane also notes the attempts of nationalisms “to realize their intrinsic essence in some specific and tangible form” which “may be a political structure or a literary tradition” and underscores the fact that this (metaphysical) essentialism produces monolithic readings of the past (Nationalism, Colonialism and
Literature, 8-9).
Thus, for the Irish, national literature is full of elements which highlight their national identity, due to the dominant cultural discourses, which designate what national literature may involve. Consequently, it is exactly because the Irish have been mostly introduced to this kind of works—primarily through the hegemonic role of education— other than different, marginal, subaltern ones, that they have been “trained” to recognize such features and take pride in them. What I am essentially arguing here, is that Irish literature is saturated with nationalist images, or at least cultural markers of Irishness, which are important in terms of pragmatics, because of their effect on the receiving audience. The Irish literature which forms the national canon is what usually gets translated abroad. It is what the Irish consider representative (and by Irish I refer to authors, critics and the reading public). Whether Irish literature is representative of things
Irish when it gets translated for a foreign culture will be the focus of the following chapters.
1.5.4 Ireland’s Colonial/ Postcolonial Experience
39
The particular colonial/postcolonial status of Ireland was another reason that has led to an extended nationalism. According to Richard Kearney, “the spectre of Irish nationalism might be said to represent Britain’s return of the repressed” (Postnationalist Ireland 11).
Many theorists from the field of postcolonial studies have underlined that subjugation to colonial rule results in an exaggerated conception of national identity, with nationalism often proposed as an antidote to colonialism.
By now a great number of scholars do consider Ireland and its culture to be colonial/postcolonial: Robert J. Young, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Michael
Cronin, and Maria Tymoczko, among others.30 Edward Said in his Culture and
Imperialism not only sees Irish culture and literature as emerging from a colonial context but takes a step further to view it as the example for many other postcolonial nations during the phase of their decolonization (220-238). The literary historian who most overtly affirms Ireland’s colonial/postcolonial status is David Lloyd, who claims that,
“Ireland has been and remains a site of colonialism and anticolonial struggle” (262).
Postcolonialism is in fact a very useful set of theories in relation to which Irish culture
30 There are, however, certain exceptions. In The Empire Writes Back, for instance, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin do not list Ireland among the countries with postcolonial literatures, although they postulate that what makes certain literatures “distinctively postcolonial” is the fact that “they emerged in their present form out of the experience of colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension with the imperial power, and by emphasising their differences from the assumptions of the imperial centre” (2), conditions that apply in the case of Ireland/Irish literature. Likewise, in their collection of influential essays on postcolonialism, Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory, Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman do not include any texts about Ireland. For an interesting overview of the heated debate on what postcolonial studies may include and whether Ireland should be considered eligible, see Duncan. The debate on whether Ireland should be viewed in a postcolonial context or not is still open. However, with regard to the refusal of some critics to include Ireland in a context of postcolonialism, because it is viewed as “part of a wider revisionist front determined to eradicate the nationalist struggle from Irish history” (Smyth, “Irish Literature” 370), I shall argue that one does not mutually exclude the other.
40 can be seen and analyzed, for it offers a better insight into the web of power relations the
Irish experience has been produced by. The complexity of the Irish colonial experience, however, should not be overlooked. Ireland offers an example of ‘internal colonialism’ within Europe itself (Cronin, Translating Ireland 3); in other words it was in the paradoxical situation of being both a colonized and an imperial space at the same time
(Jones and Jones 57), simultaneously “part of the imperial nation and peripheral to it”
(Eagleton, Heathcliff and the Great Hunger 124). The work of Luke Gibbons, David
Lloyd and Richard Kearney, who have engaged with postcolonial theory, yet managed to maintain a connection to Irish history and its particularities, is valuable for an approach to the relation of past and present and an understanding of Irish cultural representations.
1.6 National and Cultural Identity: The Traits of Irishness
Within this context Irishness still remains a puzzling term. Eagleton’s assertion of the seemingly incongruous elements that combine together to make up Irish identity is very characteristic:
the ideological category of Irishness signifies on the one hand roots,
belonging, tradition, Gemeinschaft, and on the other hand, again with
marvelous convenience, exile, diffusion, globality, diaspora…With
wonderful economy, it signifies a communitarianism nostalgically
seductive in a disorientatingly cosmopolitan world, while offering itself at
the same time as a very icon of that world in its resonance of political
41 defeat, hybridity, marginality, fragmentation. (“The Ideology of Irish
Studies” 11-12)
It is a term which has been widely used, overused, even abused. Raphaël Ingelbien underscores another factor which further complicates Irish identity matters:
the complexity of Irish cultural politics means that any poetics of Irishness
is bound to be controversial perhaps more so than any other politics of
nationhood. Not only are there many definitions of Irishness, but some of
the most vibrant poetic expressions of Irish nationhood can turn out to be
radically at odds with the politics of Irish nationalism. (Misreading
England 145)
As is common with national cultural identities, instead of being used in a comprehensive, inclusive way, the term has been narrowed down by different political groups (mainly by nationalists of either Republican or Unionist ideology) to suit their own political ends. Its constant application from the discourse of identity politics to the field of the arts has ensured its centrality in any relevant discussion. In this context, it should not come as a surprise that, as far as literature is concerned, Irish criticism has often used the word Irishness uncritically. Adrian Frazier’s observation in his article about anthologies of Irish poetry reveals a typical situation: “Reviewers of these volumes generally take it on faith that there is some ‘Irishness’ holding all the poems together and even serving as the source of their value,” but, as he goes on to observe, those who write about Irish poetry and often discuss it in terms of ‘Irishness’ are not clear about what the word means (192).
42 For the purposes of this thesis, however, general attributes which somehow describe an intrinsic essence of Irishness are neither helpful nor appropriate. There is an urgent need, if not for a working definition, at least for a set of markers of Irish identity, by the use of which I do not purport to cover every possible aspect of representation of the Irish culture: they will only serve as a tool in the analysis of the material at hand and will thus be shaped accordingly.
The Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word “Irishness” is “the quality or state of being Irish” (1194), whereby Irish may be conceived as a term describing a geographical, national or cultural quality—once again being too general to serve as a workable definition. It could be argued, thus, that Irishness may imply cultural identity and/or national identity.
As the previous sections have shown, in the case of Ireland (and literary representations of Anglo-Irish literature) the boundaries between cultural identity and national identity are blurry. Drawing on Raymond Williams and his holistic view of culture, in which national heritage receives much emphasis, might prove useful at this point, as his concept of “selective tradition” may be applied to elucidate the nexus between cultural and national identity. Williams uses this notion to describe “that which, within the terms of an effective dominant culture, is always passed off as ‘the tradition’,
‘the significant past’” (Culture and Materialism 39, emphasis in the text). Williams goes on to observe:
But always the selectivity is the point; the way in which from a whole
possible area of past and present, certain meanings and practices are
neglected and excluded. Even more crucially, some of these meanings and
43 practices are reinterpreted, diluted, or put into forms which support or at
least do not contradict other elements within the effective dominant
culture. (Culture and Materialism 39)
In the case of the dominant culture in Ireland, “tradition” and the “significant past” is hued by a national (if not nationalist) ethos. I will then argue that, since the national element is so central in the case of Ireland, then cultural identity should also be conceived as national identity.
The truth is that cultural identity is very often linked to a sense of a national culture. Indeed, there seems to be a reciprocal relation between the two concepts of culture and nation. The two notions of cultural identity and national identity often intersect or coincide, a fact which leads to the two terms being used interchangeably. In his second definition of culture as “a concept that includes a refining and elevating element”, Said observes that, “in time culture comes to be associated, often aggressively, with the nation or the state; this differentiates “us” from “them” … Culture in this sense is a source of identity, and a rather combative one at that, as we see in recent ‘returns’ to culture and tradition” (Culture and Imperialism xiii).
The fact that some scholars argue that nations and nation-states need to be seen not only as political, but also as cultural entities (Corrigan and Sayer; Gruffudd) complicates matters even further.31 Most theorists maintain that a shared, common
31 The first distinction between “Staatnation” and “Kulturnation” was made by Friedrich Meinecke in 1907. Ever since, different theorists of the nation have adhered to either the former (Gellner, Thought and Change; Debray; Breuilly; Harris) or the latter conception (Renan; Smith, National Identity). Richard Kearney, on the other hand, summarizes five different concepts of the nation: as state, as territory, as ethnicity, as “migrant nation” (or as extended family) and finally as culture (Postnationalist Ireland 2-6). For the purposes of this thesis, I prefer to view nation as mainly coinciding with “culture”; the sovereign aspect of a nation seems to be of little relevance (although it is arguable that the concept of the nation as state is actually related to the issue of national cultural identity as manifested in literature and to the
44 culture is one of the elements that make up nations and by the same token national identities. Elaine Baldwin et al. observe that, “culture is crucial to the making of national identity” (167), while Gellner elaborates on the same argument of the importance of a shared culture for the formation of a nationality (Nations and Nationalism 53-57).
What is obvious from the brief presentation of the connection between culture and nation, as well as the particular meaning the national element assumes for Irish culture, is that an examination of Irishness would not be complete without including elements of both. Choosing not to take into account or to conceal the importance of the national element for the construction of modern Irish identity would mean to deliberately ignore one of its core features. National-thinking, nationalism, and later post-nationalism have been at the heart of Irish history, politics and identity politics, to such an extent that any attempt to overlook them would lead to a partial, incomplete approach.
The approach that I propose to use, then, in order to circumscribe Irish cultural identity, is a combination of theories on culture and theories on the nation, the elements of which will sketch the picture of Irishness.
If the term culture “is a sign, an empty vessel waiting for people … to fill it with meaning” (J. R. Baldwin et al. 3), this should explain the plethora of definitions proposed over the years: 164 definitions listed already in 1952 by A. L. Kroeber and Clyde
Kluckhohnen, and numerous publications on the meaning and the various definitions of culture abounding every year.32 Of the plentiful proposed definitions on culture and
national literary canon, since it is through the institutions of the state, esp. through state education that cultural hegemony is imposed).
32 Most definitions of culture contain some common markers in their description of the elements that are considered to bind together a collectivity of people.
45 cultural identity I have distinguished two, as the most comprehensive and appropriate for my material: The first one by Jackson and Garner—who offer a concise definition elaborated on the basis of a variety of sources33—defines culture as “A set of patterns, beliefs, behaviors, institutions, symbols, and practices shared and perpetuated by a consolidated group of individuals connected by an ancestral heritage and a concomitant geographical reference location” (44). The second one defines cultural identity as “A sense of belonging to a particular culture or ethnic group. It is formed in a process that results from membership in a particular culture, and it involves learning about and accepting the traditions, heritage, language, religion, ancestry, aesthetics, thinking patterns, and social structures of culture” (Lustig and Koester 138).
Accordingly, as far as nation is concerned, theorists have proposed various definitions, and it is the sense of belonging to this collectivity that yields national identity.34 Among the numerous lists of elements that make up a nation, Anthony D.
Smith and Samuel P. Huntington’s definitions are noteworthy: “A nation can therefore be defined as a named human population sharing an historical territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all its members” (Smith, National Identity 14), while Huntington, in his account of national identity writes that:
while national identity was at times in the West the highest form of
identity, it also has been a derived identity whose intensity comes from
33 Namely, E. B. Tylor (1871); E. T. Hall (1959); Clifford Geertz (1973); and Marshall Singer (1987).
34 I will base my arguments on the Western model of perceiving nation, and more specifically on European conceptions of nation, fully acknowledging the variety of perspectives in non-Western models.
46 other sources. National identity usually but not always includes a
territorial element and may also include one or more ascriptive (race,
ethnicity), cultural (religion, language), and political (state, ideology)
elements, as well as occasionally economic (farming) or social (network)
ones. (30)
It is obvious that the concepts of culture and nation, and by the same token cultural and national identity, have many elements in common; the definitions proposed are meant to cover a variety of collectivities. I would, however, like to adopt Jonathan
Hall’s view, according to which, there is not one single one-defines-all model to be used when talking about group identity and markers of differentiation (9-14), and maintain the same to be true of national and cultural identity. I will therefore focus only on certain of the aforementioned elements, which may be considered as the most characteristic of
Irishness, and argue that the representation of Irish national culture in the twentieth century was to a great extent based on the symbolic use of place, history and memory, as well as mythology and religion. I will further elaborate on the importance of these elements for Irish culture and their centrality in literary representations in the following chapters.
Nevertheless, there are a few points that need to be stressed here: as has been maintained in the beginning of the chapter, identity does not have stable, intrinsic, essential features, but is a social construction, an invention, always in flux. Despite its constructedness, however, national identity remains very real to the subjects attached to it. Stuart Hall argues that, “identities are … points of temporary attachment to the subject positions which discursive practices construct for us” (“Who needs ‘Identity’?” 6). By the
47 same token, national identities contain the element of performativity, as they are formed, recognized and claimed according to the discourses dictated by historical circumstance.35
To describe the voluntarist dimension of these elements, a phenomenological approach could be of use here: it is not a matter of what national identity really is, but rather what it is taken to be, so when one examines the constituent elements of Irishness, the analysis should be made on the basis of those features which are perceived to be characteristic.
Although the idea of a national identity is constructed and thus subjective—no matter how persuasively it may be imposed as natural and perpetual—some of the components which form it (may) crystallize at certain times, reflecting the self-perception of individuals and/or groups according to these features. It is in this light that I intend to explore a certain set of constituents which embody the idea of national and cultural identity. The approach will be based on the above mentioned definitions of culture and nation and more specifically on the structured way in which they present the components of national identity.36
1.7 Is National Identity a Suitable Unit for Cultural Analysis?
35 See Foucault, who maintains that discourse is constrained and controlled, within a system which determines concrete manifestations of discourse, articulated in a specific social space (215-237).
36 I am essentially arguing in favor of the combination of a phenomenological and a structuralist approach in examining the constituents of national cultural identity. Paradoxical as it may seem, such an approach is plausible, and in reconciling the two different and sometimes opposing methods it may solve some of the problems which arise from the use of national identity as an analytical category, a point I will come back to shortly. For the use of such a tool I draw on Pierre Bourdieu, who advocates a “structuralist constructivism or constructivist structuralism” (Bourdieu and Wacquant 11), and also on Hugh J. Silverman (Inscriptions Between Phenomenology and Structuralism), for whom the fusion of the two approaches leads to a hermeneutic semiology.
48 Issues that concern culture, identity and/or nation are never uncomplicated ones. These concepts are controversial and a simplified approach to them is perilous. In his introduction to Culture, Globalization and the World-System, Anthony King notes that earlier cultural theory paradigms operated in limited, culture-specific contexts (3). He and the contributors to this volume agree with the need for “a theory of culture at the level of the international” (5). There seems to be a general tendency for theorists to move away from considering culture produced in a nationally-defined framework as a suitable unit for analysis.37 Despite the view that national identity may not be appropriate for cultural analysis, it is useful for this research for the following reasons: a) For many researchers, the cultural specificity that arises from a sense of nationhood is a legitimate object of study.38 It should also be noted that there is also a counter-tendency by scholars who juxtapose the national frame of reference to the global in order to examine the specificity of culture. b) Although notions of canonicity, and even canons themselves, have been greatly challenged recently, the structure of literary systems and canons is still organized in such a way that national literatures are units of analysis in all the stages of the production and consumption/reception all the way to the promotion of the literary works in foreign countries. c) Out-of-date as it may seem, a quest for features of a national culture in an era of boundary-crossing and the liquidation of frames is still very much an important issue for translation studies. To the extent that translation is primarily a transfer of culture, the
37 There is a growing number of scholars arguing for a post-nationalist understanding of cultural production and a reconceptualized identity formation beyond the nation. See, for instance, Buell, “Nationalist Postnationalism”; and Appadurai.
38 See, for example, Evans 1-2.
49 source culture—as well as the target culture—must be well defined in order for the transfer to be successfully completed. d) Finally, the particular case of Irish cultural practices, in this case of Irish poetry, dictates the consideration of national identity as central when examining these works. It is characteristic that Irish literary criticism is obsessed with issues of national identity even to the present day, so the national frame within which poetry originates and operates cannot be ignored.
Hence, in the case of this thesis, choosing to consider poetry in its national frame of production and deliberately examining it through the angle of national identity makes sense, since I consider a national literature as acquiring meaning through and representing the culture it originated from.
1.8 Literatures Defined as “National”: The Case of Irish Literature
In many ways literatures are still viewed in a national frame.39 More often than not, marketing practices impose the categorization and circulation of works of literature as components of a “national literature”. Canons are still organized, systematized and perceived primarily in national terms. Such a great degree of emphasis is placed on national identity that often academic freedom is compromised, a point explicitly made by
39 Naftoli Bassel in an article entitled “National Literature and Interliterary System” claims there are eight features which characterize any national literature: “an organic connection to the historical destiny of its ethnic group; a national language as the basic medium of its existence; rootedness in the folklore and mythology of its ethnic group; stability and dynamism as an aesthetic system; the existence of an indigenous, self-aware artistic tradition interacting with other national art forms; social and aesthetic heterogeneity; a literary development and growth influenced by, or generically and typologically correlated with, other literatures and the world literary process; belonging to various interliterary (zonal, ethno- linguistic, regional) systems, whose spectrum is comparatively stable and well defined for each national literature” (773).
50 Said (Reflections on Exile 394). In any national literature, unity is privileged over heterogeneity, with the exclusion of the subaltern and the subordination of multiple discourses being used in order to create a coherent body of works.40 Typical of this practice is an important cultural product that has been the object of fierce criticism mainly by Irish feminists: the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (1991), a massive project aiming at representing Irish cultural identity, which largely disregarded women as agents of literary practice and of Irish culture in general. I am focusing especially on this project, because it is probably the most ambitious and influential collection of Irish writing(s), which claims to bring forth the most characteristic samples of Irish literature and to address the most typical issues of Irish identity, and yet sustains a traditional sense of national identity with a very limited interest in multivocality. The project ought to be seen as representative of the Irish canon and paradigmatic of the traditional notion of
Irishness for the Irish. Reclaiming Irish writing as such was considered for the Field Day contributors a first priority to such an extent that all other matters were overshadowed.
Seamus Deane’s assertion that one of the primary goals of Field Day is to “begin to reverse the effects of […] colonialism” and to “restore” writers such as Yeats and Joyce to the Irish culture (Nationalism, Colonialism, and Literature 10-11) is characteristic of this stance. The debate around the Field Day project is indicative of the situation in Irish cultural matters, within which two opposing forces seem to be operating: an attachment to the national-oriented model, on which the Irish state had invested historically, and at the same time a demand for a more inclusive, multivocal approach, dictated by recent
40 This is mainly Laura Chrisman’s analysis of “nationalism and narrative” with regard to postcolonial literatures. I am using it here, however, not placing Ireland on the side of the colonized, but rather considering the Irish canon independently: practices of exclusion are visible within it when considering for example women’s writing.
51 sociopolitical and cultural conditions. Interestingly enough, by now certain realities have begun to shake the established image of Irish culture as inclusive and monolithic. It is a fact that a lot of Irish writing takes place elsewhere (Paul Muldoon is probably the best example) and that women are behind a great part of the Irish literary production.
Moreover, the fervid debates among theorists of Irish studies and culture offer our best evidence that the monologic tendency that dominated Irish cultural life for a very long period is about to be challenged. Perhaps the solution could be given, as proposed by
Susan Shaw Sailer, simply by the use of the word “identities”, instead of “identity”, so that we may “inscribe the possibility for multiple ways of understanding Irishness” (ix).
Nonetheless, by and large, outside academic circles, Irish writing is still often promoted wrapped up in the nationalist discourse of previous times. As Simon During points out,
“It is becoming commonplace that the institution of literature works to nationalist ends,” and, although there may be a need for revision, “this is not to deny literature’s ability to function as a signifier of national identity or heritage” (138). The formation and maintenance of literary canons (with all the prescriptiveness and stereotyping that is usually involved) is proof that national cultural identities are represented through literary texts by way of symbolic systems, which then, as I will argue later on, come to contact with other systems through translation. One of the most interesting issues involved, in the case of Irish literature specifically, is whether the translated literary texts bear the marks of national representation. If this is the case, is this done in a traditional, essentialist way or are there traces of a multiple conception of Irishness? Is the evolution of the concept of
Irishness conveyed through the body of translated poetry?
52 1.9 The Role of Literature for Irish National Identity: Representation
In his introduction “Narrating the Nation”, Homi Bhabha wonders: “If the ambivalent figure of the nation is a problem of its transitional history, its conceptual indeterminacy, its wavering between vocabularies, then what effect does this have on narratives and discourses that signify a sense of ‘nationness’[?]” (2).
As has been demonstrated so far the national element has been much highlighted in Ireland, not only in the socio-political realm but also in cultural expression, since, as
Gibbons argues, cultural representations in Ireland play an active role in shaping social experiences and practices. It was, however, mainly through literature that the national rhetoric was promoted. The double role of Irish literature should be underlined: not only was Irish identity reflected in literary texts, but literary texts helped shape Irish identity.
Irish literature has had a very particular linkage to politics, which in Ireland was more often than not related to national claims. Discursive practices in Ireland for well over two centuries have pointed almost exclusively in one direction: acquiring a national definition and emancipation through the construction of a strong national image. The notion that national subjects are shaped by discursive practices, in this case literature, and more specifically poetry, was never applied more successfully than in the case of Yeats’s poetry and the influence it exerted on the Irish public in the beginning of the twentieth century.
Any critical approach to Irish literary representations will necessarily have to deal with the implications of the relationship between ideology and text since representation
“can never be completely divorced from political and ideological questions … [it] is
53 precisely the point where these questions are most likely to enter the literary work”
(Mitchell 15). Irish literary texts became to a great extent agents that shaped the socio- political consciousness of the collective Irish mind and constructed the representation of the Irish experience.41 Due to the importance of Irish literature in both shaping and reflecting national and cultural identity, I will attempt to locate the characteristic features of Irish national culture in literature, regarding them as part of the texts’ meaning.42
The key term “representation” is of paramount importance here, since “Identities are …constituted within, not outside representation” (S. Hall, “Who needs ‘Identity’?” 4), while at the same time identity plays a crucial role in representation. Hence, there is a mutual interdependence between the two notions. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak underscores the problematic nature of representation (“Questions of Multi-culturalism”
63), and stresses its double meaning, drawing on the Marxist sense of the term.
According to this distinction the first type of representation (“Vertretung”) refers to
“stepping in someone’s place” or “tread[ing] in someone’s shoes”, as “speaking for”, as a proxy in the sense it assumes in politics (“Practical Politics of the Open End” 108), while the second (“Darstellung”) refers to “re-presentation”, as in art or philosophy, to the artistic or aesthetic portrait of what is represented (“Practical Politics of the Open End”
108; “Bonding in Difference” 15). These two modes, Spivak goes on to observe, are inextricably linked. One could argue that in the case of Irish literature both senses of
41 As Eagleton argues: “Discourses, sign-systems and signifying practices of all kinds, from film and television to fiction and the languages of natural science, produce effects, shape forms of consciousness and unconsciousness, which are closely related to the maintenance or transformation of our existing systems of power. They are thus closely related to what it means to be a person. Indeed “ideology” can be taken to indicate no more than this connection—the link or nexus between discourses and power” (Literary Theory 183).
42 I will in this case adopt John Barrell’s approach in his locating Englishness as part of the meaning of English paintings (Nation and Narration 154).
54 representation are to be found. The second meaning is obviously present in the aesthetic dimension of texts, but to a certain extent so is the first one. Not only is a poet a proxy of collective experience, but in conditions of oppression s/he becomes a spokesperson for subjects who are not agents for themselves.43
Of equal importance are Stuart Hall’s views in “New Ethnicities”. His views on black identity politics and the construction of black identity through representation may be applied to Irish identity. Hall makes a distinction between a “mimetic” conception of representation, which “exists ‘outside’ the means by which things are represented,” and a more radical, postmodern notion, according to which nothing exists outside discourse
(443). His own view meets the two notions halfway: there is a reality that exists outside the discursive, but the only way to attribute meaning to it is through representation.
Representations are, thus, not simply “reflexive”, but “constitutive”, and have a real impact. “This gives questions of culture and ideology, and the scenarios of representation—subjectivity, identity, politics—a formative, not merely an expressive, place in the constitution of social and political life,” as he points out (443).
The point that needs to be underlined here is that representation through literary texts in Ireland was very important, as it contributed to the formation of a self-definition and created an image for the emerging nation. Literary representation has been used as one of the strongest assets of Irish national and cultural identity and as reflecting the core of Irishness when in contact with other cultures. For the purposes of this thesis, I take as a starting point the notion that translated literature is to a great extent a representation of a national culture to other receptor cultures. The idea the source culture has about itself,
43 According to Spivak, representation is found where subjects are not able to act as agents for themselves (“Can the Subaltern Speak?”).
55 however, does not necessarily coincide with the image that reaches foreign cultures and their audiences; this is an issue that needs to be explored in the following chapters.
Representation and translation perform closely. Irish literary production is a significant form of representation of the Irish culture. In this sense the Irish literary texts explored here are taken to be both representational and (to a certain extent) representative. If culture as a whole is viewed as a text to be read, deciphered and translated, it is the translatability of Irish culture into Greek culture that is under the microscope here.
1.10 Cultures in Contact
Translation involves much more than the one-to-one transfer of texts on a linguistic level.
It is now commonly accepted that translation entails cultural as much as linguistic transfer (Hönig and Kussmaul; Reiss and Vermeer; Holz-Mäntäri; Snell-Hornby,
Translation Studies; Bassnett and Lefevere, Translation, History and Culture; Lefevere,
“Composing the Other”). Nonetheless, translation can be seen in a much broader sense, embracing concepts that evoke not only language and culture, but power relations and human experience. It is in this light that many of the arguments presented here will be structured. The term translation will, therefore, assume various meanings, and will be used in a broader sense, in order to convey the complexity of the interwoven processes that are involved in the translational phenomenon. Translation entails both difference and contact between different languages and cultures. Apart from this conventional sense of
56 boundary-crossing, however, it is arguable that translation is also the transferring of human experience into a form of expression, written, oral or otherwise materialized.44
1.11 The Translation of Culture and Cultural Translation
In a thesis that explores how aspects of one culture are rendered into another through translated literary texts, the notion of “the translation of culture” is obviously the core issue. A related term is that of “cultural translation”, which is also used in a much broader sense. The notion of “cultural translation” has been assigned different meanings in various fields, such as social anthropology, actor-network theory (‘translation sociology’), and sociologies that focus on communication in fragmented societies, especially the ones connected to migration (Pym, Exploring Translation Theories 144).45
Of interest for this thesis is the use of the term in social anthropology or ethnography, as will be demonstrated further on.
Within translation studies the term “cultural translation” has been used in a clear- cut, literal sense. Ovidio Carbonell, for example, who sees translation as “a paradigm of culture contact,” makes a distinction between “cultural translation” and “textual translation”, underlining the importance of culture and context for a translation (79). For the purposes of this thesis, I understand cultural translation as referring to “those
44 See George Steiner, who asserts that any act of human communication, any exchange of speech- messages, equals translation (especially 47-50). Compare also Derek Attridge’s perspective, who goes as far as to describe even the process of expressing thoughts in written text as an act of translation (15).
45 Discussing the broadness the concept has assumed, Anthony Pym goes as far as to wonder if we are faced with a new paradigm (Exploring Translation Theories 143-144).
57 practices of literary translation that mediate cultural difference or try to convey extensive cultural background, or set out to represent another culture via translation” (Sturge 67).
Nevertheless, through its different uses in a range of disciplines outside the field of translation studies, the term has assumed a variety of new meanings, which are also useful for my examination of cultural transfer and will thus be taken into consideration.
Cultural translation has come to be seen as an activity that does not necessarily involve pairs of texts, in the traditional sense of translation, but rather as an activity of communication between cultural subjects or groups. Peter Burke underscores the reciprocal character of the process of cultural translation in the sense cultural anthropologists assign to it, meaning a term used “to describe what happens in cultural encounters when each side tries to make sense of the actions of the other” (8).46
Similarly, Ashok Bery observes with regard to colonial situations that, “Cultural translation is a process that takes place on both sides of the colonial divide, as people attempt to make sense of other ways of life” (2). Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak also uses the term in a variety of ways; as a background for her discussion of the suppression of the aboriginals’ identity, for instance (“Translation as Culture”). She also argues that, since cultures cannot really be known (not the way languages can), the shift from linguistic translation to cultural translation provides nothing but an alibi for radical Europeans who wish to be generous towards migrants, their former subjects (“More Thoughts on Cultural
46 Burke attributes the coinage of the term to “the anthropologists in the circle of Edward Evans- Pritchard” (8).
58 Translation”). Elsewhere, she proposes that cultural translation becomes a practice of political responsibility (“The Politics of Translation”).47
On the other hand, cultural translation has also been viewed in a more metaphorical sense. Homi Bhabha uses it extensively in his Location of Culture. Drawing a parallel between Benjamin’s “foreignness”—which he sees as akin to “the performativity of translation as the staging of cultural difference” (The Location of
Culture 325)—and cultural translation, Bhabha underscores the provisional nature of culture, language, and thus translation. Translation, in the sense used by Bhabha, however, refers rather to human migrancy than to any of the traditional meanings of translation, even the more inclusive ones.48 In other words, he explores issues of migration, identity and postcolonial experience with reference to translation—which he sees not as transfer not of texts but of human experience—using the notion of cultural translation in a broad, metaphorical way. What I find particularly useful in Bhabha’s theories is the notion of provisionality attributed to culture, and by the same token to translation. As he puts it, “Translation is the performative nature of cultural communication” (The Location of Culture 228). The meaning of literary texts may change according to different readings, and so may the cultural identity they evoke. Thus, meaning through translation—for which the act of reading is the first stage of the
47 Her uses of the term do offer an insight into how cultural transfer operates, especially within a colonial and postcolonial context, and are thus interesting for a better understanding of the Irish experience. However, the major focus is on how translation from peripheral, colonial and postcolonial cultures into mainstream, dominant cultures is distorted in favor of the latter, and thus her writings on cultural translation are not of immediate relevance for my examination of translations of Anglo-Irish poetry into Greek.
48 As a matter of fact, Harish Trivedi, in his interpretation of Bhabha’s writings, emphatically insists that cultural translation is not the translation of culture (“Translating Culture vs. Cultural Translation”).
59 process—is open to change, in the same way culture and identity are.49 Notions such as hybridity and contingency of meaning may broaden our perspective on how cultures come into contact through translation and how translators operate in the space between cultures.
Returning to cultural translation considered as an activity that involves cross- cultural transfer between texts, there is also another interesting perspective offered by
Burke, which I find useful and usable:
Another way of discussing cultural translation is to speak of a double
process of decontextualization and recontextualization, first reaching out
to appropriate something alien and then domesticating it. Interlingual
translation may be regarded not only as an instance of this process but also
as a kind of litmus paper that makes it unusually visible—or audible. It
may be illuminating to attempt to look at the process from a double
viewpoint. From the receiver’s point of view it is a form of gain, enriching
the host culture as a result of a skilful adaptation. From the donor’s point
of view, on the other hand, translation is a form of loss, leading to
misunderstanding and doing violence to the original. (10)
Although the validity of this approach in any given instance of translation is questionable,50 it raises interesting questions, such as to what extent the process of cultural translation does indeed involve a gain or loss for both cultures. Of particular
49 Compare Venuti’s views cited in section 1.13. I will further elaborate on these positions in section 1.14.
50 If we take into consideration the power relations between cultures, the potential appropriation of models (linguistic and/or cultural) through translation from dominant cultures into minor ones, for example, is not necessarily a gain for the latter.
60 interest is the examination of this matter with regard to the core issue of representation discussed above.
1.12 Representation through Translation
All literary texts have a metonymic function evoking the broader cultural context from which they originate (Tymoczko, Translation in a Postcolonial Context). To the extent that literature is not only an agent that shapes cultural identities but also a reflection of culture, elements from the real lived experience of a people become a transfer through the representational means of literature. And since texts are transferred anew through translation, translated texts become then metarepresentations in the sense applied by
Ernst-August Gutt.51
Translation is considered a process through which insight into foreign cultures is gained and cultural awareness is raised. It becomes the means by which the image of the source culture is communicated to foreign audiences, along with its aesthetics and values, especially in the case of literature. The mode in which literary texts are transferred into another language through translation greatly conditions their reception and that of the culture they evoke. Nedret Kuran-Burçoğlu underscores the impact translation may have as far as the reception of foreign cultures is concerned: “If the target reader is unfamiliar with the source culture, i.e. if translation is for her/him the first means of getting to know
51 Gutt draws on Sperber and Wilson to discuss the interpretive function involved in any translated text, which hence becomes a metarepresentation of the original. Wilson defines metarepresentation within the linguistic communication context/context of communication theory as “a representation of a representation: a higher-order representation with a lower-order representation embedded within it” (411).
61 the foreign culture, and hence the image of the other is not developed yet, translation may strongly influence the newly emerging image” (148).
Translation inevitably involves the notions of cultural interpretation, reproduction, and representation. The translator’s task entails a hermeneutic approach to literary texts, which yields representations (or misrepresentations) of the source culture. In order to illustrate the extremely important role of translation for the reception of foreign cultures,
I would like to discuss the concept of ethnography, which is seen as parallel to translation and is also closely linked to the matter of cultural and national identity.
1.13 Translation as Ethnography: Translators as Interpreters of Cultures
The connection between translation and ethnography has been underlined by various scholars. Both tasks involve cross-cultural understanding and the representation of the foreign, achieved through interpretation. First of all, there is the position that translation is indispensable in the anthropological enterprise not only cross-culturally, in the form of
“words, ideas and meanings” that allow a certain understanding between two cultures, but also as “a set of analytical concepts”, a tool used by the science of anthropology for gathering data, identifying and analyzing foreign cultures (Rubel and Rosman 1). The problem of the “translation of cultures” has been a central task for social anthropology dating back to the 1950s (Asad 141-2). In her essay entitled “Ethnography as
Translation”, Myrdene Anderson sees translation as the conceptual tool for understanding the speculative synthesis entailed in the ethnographer’s task, and investigates “how ethnography is performed through nested and multi-valenced translation processes and
62 how ethnography is constructed as translation par excellence” (390, emphasis in the text), while Valero-Garcés has drawn a parallel between ethnographers and translators as
“interpreters of experience”. Similarly, Michaella Wolf argues that, “In ethnographies as well as in translation in the traditional sense of the word, the cultural Other is not verbalized directly, but only indirectly, and filtered and arranged through the ethnographer’s or the translator’s consciousness” (“Culture as Translation—and
Beyond”, 181). In this sense the anthropologist’s task to describe foreign tribes and/or cultures is seen as an act of “translation”. Accordingly, the translator’s task is to act not only as a mediator between cultures, but actually as the person who becomes responsible for representing aspects of one culture to another. Lefevere underscores the role of translators in the process of transferring texts to foreign audiences: “Since they are at home in two cultures and two literatures, they also have the power to construct the image of one literature for consumption by the readers of another” (Translating Literature:
Practice and Theory 6).
The ethnographer’s or social anthropologist’s activity usually entails the observation and description of an unfamiliar tribe or remote group. It is her/his responsibility to convey the particularities of a given culture through her/his notes.
Similarly, it is the translator’s task to convey the particularities of the source culture through her/his translations.52 Both activities entail a certain degree of interpretation and subjectivity: it is then up to the interpreter to choose consciously or unconsciously which aspects of the foreign culture to portray through her/his writings.53 Shingo Shimada draws attention to the need for a “critical review of the narrative construction of the
52 See Herzfeld for a discussion of the differences between ethnography and literary translation.
53 I am using the word “interpreter” in the broader sense expounded by Steiner (28).
63 Other”, pointing out that, “anthropological texts can no longer be regarded as valid reconstructions of foreign realities. Rather they have to be interpreted as narratives”
(137). What is important in his approach is the emphasis placed on the interpretative role of the anthropologist, and, by analogy, of the translator: as argued before, translation as a means of representation of foreign cultures is to a great degree a question of hermeneutics. Plurality of meaning and contingency as part of the translation act are also stressed by Venuti: “A foreign text is the site of many different semantic possibilities that are fixed only provisionally in any one translation, on the basis of varying cultural assumptions and interpretive choices, in specific social situations, in different historical periods. Meaning is a plural and contingent relation, not an unchanging unified essence”
(The Translator’s Invisisbility 18).
Indeed, there are many aspects of a literary text that a translator may choose to prioritize, as bearers of meaning. Cultural identity is also an important part of a text’s meaning, not inherent necessarily, but enunciated in specific moments. These moments are not inseparable from the moments of reception, i.e. of reading. Since the translation process involves the phase of reading and decoding—that precedes the creative phase of production and encoding—which features come across to the target culture is largely conditioned by the meaning the translator attributes to them. In short, whether or not cultural demarcation is preserved in translated texts depends largely on the hermeneutic approach of the translator that will affect how a literary text is first perceived and then reproduced in another language.54 Apart form conscious choices, however, (which may
54 As Jauss argues: “The interpretive reception of a text always presupposes the context of experience of aesthetic perception. The question of the subjectivity of the interpretation and the taste of different readers or levels of readers can be asked significantly only after it has been decided which
64 derive from a thorough analysis of the text at hand, a deep knowledge of both cultures and/or specific ideological and aesthetic perspectives among other things), one should not disregard the constraints posed upon the translation act by the distance between cultures.
The question “to what extent is a text—and by extension a culture—translatable?” is crucial.
1.14 Τhe Translatability of Culture: A Path to Reception
When dealing with cultures in contact an issue that inevitably arises is that of translatability. As Susan Bassnett points out, since culture is necessarily involved in the act of translation, there are great difficulties in defining the limits of translatability
(Translation Studies 35). Jaqcues Derrida also suggests that it is impossible to make a clear distinction between translatability and untranslatability, when he writes: “in a sense, nothing is untranslatable; but in another everything is untranslatable; translation is another name for the impossible” (Monolingualism of the Other 56-57). Elsewhere he asserts: “What must be translated of that which is translatable can only be the untranslatable” (Acts of Literature 257-8), suggesting thus that translation is indeed possible within a very wide frame, where there are infinite possibilities of attributing and transferring meaning.
There have been, nonetheless, various attempts to describe, analyze and delineate the concept of translatability. In 1959 Roman Jacobson described the concept of the translatability of the linguistic sign (233); yet much of the debate on cultural transubjective horizon of understanding determines the impact of the text” (“Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory” 13).
65 (un)translatability has evolved on the basis of J. C. Catford’s basic distinction between linguistic and cultural untranslatability.55 Mary Snell-Hornby underscores the importance of cultural specificity as well as spatial and time factors involved in the translation of texts when she writes: “The extent to which a text is translatable varies with the degree to which it is embedded in its own specific culture, also with the distance that separates the cultural background of source text and target audience in terms of time and place”
(Translation Studies 41, emphasis in the text). Still, even today the extent to which cultures are translatable is the subject of much debate. The core question that arises from the previous discussion is “how translatable is national and cultural identity”? How are identification and self-perception transferred through translation? Do translators convey cultural demarcation and national specificity, thus offering their target audience a fair representation of the source culture?
An attempt to provide answers to the above questions may be facilitated if the concept of translatability is viewed not only in relation to texts, but within a broader framework. Walter Benjamin (1923) wrote about the untranslatability of translations themselves, referring to the metaphorical aspect of translation, and insisting on its momentary and transitory nature. Drawing on Benjamin, Homi Bhabha talks about the in- betweenness involved in the act of translation:
55 Catford writes that “In linguistic untranslatability the functionally relevant features include some which are in fact formal features of the language of the SL text. If the TL has no formally corresponding feature, the text, or the item, is (relatively) untranslatable” (94). He goes on to distinguish the concept of cultural untranslatability: “What appears to be a quite different problem arises, however, when a situational feature, functionally relevant for the SL text, is completely absent from the culture of which the TL is a part. This may lead to what is called cultural untranslatability” (99). As many other core issues in translation studies, the concept of (un)translatability followed a similar course: initially viewed mainly through the linguist’s lens, on a rather narrow lexical level, it has come to be employed on a much larger frame by the scholars of what has become known as the cultural turn, and its use has expanded even further, as it is also applied in other discourses such as the postcolonial and feminist ones. More recent approaches attempt to place the concept within “the realm of the philosophy of art” (Laiho 106).
66 caught in-between a ‘nativist’, even nationalist, atavism and a postcolonial
metropolitan assimilation, the subject of cultural difference becomes a
problem that Walter Benjamin has described as the irresolution, or
liminality, of ‘translation’, the element of resistance in the process of
transformation, ‘that element in a translation which does not lend itself to
translation. […] The migrant culture of the in-between’, the minority
position, dramatizes the activity of culture’s untranslatability; and in so
doing, it moves the question of culture’s appropriation beyond the
assimilationist’s dream, or the racist’s nightmare, of a ‘full transmissal of
subject matter’, and towards an encounter with the ambivalent process of
splitting and hybridity that marks the identification with culture’s
difference. (The Location of Culture 224)
Bhabha is referring to migrant identities. Nevertheless, his perspective that any cultural production can be seen as located in a situation of liminality, in a perennial transformation, goes a long way. The main point, that of fluidity of culture as a central characteristic of instances in need for translation—whether identities, acts of communication or texts—is a very interesting and useful claim.56 For Bhabha, there is a liminal space in-between, a “third space” for the construction of culture and identity—of which translation is an integral part—which is located in what he calls the enunciative moment (The Location of Culture 34-6).57 Hence, it can be argued that literary texts, as
56 Irish identity is no exception: it has more often than not been on the borderline, in zones neither completely inside nor outside; both included and excluded at the same time.
57 For Bhabha the moment of enunciation is not only limited to oral speech but is also found in writing.
67 cultural products and cultural reflections evolve through time and are only momentarily and temporarily attached to specific meanings dictated by specific socio-historical situations.
Similarly, Iser connects the issue of translatability to the space between cultures:
A culture—so it seems—obtains its salient features not least by
demarcating itself from what it is not. Even if we have to bear in mind that
the space between cultures does not exactly constitute the specificity of
the cultures concerned, it nevertheless allows at least for a mutual
mirroring of different cultures. This is due to the fact that the space
between does not belong to any of the cultures that refract one another.
This makes the space between turn into a condition of self-reflexivity,
which can only result in a heightened self-awareness of a culture that sees
itself refracted in the mirror of the one encountered. (32)
Since it is translators that operate in the space in-between, they are the ones who have a role in determining how the mirroring of cultures takes place; the decisions they make are part of a very complex process. The situation becomes even more complicated, though, when the texts and cultural practices involved belong to the colonial and/or postcolonial sphere. Being the expression of the oppressed, they are loaded with much more than the exchange between two languages or two cultures: in this context identity and its transfer through translation are of the utmost importance.
1.15 Translation in the Context of Postcolonialism58
58 I am borrowing the title for this section from Maria Tymoczko.
68
Postcolonial discourse is mainly concerned with the power relations between hegemonic and dominated cultures. Whether the postcolonial context is strictly confined to the study of Europe’s former colonies, either since their colonization or since their independence, or whether it is seen as more broadly applicable to any historical/cultural situation in which two cultures are seen in a dominating/dominated relation (Robinson, Translation and Empire 13-4),59 subversion, self-representation and the reclaiming of identities are all central issues for the subaltern. The impact of the colonial cultural legacy or the coercion exercised on dominated cultures is of paramount importance for the formation and transformation of their cultural identities.
Similarly, the greatest part of the discussion within the field of Postcolonial
Translation has at its core the power relations between colonized and colonizer, and more specifically the way translation has served as an instrument for colonial domination.
Tejaswini Niranjana has pointed out the connection between translation and colonialism and has shed light on the asymmetrical power relations between colonizers and colonized subjects. Similar points have been made by several other writers (Bassnett, Translation
Studies, and “Postcolonial Translations”; Rafael; Cheyfitz; Robinson, Translation and
Empire; Bassnett and Trivedi, “Of Colonies, Cannibals and Vernaculars”). It should not go unnoticed that within postcolonial discourses, translation has been given more extended meanings than the simple core definition of rendering a textual message in another language. In conditions of oppression, hegemony and—on the other hand—in situations where the search for and reclaiming of an identity are central, translation
59 For a categorization and a discussion of the controversy over the scope of postcolonial studies see Robinson, Translation and Empire 13-17.
69 embraces many more concepts. Within this discourse, translation may mean “retelling and transcreation” in precolonial conditions, “domesticating” in colonial conditions, and
“multilingual trafficking” under postcolonial conditions (Rüdiger and Gross, ix). One of the most basic notions in postcolonial thinking, and by extension in postcolonial translation, remains the transcendence of the colonial dichotomy, whereby colonies are viewed as copies or “translations” of the “original” colonizing cultures (Bassnnett and
Trivedi, “Of Colonies, Cannibals and Vernaculars”; Rao). This transcendence entails challenging the supposed superiority of colonial cultures/texts and negotiating the peripheral state of the colonized. Much of the work conducted within the frame of postcolonialism and postcolonial translation theory has been guided by this very notion.
Nevertheless, if we take a step away from the centrality of the relationship between colonizer and colonized for postcolonial studies, we realize that there are also a number of issues related to the subjugated cultures that merit our attention. In fact, postcolonialism is in line with a multiplicity of perspectives, since it embraces “multiple activities with a range of different priorities and positions [and] it is in part characterized by a refusal of totalizing framework” (Young, Postcolonialism: An Historical
Introduction 64). Drawing upon the multiplicity advocated by the postcolonial perspective, I view the issue of identity from a different angle and connect it to translation. The colonized people’s subjective identities and their self-image has rightly received much academic interest, but the image of these peoples and their cultures for third parties, i.e. other foreign cultures, has been generally neglected.
As has been argued, translation plays a fundamental role in the transfer of this image from one culture to another. In the case of cultures that have been involved in a
70 colonial/postcolonial experience, this transfer is much more complicated, since it entails not simply the pair colonizer/colonized or the copy of original/translation but rather the more complex combination of cultural transfer, not from a single language/culture to another, but the blend of the culture of the colonized expressed in the language of the colonizer, and then transferred into yet another target culture. In this way, the first instance of translation occurs when the experience of the colonial/postcolonial subjects is transferred (translated) into the literary text,60 often through the medium of a dominant language. These literary texts are then translated “again” into another foreign language, for a foreign receiving culture, through a palimpsestic procedure. In this way, values and cultural beliefs that are specific to and representative of the colonized culture are conveyed by means of the colonizer’s language through texts, which are then translated, and thus serve to bring across an image of that culture to a foreign audience.
Translation within postcolonial discourse becomes, thus, a site of multiple instances of cultural transformation, retranslation and rewriting. The fact that postcolonial translation may embrace such complicated acts of interlingual cultural transfer has been underlined by Edwin Gentzler:
Postcolonial translation does not mean some sort of return to an
essentialist, precolonial state; rather it involves complex encounters with
new situations, and contemporary translators are increasingly open to
mixing textures, beliefs, materials and languages… hybrid sites of new
meaning open up; new borders are encountered and crossed, often with
60 Compare Maurice Frank O’Connor’s view that, “many postcolonial texts are in themselves cultural translations in the postmodernist sense of being non-textual and non-linguistic translations of cultural material” (237).
71 surprisingly creative results. (“Translation, Poststructuralism and Power”
217)
The process of translation and representation in a postcolonial context is thus more complex than a bipolar, binary transfer. Translation becomes the locus of multiple processes of transfer and representation. Within this framework, it is interesting to consider what happens to literary texts that originate from a colonial/postcolonial context when they are translated into another culture which is in turn by contemporary standards considered minor and peripheral. 61
1.16 Postcoloniality and Translation: Translation and Ireland
The case of Irish literature is indicative of the situation described above. In order to demonstrate how Irish culture becomes a “site of hybridity” through its literary production (especially in translation), it is useful to consider briefly how crucial the act of translation has been for Irish culture. It takes only a quick look at Irish history with the number of invaders and settlers on the island (Romans, Vikings, Normans, Anglo-
Saxons) for one to realize that within this linguistic diversity, translation has been playing a central role for centuries. In the most recent years, translation—albeit not in connection with any form of Irish subjugation—is still very much necessary. Not only do the people of contemporary Ireland have two languages—English and Gaelic—as their heritage and
61 Postcolonial writing, on the other hand, is seen as displaying some of the characteristics of translation (Tymoczko, “Post-colonial Writing and Literary Translation”; Prasad). The comparison is based on the notion that certain techniques which are common especially in the translation of culture-specific items are also used by postcolonial writers in an attempt to transfer their marginal culture to the reader of the dominant center. There is, nevertheless, a connection between postcolonial writing and translation on yet another level, since, as Bassnett argues, every instance of postcolonial thinking or writing necessarily involves the act of translation (“Postcolonial Translations” 94).
72 as official vernaculars,62 but the fact that Ireland has become one of the receiving countries for immigrants and refugees makes the need for translation more pressing than ever.63
However, in this plethora of historical situations in which translation has been indispensable, the cross-cultural interaction that stands out as the most important for the formation of Irish national identity is the one between the Irish and the English. Taking as a starting point the notion that “translation has always been an essential channel of imperial conquest and occupation” (Robinson, Translation and Empire 10), we can easily understand how important it has been for the English to use translation in order to communicate with and control their Gaelic-speaking subjects, especially in the early phases of the colonization of Ireland. The Irish gradually abandoned their Gaelic language and English steadily became the main vernacular on the island. Through the colonial encounter, Irish culture engaged itself into a dialectics with its English counterpart, being subjected to a process of transculturation, and was thus continuously transformed.64 This transformation and negotiation of Irish culture happened through discursive practices and, most importantly, slowly but surely through the use of the
English language; it was thus, both in a narrow and a broader sense, an act of translation.
Irish literary production in English reflects how the distinct Irish culture with all its particularities had to be communicated, and, hence, in a way “translated”, by means of
62 Translating between the two languages of this dual heritage is, as Michael Cronin observes, “an act of self-understanding” (Translating Ireland 181).
63 For a connection between multilingualism in the Irish past and the challenges of the translation present see Cronin and Ó Cuilleanáin; Tymoczko and Ireland.
64 Mary Louise Pratt refers to the term “transculturation” used by ethnographers “to describe how subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted to them by a dominant or metropolitan culture” (6).
73 the language of the colonizer. In other words, much of Irish literary expression in English can be said to belong to what Mary Louise Pratt calls autoethnographic expression, i.e.,
“instances in which colonized subjects undertake to represent themselves in ways that engage with the colonizer’s own terms” (7).
Nonetheless, this was not a one-way-process. The disposition of Gaelic gave birth to a new hybrid version of English. Hiberno-English, heavily marked with signs of cultural specificity, was spoken on the entire island regardless of class or education and was used in literature by some of the major Irish writers. It occupied an ambivalent, contested space within the frame of the English language, and penetrated it.
This latter remark has generated one of the basic assumptions of this thesis, namely that there is a certain Otherness in Anglo-Irish literary texts (in the sense that they evoke a certain national culture, distinct in the English-speaking world) that allows the introduction of a heterogeneous element into the body of literature written in English.
This may mean either the use of Hiberno-English or the introduction of new forms (the use of ballad in poetry, for instance), genres (the Big-house novel is a characteristic example of Anglo-Irish prose)65 or other literary devices. These (textual) features manifest a national origin despite the use of the English language; in a sense, these texts are a metonymy of Irish culture through the means of the English language. The act of translation, in a broader sense, can be regarded as taking place within the texts themselves: elements of Otherness, of the Irish culture, are transferred to the literary texts.66 Then these texts are in turn translated in other languages in a palimpsestic mode.
65 For an examination of the portrayal of Irish national and cultural identity in the genre of the Big- house novel, see Norris.
66 For a similar discussion regarding translation and philosophy see Sakai and Solomon (6).
74 The transfer of the Other through this sequence of translation acts is the main concern of this thesis, which seeks to investigate to what extent alterity is maintained or obscured when Anglo-Irish poetry is translated into Greek.
1.17 The Multiplicity of the “Other”: The “Other” in Translation
So far the “Other” has been seen as the constituent against which identities are formed; in this case Irishness is constructed against Englishness. However, the Other can assume different conceptual dimensions, if seen more broadly as the foreign, i.e., as the quality outside what is familiar; hence it becomes a core concept for translation. The extent to which foreignness should be highlighted or assimilated (by the translator) is one of the questions raised within the discourse of the ethics of translation (Bermann). Venuti argues very persuasively that, “a translated text should be the site at which a different culture emerges, where a reader gets a glimpse of a cultural other” (The Translator’s
Invisibility 306). Along these lines, David Johnston similarly points out that, “translation embodies the attempt to replicate in one language and grammar an act of discourse from a language and grammar that are ‘other’ to us, with all the connotations that postmodernism has granted that term” (305).67 The “Other” is a polyvalent, multilayered, hybrid notion, central in every instance of identity and representation; as such it is indispensable both for the construction of difference and cultural specificity and a core
67 Compare Sanford Buddick, who, although recognizing the centrality of “otherness” for postmodern thought, insists on a “crisis of alterity” to which he refers as “secondary otherness”, and which he sees as deriving from the “encounter with untranslatability” (1-22).
75 concept in the process of intercultural transfer inevitably involved in the translation process.
In much of postmodern and postcolonial thinking the Other has been seen primarily as one of the two poles in the dichotomy between the Occident and the Orient, a dichotomy that needed to be challenged. The fact is that within this discourse the Other is viewed as part of a conflict between identities. Within the framework of this thesis, however, this “Otherness” assumes simultaneously two different dimensions: while maintaining the first meaning of alterity, against which identity is constructed (Irishness against Englishness), it also becomes cultural specificity which, through the process of translation is to be recognized, understood, and transferred.68
In his essay “Through-Other Places, Through-Other Times: The Irish Poet and
Britain,” Seamus Heaney proposes the notion of “through-other,” which means
“physically untidy or mentally confused” and is the Hiberno-English version of the
Gaelic expression trí na céile (366). Heaney proposes this term as a positive version instead of the recently much-used term “other”: “In the post-colonial phase of our criticism and cultural studies, we have heard much about ‘the other’, but perhaps the moment of through-other should now be proclaimed, if only because it seems to have arrived. Translation, among other things, has seen to that” (379). Heaney suggests through-otherness as an alternative to the binary involved in the notion of the Other, as a concept that may transcend the barrier between cultures. Heaney’s starting point is his own translation of Beowulf (1999), but his proposition can actually be very useful in a discussion about Ireland. For one thing, although much of the formation of Irish identity
68 Within this process translation assumes the double role of highlighting difference (Venuti) by using sameness /reciprocity (Shimada).
76 was based on the binary opposition of Us/Them, where the notion of the “Other” is central, as has been previously shown, by now this one-dimensional concept is not adequate to describe the multiplicity of identities that may lay claim to Irishness. Besides, this quality of untidiness and confusion has been brought about also because of translation, as Heaney points out. If we take into consideration the multiple acts of translation that take place as a literary text comes into being in a source cultural context and is then transported into a target language and culture, we will soon realize there is indeed a certain degree of confusion, at least in the sense of fuzziness, where there are no clear-cut edges and cultural borders are blurry. This view is resonant of Bhabha's position of hybridity within any cultural encounter. Nevertheless, since literary texts are representative of the national culture they come from, there must be certain features that are characteristic and evocative.
Conclusion
What I propose here is a reading of Irish literary texts as locations of the representation of a specific national and cultural identity. It is in this spirit that I am attempting to trace
Otherness—Irishness—in the various forms it may assume. The hybridity of Irish identity as reflected in Anglo-Irish literary texts and the extent to which the articulations of this identity come across in the translated texts will be the focus of the following chapters.
77 CHAPTER 2
MATERIAL AND METHOD
Introduction to the Chapter
This chapter presents the primary material used in the thesis. It begins with a section entitled “Why Poetry”, in which the reasons for choosing this literary form as opposed to the novel are explained. This is followed by short introductions to the three poets—
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Patrick Kavanagh (1906-1964), and Seamus Heaney
(b. 1939)—and brief discussions of their place in the canon. Then a detailed presentation of the Greek translations (editions) is provided. The translations come both from poetry collections and literary journals, but I have also included in my listings extracts from poems that appear in books of literary criticism, as well as certain translations that appear online.
This presentation is followed by a section on methodology, in which I describe in detail the type and structure of analysis and explain why I have chosen the particular approach. This section begins with a discussion of the difficulties that arise from the fact that identity is subjective and from the need to objectively describe its manifestations in literary texts—whether original or translated. The identity markers chosen for the analysis are then presented, with reference to the definitions of cultural and national
78 identity discussed in the previous chapter, and the limitations of the research are also mentioned. Finally the scheme used for the translatological analysis is outlined.
2.1 Why Poetry
This thesis examines representations of national and cultural identity in poetry, which has had a very central role in Irish life. Declan Kiberd notes that in Ireland “The institution of literature was not just a storehouse of lore and wisdom over centuries for a dispossessed people; it was also a kind of dynamo, gathering energies into focus and releasing more”
(‘Irish Literature and Irish History’ 230-1). Hence, it would not be an exaggeration to begin by arguing that much of what is perceived today as Irish cultural identity owes its definition to literature, especially to drama and poetry.69 It is worth mentioning that Irish poetry in Gaelic is part of the oldest vernacular literature in Europe (Altuna García de
Salazar 28; Cheape 109; Hillers 40; Kinsella, The Táin vii; Nilsen 54). Since the sixth century AD, when the first poems were composed in Gaelic, to the verse contained in the early Irish sagas to the bardic tradition and contemporary verse in both Gaelic and
English, poetry has been deeply rooted in Irish culture.
Poetry was a key site for the promotion of a distinct national cultural identity in
Ireland throughout the twentieth century. Its contribution to the construction of Irish cultural identity is particularly important during the Irish struggle for independence which culminated in the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1921, since much of the
69 There is plenty of scholarly interest as well as numerous publications to support the central role of theater for the formation of Irish identity, but, although its importance is undeniable, I will not expand on this here. For the contribution of theater in the shaping of Irish identity, see Cusack; Llewellyn-Jones; Murray; and Ryschka, especially pages 48-52.
79 nation-building process in Ireland was entrusted in poetry, which continues to offer graphic representations of Ireland and its culture still up to the present date. Besides the celebration of national character manifested in patriotic poetry—which was created exactly to foster and bring forward the national element—there are many poems that mediate the cultural identity of the Irish nation. Several elements that are traditionally associated with the idea of the nation or a national culture—including mythological elements, depictions of landscape, familiar traditional practices which assume symbolic meanings—feature in abundance in 20th-century Irish poetry. Symbols, images and archetypes of a distinctly Irish identity are condensed in such a manner in Irish poetry that its evocative power becomes in a way the reflection of a national cultural identity.
Although it is the novel that is regarded as a major conveyor of national identity,70 the case of Ireland presents certain particularities, on account of which, poetry might be considered as an adequate counterpart as far as Irishness is concerned. Derek Hand observes that, due to many misconceptions, “the novel inhabited a peculiarly tangential position in Irish writing” until recently (2). Terry Eagleton’s Marxist approach to Irish literary history can prove very useful at this point, as he argues that due to Ireland’s impoverishment the prerequisite of a material base for the novel to flourish was absent, which explains why the novel thrived in England but not in Ireland (Heathcliff and the
70 The novel has been mainly viewed as the device most closely connected to national identity and the nation-state. Russell A. Berman notes that prose has been favored as a genre in which to look for political and social issues at the expense of poetry (66). Indeed, the inextricable relation of the novel to the nation-state and its role in the formation of national identities has been often highlighted (Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities 25-31, and The Spectre of Comparisons 334-336; Brennan 48; Barnett 94; Parrinder). Franco Moretti goes as far as to declare that “the novel functions as the symbolic form of the nation-state” (20). It has also often been argued that the novel is the form that best serves as the ideological apparatus of imperialism—British imperialism in particular (Said, Culture and Imperialism; Orientalism), while Fredric Jameson points out that Western audiences read postcolonial novels as “national allegories”.
80 Great Hunger 145). This has led to what seems to be an uneven development of genres in
Ireland, with the “atypicality of the Irish novel” (Lloyd 155) opening the way for poetry to become much more central and to assume particular characteristics and a distinctive function.
What is interesting about poetry in Ireland is its double character which consists of two seemingly incompatible qualities: it is sublime and ordinary at the same time.
While poetry as a form of literature is traditionally seen as belonging to high culture, and indeed much of the Irish poetic production is of the utmost quality, dense with complicated meanings, poetry in Ireland is simultaneously a form that addresses not only to the few but rather a broader audience. Both these traits have contributed to the forging of the national and cultural identity in Ireland, each in a different way.
Sarah M. Corse stresses the political role of high-culture literature for nation- states, when she writes: “High-culture literature helps articulate, affirm and broadcast a legitimated vision of the nation-state. Current high-culture literature also serves as a conduit for the incorporation of new meanings of the national identity” (1293). Since poetry is often considered the highest form of literary production, the prestige it brings to the national canon as well as the authority it lends to a national literature within the international literary poly-system secure its employment as a vehicle for national identity, especially in the case of peripheral cultures.71 Ireland is no exception, and, therefore, the notion of national identity is encapsulated and represented in Irish poetry, which serves
71 The abundance of prominent poets in minor literatures is striking, but it is not only within the (minor) national canons themselves that poetry is promoted. Acknowledgement of the poetic production originating from postcolonial, developing nations or otherwise minor national cultures comes often as compensation on behalf of the greater nations and the global poly-system they manipulate. An overview of the Nobel Prizes, for example, would be convincing enough, when considering cases such as Derek Walcott or the two Greek laureates, to name a few.
81 not only as a point of reference for an Irish sense of belonging, but also as an emblem of the intellectual status of the Irish culture to be presented to the rest of the world.
Despite the fact that poetry is considered a manifestation of high-literature, usually addressed to rather limited audiences, the situation in Ireland is different. It is one of the places where public readings of poetry are still a very common practice, while impromptu poetry recitals take place even at pubs. One could convincingly argue that these functions continue the oral poetic tradition of the Celts.72 The organic connection of poetry to everyday ordinary life goes to show, therefore, that poetry as a form in Ireland is not a limited and isolated manifestation of cultural production, but rather a vibrant cultural institution.
Certain parallels can be drawn between poetry in Ireland and poetry in Greece. It is a fact that poets in both places are not detached intellectuals, but rather easily enter the public sphere, through written but also oral channels. It should be stressed that Irish and
Greek poetry reach and have a great appeal to a broader public in the place where they originate, not only and surely not mainly through the private act of reading, as is common elsewhere in the Western world. A great portion of both Irish and Greek poetry has been set to music; it is largely recognizable, extremely popular, and cherished as a legacy that passes on from generation to generation. In such a manner, poetry assumes timeless value: its continuity is traced back to ancient times, to oral traditions that connect the contemporary Irish and Greeks to ancient poetic practices. Hence, in both countries, a special place is reserved for poets in the collective consciousness. The Irish as well as the
Greeks take great pride in their poets, who retain prestige and are seen as incarnating the
72 Compare Yeats’s views on the orality of Irish poetry discussed in more detail in Chapter Four.
82 culture’s image in a hectic and technocratic reality where there seems to be little space for spiritual and intellectual quests.
There are, nonetheless, differences between the poetic production in Ireland and
Greece. The political dimension of much Irish poetry cannot be denied. It is, however, engaged with the national cause, rather than any other political matter, such as class consciousness or the struggle against a totalitarian regime. There is also a lot of Greek political poetry; its content, however, is almost completely different and—at least at first sight—there does not seem to be a point of convergence between the two of them. As
Philip Sherrard argues, comparing Yeats to Angelos Sikelianos, the difference between
Ireland and Greece lies in the fact that the former has a peasant tradition, while the latter has a popular, folk tradition, on which poets draw (63-66); this may offer a first explanation for the distinct characteristics each poetic tradition developed.
In spite of their differences, however, the two poetic traditions do share important features, especially as far as their function in society and their relationship to their native audiences is concerned. To what extent these similarities and differences are taken into consideration when poetry from one culture is translated into the language of the other will be discussed in the following chapters.
2.2 The Writers
The poets examined in this thesis were not only chosen because they cover the time span of the whole 20th century, but also because I consider them to be the most representative of modern and contemporary Irish poetry, both in Ireland and abroad.
83 Igor Chernov distinguishes three different kinds of “reflection” according to which a literary text can be identified as “belonging to a specific national literature”: a) the subjective feeling of the writer”, b) “the view of an outsider” and c) “the position of the writer (and reader) of another nationality” (770). The first criterion is met by all three poets.73 As for the two latter indications, they can be seen as signs of reception by two different audiences, in which case the three poets are by now considered as the greatest and/or most popular Irish poets. As far as “the view of an outsider” is concerned, Irish criticism has always considered the poetry of the three as local production, while the Irish audience’s reception is phenomenal. In the list of favorite Irish poems compiled by the
Irish Times in 2000, the three poets were the most appreciated; a fact which indicates their reception by and influence on the broader Irish public.74
2.2.1 William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) enjoys the reputation of the greatest Irish poet and is widely acknowledged as one of the most outstanding literary figures of the twentieth century. Yeats was a prolific poet and playwright, who also wrote essays, short stories,
73 Yeats’s project to rebuild Irish national consciousness is characteristic, while Heaney clearly identifies himself as Irish and not British on several occasions, the best-known of all being “An Open Letter”; the famous poem published by Field Day in 1983, with which Heaney objects to his inclusion in The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry (ed. Blake Morrison and Andrew Motion), leaves no room to doubt his national sentiment. As for Catholic, middle-class Kavanagh, who spent his whole life in Ireland, his modest representation of every-day Irish reality in his poetry is the best proof of where he inscribed himself. Most importantly, though, they meet an important criterion as set by Naftoli Bassel: “rootedness in the traditions of native literature should be seen … in the writer’s exploration of the national literary stock, including the stylistics, poetics and meter shaped by the peculiarities of the native tongue, as well as national (folkloric, mythological, historical and literary) images, allusions, analogies, etc” (778).
74 Twenty-five of Yeats’s poems were in the list (six in the top ten), eleven by Kavanagh (ten of which in the top fifty), and also ten poems by Heaney were included.
84 autobiographies, as well as no less than a few thousand letters. His work was multidimensional, moving constantly in new directions and offering itself to various readings and interpretations. His fascination with occultism and spiritualism had a great impact on his poetry, but another extremely important shaping factor of both his work and personality was the affirmation of his Irish nationality.75 Although he belonged to the
Protestant Anglo-Irish minority—the members of which considered themselves
English—Yeats was committed to the national cause of Ireland and made the forging of a distinct Irish identity the primary concern of his life and work. As Yeats himself writes in his essay “Poetry and Tradition”, he had been consistently aspiring to and identifying himself with “that ideal Ireland, perhaps from this out an imaginary Ireland, in whose service I labour” (E&I 246). His aspirations are depicted in various ways in his vast oeuvre, which played a major role in shaping Ireland’s modern, postcolonial identity, and earned him the reputation of “Ireland’s national homme de lettres” (Leersen, “The
Theatre of William Butler Yeats” 48). Alasdair D. F. Macrae notes that “it is unlikely that anywhere else in the world in the 20th century have a poet’s career and a nation’s development been so intertwined. … His influence … was and remains much more pervasive in Ireland’s images of itself and the images of Ireland held by outsiders” (1).
Yeats’s poetry evolved significantly over the years. Indicative of the major changes his work underwent is the fact that there has been much debate over the years on whether he should be placed among the Romantic or the Modernist poets; the truth being
75 Marjorie Elizabeth Howes actually sees Yeats’s fascination with the occult as connected to his nationalist pursues: “Yeats’s occult and metaphysical preoccupations were crucial components of his national and political concerns rather than a separate sphere in which he could either escape or represent those concerns” (2). Jonathan Allison makes a similar point discussing the “overlap between [the poet’s] nationalist and occultist interests” (“Yeats and Politics” 189). So does Claire Nally, who argues that for the poet “The arcane is not simply a free-floating signifier, but rather a medium through which Yeats can express his sense of ethnic belonging, theorized through the definition of the ethnie as proposed by Smith” (31).
85 that Yeats actually bridges Romanticism and Modernism, by gracefully blending elements of both into his work. His very early poems, with their idealistic delicacy are considered a late development of romantic poetry. The poems written in the poet’s twenties and thirties were heavily influenced by his appreciation of the Celtic legacy.
These poems, along with his other writings of the time, present an idealized Irish past, drawing on Gaelic mythology, local traditions and folklore. As mentioned before, Yeats, one of the driving forces behind the Irish Literary Revival (c. 1890-1920), promoted nation-building myths through his entire oeuvre. He gave “Celticity” a central role in his writings and, in his attempt to construct a genuinely Irish cultural paradigm, he depended on “the notion that there is an identifiable and commonly shared racial component—
Irishness—which expresses itself in hostility towards the modern world” (Deane, Celtic
Revivals 30). The use of Celtic mythology in his work, as a means to inspire a sense of common ancestry, a tie and continuity with the past, as a unifying practice for the emerging nation, deserves special attention, particularly when considering his earlier writings.
The turn of the century marked a shift in Yeats’s poetry, though, as the Symbolist aesthetics that had dominated his work up to that point began to fade. His verse started developing beyond the early Celtic material. Most Yeats scholars and critics agree that the volumes published roughly between 1902 and 1916 are transitional works paving the way for Yeats’s more mature verse, which tended towards modernism (Unterecker 113;
Jeffares 124-5; Stallworthy; Kuch 234; Greaves; Supheert 178). By the 1920s his poetry assumed a more social and political character, as a response to the historical conditions of the time in Ireland. He wrote a number of political poems which constitute tributes to
86 Irish rebels such as Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet, Wolfe Tone, and other
Fenians, but also to Charles Stewart Parnell and the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.
The most characteristic ones are probably “September 1913” and “Easter 1916”, with which Yeats developed a public militant voice. Politics was a constant concern for Yeats and his attachment to nationalist doctrines is well-documented.76 Although concerned with national and political matters in general, Yeats’s preoccupation with aesthetics never ceased to be a priority also, even in this politically-intense period.77 The dialectics between politics and aesthetics becomes more prominent in The Tower (1928) and The
Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), the two collections that are seen and read as complementary: the focus “on things masculine and political” of the former is balanced by the forcus “on things feminine and aesthetic” of the latter (Unterecker 170).
After his retirement from the Seanad Eireann (the Irish Senate),78 however, Yeats started alienating himself from public affairs, an isolation which also manifests itself as a key theme in his later work. By the mid-1930s, the transformation of Irish society led
Yeats to change his mind about the potential all-inclusiveness of his visionary Irish identity;79 this is reflected in those later poems that celebrate the Protestant Ascendancy.
His move from romantic poetry that idealized the Irish past into a more modernist, elitist style over the long years of his poetic development is underwritten by his disillusionment
76 As Howes demonstrates in Yeats’s Nations: Gender, Class, and Irishness, Yeats seems to oscillate between two contradictory views of nation: one of nation as an artifact and one of nation as an organic whole (according to the political theory of Edmund Burke).
77 See Edna Longley’s essay “Helicon and ni Houlihan: Michael Robartes and the Dancer”, in which she underlines the tension between aesthetics and politics in Yeats’s 1921 eponymous collection.
78 Yeats was appointed senator of the Irish Free State from 1923 to 1929.
79 Robert F. Garratt notes that, “Over the course of time Yeats shifted his emphasis in regard to the definition of a national culture, but the purposeful commitment to the stewardship of Irish letters remained steadfast” (Modern Irish Poetry 19).
87 with the course of Irish politics and his contempt for the rising Catholic middle class.80
He spent the rest of his life keeping a distance from any active involvement in politics, striving for poetic, aesthetic and spiritual perfection.
The fact is that, despite his dilemmas and changes in his political beliefs, Yeats remained a devoted patriot, ardently pursuing his ideals, making strong statements through his poetry. What is perhaps more important, though, is the legacy he bequeathed to his successors, as “the compulsion of Irish poets, particularly since Yeats, to reconsider and redefine the Irishness of poetic expression is dominant” (Garratt, Modern Irish
Poetry 15).
2.2.2 Patrick Kavanagh
Along with Austin Clarke and Louis MacNeice, Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967) is regarded as one of the leading Irish poets of the post-Yeatsian generation. Although some have considered him a provincial poet, many critics acknowledge him as the most influential literary figure after Yeats.81
Kavanagh was removed from school at the age of thirteen and began writing poetry almost immediately afterwards. He became well acquainted with two very
80 Yeats has been accused on several occasions of failing to express an Irish Catholic experience. See Allison, “The Attack on Yeats”; and Flanagan 54-56. This is easily explained by the poet’s aversion towards the Catholic middle class, which he considered coarse and ignorant. Yeats’s unpopular opinions are clearly expressed in his late play Purgatory (1938) as well as in his collection of essays On the Boiler (1939) (“William Butler Yeats: Biography.”
81 Dillon Johnston claims that “Patrick Kavanagh has influenced recent poetry in Ireland more than any Irish writer after Yeats and Joyce” (121), while the Irish poet Dennis O’Driscoll goes as far as claiming that, “It is mandatory in any discussion of Irish poetry to quote Patrick Kavanagh as frequently as possible. His is the commanding voice among modern Irish poets, wielding an authority much greater than that of Yeats” (qtd. in Haberstroh 6).
88 disparate ways of life: rural—working the land in his father’s subsistence farm in his early years—and urban—as an intellectual later in Dublin—and this had a great impact on his poetry. As Christina Hunt Mahony puts it: “Uniquely situated between two
Irelands, Kavanagh’s poetry displays tension and a keen sense of irony (3).
Kavanagh’s publishing history was unfortunate and his work became the subject of much controversy. His long poem The Great Hunger (1942),82 initially published in the literary magazine Horizon in January 1942,83 was not well-received,84 and the magazine was allegedly seized by the police, on grounds of the poem’s obscenity. The
Green Fool (1938), an early autobiography, was withdrawn soon after its publication in
1938, because of a libel threat from Oliver Gogarty, while his novel Tarry Flynn (1948) was banned by the Éire Censorship Board. Nonetheless, by the end of the 1940s his poetry and his eccentric personality had already attracted a certain group of admirers in
Ireland. International recognition came much later, in the 1960s, with the publication of his Collected Poems (1964) and the award-winning Come Dance with Kitty Stobling
(1960) (Quinn, Patrick Kavanagh x).
The case of Kavanagh is a particular one. He managed to use the English language as a medium for an Irish poetry that was not bound to dreamlike fantasies and
82 The Great Hunger: Although alluding to the Great Famine (1845-52), Kavanagh’s long poem bears no such content. As Kiberd writes, “The title seems to promise a study of heroic nineteenth-century peasants, but the text delivers a nihilistic account of unheroic farmers in the twentieth. All this is framed sarcastically in the cinematic techniques of a curious First World anatomizing the Third” (Irish Classics 593).
83 Parts I, II, III and twenty-six lines from part IV were published for the first time in Horizon under the title “The Old Peasant”.
84 On the reception of the Great Hunger, see Quinn, Patrick Kavanagh 184-9.
89 folkloric elements.85 His mundane, sometimes iconoclastic poetry came as a rejection of the poetic tradition that was based on Yeats’s Romantic nationalism, which had been unoriginally repeated to the point of ridicule by the poets of the successive period.
Kavanagh attacked the Yeatsian aesthetics brought about with the Celtic Revival for presenting a distorted view of life,86 and brought forth a new approach to Irish poetry,
“raising the inhibited energies of a subculture to the power of a cultural resource”
(Heaney, Preoccupations 115). Although he consciously rejected nationalist ideals,87 there is a characteristically Irish dimension to his work and his best-known works “are now recognized as among the most authentic reports from an indigenous Irish world”
(Brown 122). Nevertheless, the proclaimed Irish element, so evident in Yeats, or the international appeal of the local-global connection of Heaney’s poetry take a different hue in Kavanagh’s work. Talking about Kavanagh’s poetry, Heaney argues that “The matter of Ireland, mythic, historical or literary, forms no significant part of his material”
(Preoccupations 115). Indeed, the Irishness in his poems does not lie in the use of myth and history as is the case with Yeats and Heaney.88 It is rather located in the description of everyday practices and the sarcastic tones in portraying Irish reality, which reveal the
85 Patrick Crotty suggests that Kavanagh “was the first writer to create wholly out of the vernacular English of Ireland a poetic voice free of whimsy and folksiness” (3).
86 Kavanagh had said of the Celtic Revival: “I would say now that the so-called Irish Literary Movement which purported to be so frightfully Irish and racy of the Celtic soil was a thoroughgoing English-bred lie” (Collected Pruse 13). For more detailed discussions see Garratt, “Patrick Kavanagh and the Killing of the Irish Revival”; and Antoinette Quinn, “Patrick Kavanagh’s Parish Myth”.
87 Kavanagh himself asserts: “Poetry is not Irish or any other nationality; … There is no poetic merit in the adjective Irish though mediocrity tries to put itself across on this fortuitous and empty distinction” (qtd. in Peter Kavanagh 173).
88 A description of Kavanagh’s “conflict with Yeats” can be found in Robert F. Garratt’s Modern Irish Poetry: Tradition and Continuity from Yeats to Heaney, 165-166. For an interesting comparison of Yeats and Kavanagh, “the two great figures in Irish poetry”, see Boran, “Shadows and Apples”.
90 view of an insider who is in the know of the particular culture but criticizes rather that celebrates it. Furthermore, the treatment of Catholicism and its impact on Irish society as well as the depiction of place are also elements that inextricably bind Kavanagh’s poetry to the Irish context from which it emerges.89 As far as place is concerned, Kavanagh did not idealize the Irish rural landscape,90 but presented it in his poems through his own authentic experience as a peasant; he later wrote in a unique way about the scenes of
Dublin that inspired him, especially in his Canal Poems.
Moreover, his Irishness is manifested in a more subtle manner in the influence
Kavanagh’s work has exerted on contemporary Irish poets.91 This influence can be found in the use of recurring themes but also in the shift away from the ideals of the nationalist narrative towards subject matter which derives from the ordinary. For Kavanagh it is everyday experience that can reveal a down-to-earth poetic dimension. This shift from the supernatural metaphorical poetry of the Revival has been a landmark for poets after him. And although he does not choose to write about Ireland in the way Yeats does, for instance, there is a certain Irish quality in his work in the sense that he reveals the world
89 Robert F. Garratt attributes Kavanagh’s attachment to the local and the ordinary, as well as the importance of the Catholic faith for his poetry to the major influence of Joyce (Modern Irish Poetry 138). For the centrality of Catholicism in Kavanagh’s oeuvre, see Terence Brown’s chapter “Patrick Kavanagh: Religious Poet”, in The Literature of Ireland 122-130.
90 “Kavanagh’s opposition to the cult of place and ethnicity in literature” as conceived by the founders of the Irish literary Revival, but also by the preferences of the English audience as far as Irish writers were concerned is particularly evident in his manifesto essay “From Monaghan to the Grand Canal” and his dispute with Blackburn about the content and title of his collection that was eventually published under the title Come Dance with Kitty Stobling and Other Poems (Quinn, Patrick Kavanagh 379).
91 For instance, the importance of Kavanagh’s work for Heaney’s formation as a poet is well- established. Also, in her memoir Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time, feminist poet and critic Eavan Boland traces her own subversion of male nationalist ideals in the influence of James Joyce (144) and Patrick Kavanagh (197), while in her essay “Poetic Forms and Social Malformations”, Edna Longley traces the influence of Kavanagh on the poetry of such different poets as Paul Muldoon, Brendan Kennelly and Paul Durcan.
91 of the ordinary Irishman, oppressed, introverted and worn-out, often mired in a rural
Catholic setting.
2.2.3 Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney (b. 1939) completes the list of poets chosen for this thesis. Heaney’s popularity extends well beyond Ireland and Britain, where his collections amount to two- thirds of the sales of living poets.92 As Blake Morrison asserts, Heaney is “that rare thing, a poet rated highly by critics and academics yet popular with ‘the common reader’” (11).
His poetry is informed not only by his experience of growing up in the family farm in
County Derry, but also by his concern with the perplexity and responsibility of poetry writing, as well as by the Northern Irish conflict between Catholics and Protestants.
Robert Crawford notes that: “Innumerable Heaney poems attempt to connect or reconcile the Ulster farm-boy with the Harvard or Oxford Professor of Poetry, the aesthete with the
Republican, the barbarian with the admirer of civilian achievement” (Devolving English
Literature 288). In the same vein, Sean O’Brien observes:
Heaney as a poet and critic is hardly alone in his interest in the ways in
which poets seek to resolve conflicting needs and impulses in their work,
to balance the claims of art and politics, art and nationality, world and
spirit and so on. Over his shoulder stands Yeats, the most audibly
dialectical of poets. But his critical fascination with dualisms is clearly of
special live importance for his own development as a poet. (93)
92 According to information found on the following website: Seamus Heaney: Irish Poet.
92 This two-fold quality in many aspects of his poetry and criticism is also representative of what at first seem like incongruous elements of Irish culture. Of this plethora of dualisms, nonetheless, the 1995 Nobel Prize winner is perhaps best known for presenting a local- global nexus in his poetry, in which his native Northern Ireland plays a fundamental role.
After “attaining a canonical status nationally and internationally,” in his subsequent work
Heaney “continues to play out an uneasy oscillation between local piety and universalist cultural claims” (Lloyd 3-4). Richard Kearney shares the same view when he writes that,
“Heaney’s poetic concerns are not simply Irish but international, not simply parochial but universal” (Transitions, 113). Indeed, it could be argued that it is this combination of
Heaney’s attachment to Irish matters and the universality of his material, this intertwining of the local with the global that grants his poetry such an appeal both at home and abroad.
Kearney also comments on the emphasis that has been given to the “typically and traditionally Irish quality of Heaney’s writing,” and on the fact that “he is enlisted as the poet of the patria, a home bird, an excavator of the national landscape devoted to the recovery of natural pieties” (Transitions, 101). Although Kearney’s slightly ironic tone can be interpreted appropriately if one bears in mind that he writes from a post-nationalist stand-point, the reason these extracts are quoted is their phenomenological value. What
Kearney is reporting in his text is the most commonly-held, established view on Heaney’s poetry: that it is primarily recognized as originating from and depicting Ireland.
What are, then, the features which inscribe Heaney’s poetry so markedly in the
Irish literary tradition? Kearney’s remarks are again of use here:
Heaney’s primary inspiration, we are told, is one of place; his
quintessentially Irish vocation, the sacramental naming of a homeland.
93 Hence the preoccupation with images of mythology, archaeology and
genealogy, of returning to forgotten origins. This revivalist reading
conforms to the paradigm of the ‘backward look’ which, Frank O’ Connor
has argued, typifies Irish literature. (Transitions, 101)
Similarly, Robert F. Garratt observes Heaney’s “fidelity to roots and familiar places”
(Modern Irish Poetry 231) and Michael Parker notes that his poetry “bears witness to a continuity of spirit with his parents and a fidelity to his origins, of race and place” (28).
Yet, inextricably linked to place and tradition as it is, Heaney’s poetry manifests an Irishness that is by no means unitary. His early poetry abounds with images of digging, connected to the search for roots, while the bog becomes a central symbol not only of the Irish landscape, but also of Irish history and collective consciousness.
Detailed descriptions of rural activities and tools, and graphic portraits of family members and country people sketch many of the images in his first books. The sense of belonging, so pronounced in his first four collections, culminates in North (1975), in which he treats more extensively the issue of violence in Northern Ireland.93 However, it is already with Wintering Out (1972) that Heaney seems to have become more conscious of politics. Although critics seem to disagree about the degree to which Heaney’s poetry is involved with the nationalist issues and identity politics of the Northern Irish context,94
Heaney undoubtedly seeks to embed the Troubles in a larger historical frame, and interpret the political upheaval of the time, connecting the Irish past to the contemporary
93 See Eugene O’Brien, who argues that in North this sense of belonging assumes an almost tribal character, and offers an overview of critics’ reception of this “tribalism” (Seamus Heaney: Creating Irelands of the Mind 29-31).
94 Reactions to Heaney’s poetry in connection to the political situation in Northern Ireland range widely. Certain critics take issue with him for being too neutral or even apolitical in his treatment of the Troubles, while others accuse him of being an apologist for the violent political struggles in Ulster. See Mathews 160-161; and E. O’Brien, 1-2, 112.
94 situation in Ulster, particularly in these two books. His next two collections, Field Work
(1979) and Station Island (1984), continue to negotiate issues of history and politics and their connection to the individual. With The Haw Lantern (1987) and Seeing Things
(1991), as Eugene O’Brien suggests, issues of identity return in his poetry complicated as ever, in its contingency and elusiveness: “Ireland will invariably disperse into different
Irelands, and the same is true of Irishness itself” (Seamus Heaney: Creating Irelands of the Mind 81). In The Spirit Level (1996) Heaney treats the violence in Northern Ireland in an even more direct way but his quest for poetic independence pushes him towards a more global direction: “Fraught with assertions of artistic independence, translations from Dutch and Romanian, and poems dedicated to authors, scholars and artists of other nationalities, The Spirit Level signals Heaney’s arrival at an international identity” (F.
Collins 188). His last two collections, Electric Light (2001) and District and Circle
(2006) are on the same track of formulating an Irish cultural identity not on absolute nationalist terms but along more global lines.
Heaney’s position in the literary canon nationally and internationally is no coincidence. He has succeeded in making central what once might have been pushed to the margins. Through his Northern Irish poetics—the depiction of rural practices, some of which are slowly dying out, the motifs of the bogland and the connection of the ancestral heritage to contemporary political issues—the communal and the local are projected in such a way that they assume universal value: Irish identity is placed in a more global context. In Heaney’s poetry Irishness is carved out of local material and placed on a pedestal for the whole world to see. Judging by its reception worldwide, the Irish cultural identity it evokes seems to have a far-reaching appeal.
95
2.3 The Translations of Yeats’s Work into Greek
Yeats is mostly known in Greece for his poetry. Relatively few of his plays have been translated and staged,95 and only some of his essays have appeared in literary journals or collections. A collection of his Irish folktales was translated and published in 1988
(Paramythia kai paradoseis tis Irlandias),96 The Death of Synge and Other Passages from an Old Diary (O thanatos tou Synge: Apospasmata apo ena imerologio kratimeno sta 1909) came out in 1993, while his novelette John Sherman was translated and published in 1997. A translation of the Stories of Red Hanrahan (Istories tou kokkinou
Hanrahan) was published in 2007.
The translation of Yeats’s poetry covers a time span from the 1940s to the present. The following chart shows the number of printed translations as they have appeared—for the first time—in the last 70 years (since 1941).
95 “Four plays, The Shadowy Waters, A Full Moon in March, The Cat and the Moon and Purgatory were staged (in Greek versions by Dimitra Papazoglou and Dimitris Giannopoulos) by Mnimi (memory), an Athens-based theatre company, and publicized in a detailed programme (Etairia theatrou Mnimi 1992)” (Jochum 266).
96 Selected from the Fairy Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) and from the Irish Fairy Tales (1892).
96
90 89 80 70
60 56
50 40
30 20
10 12 10 6 9 3 0 '40s '50s '60s '70s '80s 90's '00s
Fig. 1: Yeats’s Poems Translated into Greek- decade distribution
The first fact worth mentioning about the reception of Yeats’s poetry in Greece is that he was introduced to the Greek reading public relatively late in comparison to other
European countries.97 Neither the Nobel Prize in 1923 nor his death in 1939 drew much attention. The first poems translated into Greek were “Down by the Salley Gardens”
(1889), and “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” (1899), as late as 1941, by
Melissanthi, a well-known Greek poet of the first half of the twentieth century.
There are at least a hundred and twenty five different poems translated into Greek, which amount to about one third of Yeats’s Collected Poems. The actual number of translated poems is much larger, as very often several translators come up with different
97 With the exception of Iceland (1954), Finland and Turkey (1966), and Ukraine (1973), Yeats’s poetry was translated much earlier in the rest of Europe (Jochum).
97 versions of the same poem; I have been able to locate at least 203 translations of Yeats’s poems.
Α lot fewer poems were translated before the 1970s, with all the poems translated until then published sporadically in literary periodicals or anthologies and compilations.
It was not until 1983 that the first monograph was published, entitled Mythologies kai
Oramata (Mythologies and visions). This annotated anthology was compiled, translated, and edited by Spyros Iliopoulos. It contains 31 poems, both in English and Greek, four short stories, the one-act play I Anastassi (The resurrection), and seven essays by Yeats.
This anthology was reprinted by a different publishing house in 1992. It was followed by a further three collections.
In 1993, the quite prestigious publishing house of the National Bank of Greece
(Morfotiko Idryma Ethnikis Trapezis) published a collection of 25 of Yeats’s poems, which was reprinted in 1999. There are no new translations in this collection; all of the poems had previously appeared elsewhere. However, the poems, which date from 1941 to
1993, present an interesting overview of Yeats’s poetry in Greek. Most of the 12 translators who feature in the collection are either distinguished scholars and philologists, or eminent writers, so the translations vary considerably in style. Unfortunately, apart from a list of first publications and some pictures of Yeats, there is no introduction or commentary.98
In 2000 Spyros Iliopoulos and Maria Sidiropoulou collected, edited and also translated the greater number of Yeats’s poems to appear in a bilingual collection, entitled 70 Erotika (70 Love poems). Another five translators feature in this collection.
98 This edition was actually the result of a project which took place within a Bibliology Seminar held for graduates of the School of Philosophy.
98 With the exception of three poems, which are reprinted, the rest of the poems are published for the first time and many of them had never been translated into Greek by anyone else. The most important feature of this edition, however, is the fact that it includes a 47-page introduction—where, among other things, translation problems and strategies are thoroughly examined. There is also an extended commentary on every poem in the collection. A second edition of the collection was published in 2002.
Finally, in 2005, another bilingual collection of 20 poems was published, translated by Maria Archimandritou. Apart from a short introductory note which contains nothing but bibliographical information on the poet, there is no translator’s note or commentary.
Two literary journals have issued special numbers on Yeats: Nea Estia (New hearth) in September 1989, on the fiftieth anniversary of Yeats’s death, and the periodical
Diavazo (I read) in December 1998. The former contained mainly essays on Yeats’s work and the translation of the play The Land of Heart’s Desire, but the latter featured seven previously untranslated poems, each with a commentary. Apart from the publications just mentioned, more than ten literary journals and about as many anthologies of European or
World literature have hosted translations of Yeats’s poems over the years. Some translations of Yeats’s poems are also included in essays about his work.
As might be expected, many of Yeats’s translators, especially during the first decades of his reception in Greece, were also poets or fiction writers. Among the translators, therefore, are poets such as Melissanthi, Leandros Palamas, Maria Servaki,
Aris Diktaios, Antonis Dekavalles and the Nobel Prize laureate George Seferis, as well as the novelist and short story writer M. Karagatsis and the prose writer and essayist Nikos
99 Dimou. At the same time, acclaimed critics and philologists, such as Dimitris Stavrou,
Marios Byron Raizis and George Savvidis, introduced many of Yeats’s poems to Greek readers. The most important contribution to the reception and introduction of Yeats’s oeuvre to a broader Greek audience, though, is that by Spyros Iliopoulos. As mentioned before, he is responsible for most of the publications about Yeats, whether in book-length editions or issues of periodicals; more than half of Yeats’s translated poems are his.
However, many more have tried their hands as translators of Yeats’s poetry: they reach the impressive number of 26!99
There seems to be an interest among Greek translators, publishers, and readers to revisit or perhaps further examine Yeats’s poetry. New translations of Yeats’s poems can even be found posted on blogs on the internet. Perhaps this interest in producing new translated versions of his work, along with the recent concurrent editions, will at last help to further the reception of Yeats’s poetry in Greece.
2.4 The Translations of Kavanagh’s Work into Greek
Despite Kavanagh’s popularity with the Irish audience, and a growing international acclaim, he remains largely unknown to Greek readers. His long poem The Great Hunger was translated by Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki and published in 1999 by the
Kastaniotis publishing house under the corresponding Greek title I megali peina. It
99 This results in a great variety of target texts, many of which are generally considered high quality translations, perhaps even artistically equal to the source texts. The translation strategies used differ considerably, as each translator prioritizes different aspects of the poems. For example, Seferis seems to pay greater attention to the rhythm and the sonic effects, while Iliopoulos is mostly concerned with the emotional effect produced on the readers.
100 includes a short preface by Amy Mims and an introduction by the contemporary Irish poet Macdara Woods. Apart from that first publication, the presence of Kavanagh in the
Greek landscape of translated poetry amounts to a single collection that bears the simple title 28 Poiimata (Poems).100 Once again the translator is Amy Mims-Silveridi, but the collection is launched by a small publishing house, Odos Panos. It contains a short preface which offers an overview of Kavanagh’s poetry and some information on the selection of the specific poems, as well as notes at the end of the collection. It also includes some of the poet’s most characteristic photographs. Both editions are subsidized by the Irish Literature Exchange (Translation fund). The most noteworthy piece of information about these translations, however, is the fact that Amy Mims, although a resident of Greece and Cyprus since 1960, is not a native speaker of Greek. This means that she does not translate into her mother tongue and this conditions significantly her translations.
In quantitative terms, on the other hand, it has to be noted that Kavanagh’s translated poetry into Greek does not do him justice. The importance and popularity of the poet for the Irish, and his place in the Irish literary canon is completely overshadowed by the modest number of translations.
2.5 The Translations of Heaney’s Work into Greek
100 This is indeed a disappointing number compared to the volume of poetry Kavanagh produced during his lifetime: the 2005 edition of Collected Poems (ed. by Antoinette Quinn) included a total of 159 poems, from three London-published collections, along with poems published in journals and unpublished manuscript poems. Kavanagh also wrote a few more hundreds of poems which make up six early collections that were not published during his lifetime, and many mainly untitled manuscripts and fragments of poems, as well as the series of poems that were printed in his City Commentary column in the Irish Press from 1942 to 1944. These poems are available on the website of the Trustees of the Estate of Kavanagh’s wife, the late Katherine B. Kavanagh: Patrick Kavanagh, 1904-1967.
101 Greek readers were first introduced to Seamus Heaney in 1996, a year after he was awarded the Nobel Prize and the same year he won his first Whitbread Prize, for The
Spirit Level.101 The first book-length collection of poems, entitled Ta poiimata tou valtou
(The bog poems) was published by Kastaniotis and subsidized by the European Union.
The collection is the work of Katerina Angelaki-Rooke, who selected and translated all of the poems and also wrote the introduction. It includes poems from all but one of the main poetry collections Heaney published from 1966 to 1991—Death of a Naturalist (1966),
Door into the Dark (1969), Wintering Out (1972), North (1975), Field Work (1979),
Station Island (1984), The Haw Lantern (1987) and Seeing Things (1991), all published by Faber and Faber—and offers, thus, an interesting overview of the evolution of
Heaney’s poetry. Stations, a compilation of prose poems published by Ulsterman in 1975, is the only collection not represented.
The Spirit Level, with the exception of six poems from the original collection, was translated in November 1999 under the Greek title To Alfadi (Ermis publishing house).
The collection is edited by Manolis Savvidis, who has also translated the greatest part of the poems. Stratis Haviaras has translated seven poems, while the collection also features
Theodosis Nikolaou and Soti Triantafyllou with two translated poems each. The edition is very plain; it includes no introduction or commentary.
Five of the poems, bearing the overarching title ‘Mycenae Lookout’, have not only been included in this collection, though. A different translation of the five poems was published almost simultaneously in the literary journal Poiisi (Poetry) in the Fall-
Winter issue. The translators were Evangelia Andritsanou and Giannis Zervas, who also wrote the introduction and a 15-page addendum that accompanies their translations.
101 Heaney was also awarded the Whitbread/Costa Prize in 1999, for his version of Beowulf.
102 In 2000, another collection was published by Istos—an imprint of Ermis—bearing the title Alfavita (Alphabets) after the eponymous poem. Published in a limited edition of
250 copies,102 the collection includes two original etchings by the Greek-American sculptor Dimitri Hatzis, who was a close friend of Heaney’s. Manolis Savvidis and Stratis
Haviaras selected, translated and edited the 26 poems of the collection. During the two- year preparation of the volume, an unpublished translation of “The Stone Grinder” by the late G. P. Savvidis came to light. It was included in the collection, which was dedicated to his memory.103 Seven of the poems from The Spirit Level had already appeared in the
Alfadi collection, translated by Manolis Savvidis. The rest of the poems, covering a time span from 1972 to 2001, are translated for the first time.
There seems to be an ongoing interest in Heaney’s poetry. Translations of some of his poems have also appeared on the internet. The on-line literary periodical Vakhikon hosted six poems, translated by Nikos Panagopoulos, in their December 2008-February
2009 issue. There is also an introductory paragraph with information about the poet’s life and work, but its content is quite general. The poems are preceded by the original texts in
English and presented under the general title O Fysiognostis (The naturalist). Only three of them, however, belong to Heaney’s first collection to which the title alludes. The remaining three are from a different collection each, the more recent one being Electric
Light (2001).
A small portion of Heaney’s prose has also found its way to the Greek language.
The Government of the Tongue (1988) was translated by Erotokritos Moraitis in
102 Along with this edition, two even more limited sets of copies were published: 26 signed copies, each bearing a letter of the English alphabet and 24 signed copies, each “numbered” with a letter of the Greek alphabet.
103 See Keza and Papagiannidou.
103 November 2008 (I kyvernisi tis glossas). Moreover, an essay by Heaney entitled
“Archaioi mythoi kai synchroni istoria” (Ancient myths and contemporary history) has been included in the volume I Elliniki Empeiria (The Greek experience), in which eight foreign writers describe their relationship to Greece. The collection is the result of lectures given during an International Literary Congress in Delphi, in February 2004.
2.6 Methodology
Having presented the three poets and their translations in Greek, I shall now proceed with a more detailed description of the method used for the analysis of the material.
One of the problems I faced during my research was that of combining the theoretical considerations concerning translation with an empiricist analysis which is necessary when examining specific features in the target texts. The most complex issue, however, was the employment of a method that would reconcile the subjective, unfixed dimension of identity with a search for objective characteristics that constitute identity markers in the literary texts. For instance, one of the paradoxes that kept coming up was the following: if identity is always in flux, according to the postmodernist view, how can we pinpoint some of its core elements and then look for them in the literary texts and examine how they have been treated in the translations?
The fact that when considering national and cultural identity we assume a conglomerate of characteristics, which are both subjective and protean, poses certain methodological problems, if we are to trace them as they are manifested in literature. The quest for an adequate approach to the topic at hand has led me to a schema that combines
104 two seemingly disparate modes of analysis. The clean-cut, neat systematization of certain features which mark national and cultural identity can be presented in a sort of structural analysis. These cultural features, however, are not stable notions and can be, therefore, best understood using a phenomenological approach. The latter is an adequate way of examining the set of concepts that make up national and cultural identity, since these concepts are formed by certain social conditions and perceived to be what they are by both the self-image of the in-group and the idea attained by the people outside the group.
According to the principles of phenomenology, objects or events present themselves to consciousness as having different aspects, which are perceived “through a manifold of temporally different appearances” (Sokolowski 19). In other words, objects or events are understood as they appear to one’s consciousness; they acquire their meaning through one’s involved, intentional consciousness. By the same token, identity acquires its meaning as it appears in one’s consciousness, through one’s experience, since “Identity belongs to what is given in experience, and the recognition of identity belongs to the intentional structure of experience” (Sokolowski 21). Hence, using this framework, I am looking for features of national and cultural identity manifested in 20th-century Irish poetry and consider they are best understood as what they are taken to be.
This search of identity markers could be described as a three-stage process. First,
I take on the key characteristics of cultural and national identity, on the basis of the definitions of culture and nation discussed in Chapter One, Section 1.6 (Jackson and
Garner; Lustig and Koester; Anthony D. Smith; Samuel P. Huntington), since for identity markers to be found and described in literature, it is important that the elements of identity are understood first. I then isolate the ones which I consider to be connected to
105 Irish specificity, and look for specific manifestations in the form of cultural markers in the literary texts. These elements, as markers of cultural and national diversity, take the form of culture-bound elements or allusions, which are, in the last stage, examined from a translatological point of view.
An approach to the elements that constitute identity, to identity markers in literature, and to the treatment of culturally-bound elements and allusions, respectively, could include a vast variety of features. This is evident, first of all, in the diversity of definitions proposed for culture and nation. The discussion of how cultural and national identity manifests itself in literary texts has also yielded various answers.104 Last but not least, as far as culture-bound elements are concerned, many different models have been proposed; these are discussed in more detail in Chapter Five. Of all potential markers I choose the ones which—apart from language—I assume to best represent and to be the most substantial for a mapping of the Irish literary landscape, namely features that are related to place; myth, religion, and folklore; history, memory, and politics. The selection of these elements was largely based on readings of the poems at hand. The features I have selected are salient as they appear repeatedly in the body of poems, and sketch an image of the source culture as conveyors of cultural identity.
These identity markers are also present in many of the definitions of culture and nation previously discussed. Apart from their frequency, however, these elements have been selected as they can adequately be used to describe the specificities of Irish identity.
104 In her account of Englishness, Terry Lovell distinguishes the following markers of national identity: language and speech, place, and the various ideologies of the recovered past (43-4). Ian Baucom similarly notes that spatial, racial, and linguistic standards have been identified as the principles of Englishness (5). Arif Dirlik also designates language and history “as markers of the identity of literature” (113) in the case of national literatures.
106 The first of these elements—place—is one of the core elements also in identity markers in literary texts, and specifically important for the construction of Irishness.105 It is manifested in the various depictions of the Irish landscape and its symbolic meanings, but is also of great importance from a translatological point of view, as the translation of place names is one of the most interesting issues in the treatment of culture-bound elements.
Religion, myth, and folklore, whether explicitly mentioned in the definitions of culture and nation or referred to as beliefs and practices or traditions, are also of great importance for the conception of Irishness.106 They are treated together in my textual analysis of the translations, where elements related to Irish mythology and folklore and to religious practices are traced as culture-bound elements. Another important issue examined, nonetheless, is that of the allusions connected to these features, which according to Ritva Leppihalme constitute “culture bumps,” or “translation problems requiring problem-solving and the use of appropriate strategies” (Culture Bumps 3).
Finally, history, memory and politics are also treated as one category. History and memory are not necessarily stated precisely as such in the definitions of culture and
105 Maria Tymozcko characteristically observes that: “virtually all Irish literature has a fascination with place. The sense of place dominates contemporary poetry from Kavanagh to Kinsella, Montague to Heaney” (Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses 154).
106 As far as religion is concerned, the information contained in the 1990-1991 World Values Survey is very illuminating: in a chart that depicts the connection between national pride and the importance of God, Ireland had the highest rating on the vertical dimension of national pride and was listed among the societies with the 10 highest ratings as far as the importance of God in life is concerned. Analyzing the data, Ronald Inghelhart and Marita Carballo, observe that “Poland, Ireland and Northern Ireland might be described as hyper-Catholic societies, for both societies were occupied and dominated for centuries by more powerful non-Catholic neighbors, and both responded to pressures toward cultural assimilation by an intense re- emphasis of their Roman Catholic heritage as a means of preserving national identity. Ironically, this may have led to a similar reaction on the part of the Irish Protestants, who constitute a small minority within Ireland as a whole and might be described as Hyper-Protestants” (44). Myth, on the other hand, is also very important for the construction of national identity: “Myths of motherland are more than antique curiosities; they retain a purchase on the contemporary mind and can play a pivotal role in mobilizing sentiments of national identity” (Kearney, Postnationalist Ireland 120).
107 nation, but are rather implied in the notion of ancestry and heritage which are more commonly used. They are, nevertheless, along with politics, a very significant part of
Irish identity, and especially useful for the understanding of certain of its aspects, such as
Irishness as perceived in—or with relation to—Northern Ireland. Once again, apart from the related culture-bound elements found in the literary texts there are several allusions, which also serve as identity markers and are of interest for the translatological analysis.
I would like to note here that I do not think there can be one single treatment for all cultures; certain features might be salient in the literature of one culture or nation but irrelevant for another. Englishness, for instance, as the cultural identity of an imperialist nation, is constructed by other materials and this is depicted in its cultural practices, as opposed to Ireland’s culture and literature which have been greatly influenced by the colonial/decolonizing experience.107
I regret not being able to deal at length with the features of language, dialect and accent in this thesis, as each is formed through particular social and cultural fermentation and is, thus, very important when considering identity.108 The phonetic/ phonological part is of utmost importance, since the utterance of the words in an Irish instead of an English accent—or other accents of the English-speaking world—may determine the rhythmic effect of the poems. Some of the poems contain rhymes or have an internal rhythm that depends largely on the native pronunciation, which in turn is a feature a translator of poetry should definitely take into consideration. These matters are only briefly touched
107 Ian Beaucom, for example, writes about the importance of lieux de memoire for the construction of Englishness, in which the glory of the imperialist past is inscribed and cherished (18).
108 Paul Gilbert asserts that “Language should, perhaps, stand at the head of any list of candidates for properties intrinsic to a work which bespeak its national identity” (202).
108 upon in the next chapters, but not examined in depth, as they constitute a vast area of research and would expand beyond the boundaries set for this thesis.
As far as the analysis of the translations is concerned, the approach used in this study is along the lines of “descriptive” or “empirical” translation studies, which according to Hermans are to be considered “as part of cultural history” (Translation in
Systems 7).109 Likewise, a “systemic” perspective has been employed, as it seems suitable in order for translation to be “contextualized”.110 Some of the key concepts of Polysystem theory will be unavoidably used to draw conclusions about the texts and their eventual translations. Postcolonial theories and polysystem theories share many concepts, such as the broader view of the socio-political context and the influence of power relations for literary artifacts. For the purposes of this thesis the use of the former for the approach of the source texts and the use of the latter for the examination of the target texts may result in a successful combination.
The analysis can be said to roughly follow a top-down mode,111 which will not be strictly linear, however, but rather helical, as it will be returning to initial, more general points. It will be structured along the basic lines of three methodological schemes, developed by proponents of the descriptive studies school. The first one is the “synthetic scheme for translation description” as proposed by Lambert and van Gorp (42). Their scheme begins with an examination of the paratextual features of the translated texts, then moves on to a treatment of the macro-level and micro-structures of the texts. It finally
109 For a discussions of the different names attributed to this particular group of scholars see Hermans, Translation in Systems 7-9.
110 For the need to “contextualize translation” see Lambert and Toury, 6.
111 Initially developed by Albrecht Neubert, who saw the entire text as the essential translation unit (101).
109 considers the wider socio-cultural system once again through the macro-structure. A similar three-phase methodology for the description of the translated text, which also pays attention to the sociocultural context, and moves from the general to the particular and then returns back to a more general view, was later proposed by Toury (36-9). It includes the following stages: 1) situating the translation in the target culture system, considering mainly its acceptability, 2) comparing the ST and the TT and establishing
“pairs of ‘solution + problem’ as units of immediate comparison”, and 3) formulating generalizations which derive from the pair of texts at hand (38). Last but not least, Maria
Tymoczko suggests a combination of the text and context, by linking the investigation of the micro-level with that of the macro-level (“Connecting the Two Infinite Orders”).
Treating the dilemma between linguistic and cultural studies approaches in translation, or the two directions offered by the two “infinite orders”—the micro- and macro- investigations—and thus addressing the issue of the contextualization of texts, she argues persuasively that a successful blend of the two is possible.
The schemes and methods suggested by the above scholars will not be employed wholesale, though. As far as Lambert and van Gorp’s scheme is concerned, there will be some important changes in the content of the micro- and macro- analysis. What will be different in my approach is that apart from the textual and contextual analysis there will also be a chapter treating form. I will also add an extra preliminary phase to Toury’s model. Whereas he directly begins by considering the translation within the target culture, I shall start by situating the texts within the source culture system, assessing their function with regard to the national frame within which they have originated.
110 Conclusion
The employment of this method will place the work of the three poets in context and examine how the features of Irishness are treated in translation.
Each of the three poets presented here seems to reconcile experiences and values that at first glance seem incompatible. Yeats’s poetry, for instance, fosters elements of romanticism along with avant-guard modernist features, while the rural background of
Heaney and Kavanagh seems at odds with their later intellectual achievement and their preoccupation with spiritual and intellectual matters. Yet, a closer examination reveals that those elements that seem irreconcilable at first are actually complementary. This brief presentation of the three selected poets goes to show that Irishness takes different forms and manifests itself in various ways. Thus, a representative image of Irishness can be best gained not so much through separate readings of each poet, but rather through a more complete view of the synthesis of their poetry. For this reason what part of their work is eventually translated into a given target culture is very important, as it conditions the image of the source culture that comes across. This—along with the analysis of the peritexts—is what the next chapter focuses on.
111 CHAPTER 3
MACROANALYSIS
Introduction to the Chapter
The first section of this chapter discusses the choices of the translators with regard to which poems are selected for translation and which ones remain untranslated, and thus unknown to the Greek audience. The second section deals with the peritextual features of the translated poems.
Both points dealt with in this chapter are inextricably connected to the reception of foreign literature through translation. The selection of the material is of great importance, not only because it raises issues such as the relation between original and translation, the prestige attributed to each, and their place in the literary canon, but first and foremost because it is directly related to the issue of how a foreign culture is represented through the texts translated from its literature. On the other hand, the peritextual material, which does not form part of the translated text itself, also merits our attention, as it may influence the reader before the actual process of reading the translated text begins, shaping her/his horizon of expectations with respect to—among other things—the cultural specificity of the literary text.
112 3.1 What Gets Translated: The Importance of Selection
The selection of poems translated is a matter of consequence, as it provides valuable information not only about the degree of significance the target literary system attributes to the foreign literature but also about the image of the source culture as this is sketched for the target-culture readership.
Toury has enlisted the choice of works “to be imported through translation into a particular culture/language at a particular point in time” as one of the factors that govern
“translation policy”, one of the preliminary norms in translation (58). Katherine Faull points out that “the decision itself to translate a text from another language and culture presupposes the question of value of that text to the target language” (18), a point also made much earlier by George Steiner, who argued that the source text considered as worthy of being translated is in this way magnified and gains prestige (317).
Moreover the selection of texts determines considerably the representation not only of the foreign literature but also of the source culture. Whether culture-specific texts are chosen over texts of more neutral or universal subject matter or the opposite is the case affects greatly both the reception and the understanding of the foreign culture. For this reason it should be stressed that, by the same token, what remains untranslated is of great significance as well. 112
3.1.1 What Gets Translated: W. B. Yeats
112 Maria Tymoczko and Edwin Gentzler maintain that translations scholars ought to “analyze not only the parts of the source text and the source culture that are present in translated texts, but also the parts that are left out” (xx).
113
Dionysis Kapsalis argues convincingly that Yeats has not been adequately translated into
Greek; he actually goes as far as to say that Yeats remains untranslated in Greece.113
Indeed, as he points out, while other major poets of the English-speaking world, such as
Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, have been repeatedly translated into Greek (often by prominent Greek poets), a great part of Yeats’s poetry still remains unknown to the
Greek-speaking readership. Kapsalis gives several reasons for this: the fact that the foreign language the Greek poets of the 1920s and 1930s spoke was French rather than
English, the fact that for poets after the Second World War being also a translator is not necessarily part of their role. He also notes that the gradual abandonment of “traditional” metrical forms shifts the interest to forms that are considered more typically modernist; thus, by the time the mature Yeats could be translated in Greece, there are practically very few–if any–who would be apt to translate his poetry. Kapsalis finally observes that the poets who would actually be able to do so are actually so distant poetically and ideologically, and Yeats is such a difficult poet that he is almost untranslatable (192-194).
It does seem odd that the entire body of poetry by such an important poet as Yeats has not been translated into Greek. Since the presentation of his work is only partial, the integrity of his work is compromised, especially given the fact that Yeats was particularly meticulous about the organization and structure of his collections. Seamus Deane observes that:
113 It should be noted, however, that the article which contains these views, entitled “Yeats, metafrasmenos kai ametafrastos” (Yeats, translated and untranslated), had been written before the major volume of Iliopoulos’s translations was published (70Erotika). Kapsalis also seems to ignore Iliopoulos’s Mythologies kai Oramata.
114 The careful arrangement of poems within a volume and the linkages
between the volumes themselves are so pronounced that the recurrent
symbols and motifs—Irish and national, occult and universal—chime the
more audibly together, producing a public resonance that Yeats considered
far beyond the reach of the previous inwardness of the English lyric. (“The
Politics of Genre and Audience in Yeats” 204)
An interesting detail about translations of Yeats is that while they cover only a relatively small portion of his oeuvre, certain poems have been translated several times. The following poems are the ones that have been translated most frequently: “When you are
Old”, “The Scholars”, and “Byzantium” have been translated five times, “The Second
Coming”, “The Cat and the Moon” and “Politics” four times, while seven more poems have been translated by three different translators and about thirty poems have been translated twice, sometimes even by the same translator, with the translation products differing significantly from each other. However, the poem that has been translated the most is “Sailing to Byzantium”. It has been translated 10 times!
It is no wonder that the Greek themes used by Yeats have excited the interest of
Greek translators. The two Byzantine poems and “Leda and the Swan”—the latter translated three times, as mentioned above—present some of the most remarkable translations of Yeats’s poems in Greek. But, although the Greek subject matter has attracted Greek translators’ attention, the opposite seems to be the case as far as Yeats’s
Irish themes are concerned.
As it has been argues already, Yeats identified himself with the Irish cause and sought to establish a characteristically Irish culture. In many of his poems, Yeats takes a
115 firm political stance and projects issues that concerned Ireland in his time or reveals his nationalist ideals and his aspirations for his country. Although many of the poems from
Yeats’s mature phase have been translated, of those poems which have a political content, very few have been made available to the Greek readers. Poems that happen to be very popular in Ireland,114 such as “An Irish Airman Foresees his Death”, or poems in which Yeats pays a tribute to Irish revolutionary leaders, such as “September 1913”
(1914), and “The Statues” (1938), or “Easter 1916” (1916), and “Sixteen Dead Men”— the two poems on the Easter Rising at the Dublin Post Office and the consequent execution of its leaders from Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)—are most typical examples. Even in the case when some of his “political” poems have been translated, such as “To a Shade”, or “The Rose Tree”, the collections that include them provide no annotations or comments, so the Greek reader has to rely exclusively on internal textual evidence for their comprehension. The complex situation that generated the poems though, as well as the effect they would have on the Irish readers, will probably elude the
Greek audience.
When it comes to the poems that draw on material from Celtic mythology, the situation is similar, with only a few more translations, but still these poems represent a very small percentage of Yeats’s poems translated into Greek. The tie and continuity with the past Yeats tried to create through the use of ancient Irish heroes as symbols of his poetry hardly come across in the Greek translators’ selection of poems. With the exception of two annotated extracts from the poem “Ribh in Ecstasy” in Mythologies kai
114 According to the 1999-Irish Times survey for the Top 100 most popular Irish poems, “Easter 1916” ranked in the sixth place, “September 1913” ranked in place 16, and “An Irish Airman Foresees his Death “ ranked in place 31 (“100 Favourite Irish Poems”). .
116 Oramata (1983), “Cuchulain Comforted” in the special issue on Yeats of the literary journal Diavazo (1998), and four more poems with mythological references in the annotated collection 70 Love Poems,115 no other poems in their Greek translation present
Celtic mythological figures. Some of the most important characters of Yeats’s poetry—
King Fergus, Oisin, the love god Angus, or Hanrahan,116 the figure of the wandering poet, invented by Yeats—never made their way to Greek readers through his verse.117
The fact that most of Yeats’s political or Celtic poems have not been translated into
Greek conditions up to a certain extent the cultural identity of the Irish poet as this is perceived by Greek readers. Based simply on the content of the poems, it is extremely difficult for a Greek reader to be aware of the fact that Yeats is an Irish poet and not
English, British, or simply a poet writing in English.
As far as Irish imagery related to place is concerned, there seems to be an uneven treatment of his earlier and his more mature poetry. The culture-bound imagery in
Yeats’s earlier poetry is more favored, as evidenced by the translators’ choices. Certain aspects of this Irish imagery come across to the Greek readers, especially in the cases where the poems contain culture-bound elements, such as places in Ireland for example, which will be further discussed in the textual analysis of the translations, in Chapter 6.
115 “The Rose of the World” (68-9); “He mourns for the Change that has come upon him and his Beloved, and longs for the End of the World” (84-5); “He bids his Beloved be at Peace” (86-7); “The Secret Rose” (98-101).
116 The Stories of Red Hanrahan was, however, translated into Greek in 2007.
117 This is actually very interesting if we consider that there are quite a few works by Irish writers translated into Greek, especially plays, which have a political content and present characteristically Irish themes, such as Brendan Behan’s The Hostage in the 1960s or Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa and Translations more recently, which have been received with great enthusiasm by the Greek audience; that is to say that such subject matter seems to be of interest for the audience of the target culture. Up to a certain extent it makes sense that political and mythological figures are not preferred as much by the translators: perhaps due to the complexity of the context and their connotations which are hard to render into another language within the limited frame of a poetic composition.
117 However, the same is not exactly true of his later poetry, as poems that refer to places in
Ireland important for the formation of Yeats as man and poet118 remain untranslated, especially those from The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems
(1933),119 in which Yeats celebrates the Irish landscape and pays tribute to the places- symbols of his life and poetry. Such poems are “The Tower” itself, which refers to Thoor
Balylee, a castle near Coole at Galway, which Yeats purchased in 1916 and turned into his home, a peaceful rooted place he had much desired, and also “Coole Park, 1929”, and
“Coole and Ballylee, 1931”, among others.
Consequently, the conclusion that is drawn from this overview is that, despite claims in most Greek editions of Yeats’s poetry that they present a representative sample of the great poet’s work120—and that may be the case as far as style is concerned— extremely important aspects of the content of his poetry are obscured, since only a small part of the cultural allusions related to historical, political, and mythological references in
Yeats’s poetry reach the Greek readers.
3.1.2 What Gets Translated: Patrick Kavanagh
As has been noted before, only a small part of Kavanagh’s work has been translated into
Greek. The poems presented to Greek readers offer, nevertheless, an interesting and quite representative glimpse at the poet’s work, at least in terms of what a few more than two
118 I am borrowing Alexander Norman Jefarres’s title.
119 The “Crazy Jane” series is part of it, for instance, and all seven poems have been translated into Greek.
120 See the preface of ΠοMIET and Sofia Skoulikari’s introduction in Diavazo.
118 dozen poems may allow. Among them are poems with explicit references to the poet’s national origin such as “Old Men of Ireland” and “If Ever You Go to Dublin Town”.
Kavanagh’s poetry celebrates the ordinary and the mundane, drawing on things familiar to the poet, his rural background but also his ambition to establish himself as an acknowledged poet in the big city. A great number of his poems contain place names, or allude to the places of Kavanagh’s youth. County Monaghan, especially, where the poet was born was a very important place to him, and is mentioned in many of his poems.
“Monaghan Hills”, probably one of Kavanagh’s most famous poems, has been translated, as has “Shancoduff”. In these and a couple more translated poems there are descriptions of rural landscapes and agricultural activities, which are recurring themes in Kavanagh’s poetry. Of great importance are also the poems in which Kavanagh offers views of
Dublin. During his Dublin years, Kavanagh soon gained the reputation of the eccentric local character, a fact he was well aware of:
If ever you go to Dublin town
In a hundred years or so,
Inquire for me in Baggot Street
And what was I like to know.
O he was a queer one
Fol dol the di do
…………………………………
O he was eccentric
Fol dol the di do… (“If Ever You Go to Dublin Town” 1-6, 29-30)
119 His wanderings about the city, especially at the spots around the Liffey River have very eloquently been depicted in his poems, such as “Lines Written on a Seat on the
Grand Canal, Dublin”—“O commemorate me where there is water, / Canal Water preferably” (1-2)—but also “Canal Bank Walk”, and “Moment on the Canal”, all of which have been translated into Greek.
Apart from poems that refer to the Irish landscape, Kavanagh also wrote several poems with literary references. A few of them concern or allude to the greatest figure of
Irish letters. Amy Mims has chosen two of them; both “Who killed James Joyce?” and
“Joyce’s Ulysses” are included among her translations.
Kavanagh wrote a few poems in which there are references or allusions to Greece, especially to symbolic places, such as Mount Olympus and Parnassus, or mythological figures, which he then connects to his familiar local images of Ireland. Although these poems are not very common, it should be mentioned that the first three poems of the collection 28 Poiimata bear references to Greek mythology and the Homeric epics, and have most probably been chosen deliberately by the translator, since she made the arrangement of the poems according to thematic criteria, as she informs the readers in her introduction (7).
Many of his early poems—mostly apprentice verses that had not been published during the poet’s lifetime—are considered quite weak, and for this reason are not included in Kavanagh’s Collected Poems, according to the editor, Antoinette Quinn
(Collected Poems xxxv). Amy Mims has included six of them, however, in her collection
28 Poiimata, and these are perhaps the odd ones out in a rather well-anthologized set of poems.
120 Overall, what could be said about these translations of Kavanagh’s work is that, although their number is very small, they offer Greek readers a rather representative sample of the Irish poet’s work, at least in terms of subject matter and Irish imagery.
3.1.3 What Gets Translated: Seamus Heaney
The first thirty years of Heaney’s collections (1966-1996) are quite well-represented. The body of poems Katrerina Angelaki-Rooke has translated into Greek form a representative sample of Heaney’s poetry, as she has selected and presented poems from almost every single collection that was published until 1991 (with the exception of the prose-poems from Stations [1975]). The Spirit Level (1996), on the other hand, is the only collection that has been translated and published as an autonomous book; it is, nonetheless, six poems short of the original collection. Heaney’s last two collections, Electric Light
(2001)—with the exception of one poem—and District and Circle (2006), for which
Heaney was awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize, have not yet been translated into Greek. The representation of the subject matter of his poetry, though, is another issue.
In Heaney’s poetry, subject matter is very important and is probably the greatest conveyor of Irishness.121 Some of the recurrent themes in Heaney’s poetry address key issues of his work such as the notion of place, his childhood memories, the link between the past and the present in Northern Ireland, the political situation of Ulster where the clashes and tension between the Catholic and the Protestant communities were an on-
121 Specifically Irish-English vocabulary, word plays and sound effects on account of Irish pronunciation are also important elements, of course, but beyond the scope of this research.
121 going reality at the time the poems were written. It is, therefore, significant to examine whether the poems that contain such themes reach the Greek readership.
One of the most important traits of Heaney’s poetry is the sense of continuity, which can be found in two different sets of poems. The first group contains those poems that refer to family ties, to the knowledge and wisdom that are passed from generation to generation. Heaney’s poetry displays great commitment to the people who were involved in his upbringing. Especially the relation between father and son—which is also treated by other Irish poets, such as Patrick Kavanagh and the contemporary Pat Boran, for instance—is explicit in poems such as “Digging”, “The Follower”, “Alphabets”, “Man and Boy”, “Seeing Things” and “The Ash Plant”, as well as poems in which his father is fondly remembered, such as “A Call”, “The Errand”, “The Sharping Stone” and “The
Strand”. All of these poems have been translated.
The poems in the second category have as their key theme the continuity between the Irish past and the present situation in Ireland, his fascination with events he sees as parallel, as connected even though centuries apart. Certain of his poems are very characteristic of the importance for contemporary experience ascribed to Irish heritage.
Historical strata readily lend material to Heaney’s poetry; the perennial repletion of human experience and culture appeal very much to him and Ireland plays a major role. In
“Bogland”, from his second collection, Door into the Dark (1969), he writes:
… Our unfenced country
Is bog that keeps crusting
Between the sights of the sun.
……………………………
122 Every layer they strip
Seems camped on before.
The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage.
The wet center is bottomless. (6-8, 27-8)
The bog becomes symbolic not only of Irish territory, but also of the depth of
Irish culture and history.122 Although this particular poem has not been translated into
Greek, a series of Heaney’s so-called bog-poems have been selected for translation by
Katerina Angelaki-Rooke. Many of them are from North (1975), one of Heaney’s most political collections.
Much of the poetry written in Ireland after 1968 was a response to the sectarian violence of the Troubles, a point underlined by Heaney himself (Preoccupations 56-7).
Heaney has included in North a series of poems—most of which have been translated into Greek—in which he links the violence and killings in Northern Ireland with the ritual killings of the Vikings:123 “Funeral Rites”, in which the poet makes an appeal for one nation in Ireland, “Viking Dublin: Trial Pieces”, and more importantly “Bog Queen”. The latter refers to Queen of Moira, discovered near Belfast in the 18th century, who becomes a symbol of Ireland and the revolutionary movement. Finally, there is also a translation of
“The “Grauballe Man”, but “The Tollund Man”, which would support and complement it, has not been translated.
These translated poems offer a picture of the influence the past and present of
Ireland exert on Heaney’s poetry. Nonetheless, since they are anthologized, and it is not
122 See Heaney’s essay “Feeling into Words” in Preoccupations (41-60), where he elaborates on his fascination with the bog.
123 Heaney has actually been accused of tactlessness for drawing a parallel between fierce sacrifices and the complex historical and political situation in Ulster.
123 the entire collection that is translated, the picture is inevitably fragmented; in a sense, the thread that connects the poems is cut.
Furthermore, some of the most disturbing poems that explore Irish history and its impact on current affairs have not been transferred into Greek. In the untranslated
“Ocean’s Love to Ireland” and “Act of Union” Heaney uses the imagery of rape to evoke the occupation of Ireland by foreign inavaders. Similarly, certain poems in which
Northern Irish issues are addressed have not been translated, such as “The Toome Road” from Field Work, which describes the military occupation in Ulster. Many more poems share features with the above-mentioned ones; however, it is not possible to list them all.
Nonetheless, a point that should be underlined here is the fact that the six poems from
The Spirit Level that are not included in the Greek collection, edited by Manolis Savvidis, are the most characteristically Irish ones.
The poem “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing” from North is a particularly interesting case, since it is emblematic of the awkwardness of being part of the situation in Northern Ireland. Ever since its publication in 1975, the poem has inspired a number of theatrical and music performances, and has been much quoted within the identity politics discourse in Northern Ireland, but, has also attracted fierce criticism towards Heaney, who has been accused of not taking a clear political stance. A section of this important poem appears in the Alfavita collection, translated by Manolis Savvidis and Stratis
Haviaras. The fact that the edition is limited—hence, hard to find and also overpriced— means that access is granted only to few Greek readers and remains largely unknown.
Heaney has also used themes from Greek mythology, and mentions or alludes to various ancient Greek sites in his poetry. As is the case with Yeats’s translations, these
124 poems have been translated into Greek and constitute an important part of his translated work.
On the whole, it seems that the Greek translators have chosen many of the poems whose subject is characteristic of the poet’s key themes, i.e., continuity of the past into the present, his concern with language and a poet’s responsibility, as well as subject matter which is recurrent in modern and contemporary Irish writing, such as the image and influence of the father, but also childhood memories blended with contemporary politics. However, many more of Heaney’s poems, despite their being considered significant by both critics and Irish readers for being contextualized in contemporary Irish matters, remain to be translated.
3.2 Peritextual Analysis
Another issue relevant to the reception of foreign literary texts, and very closely linked to translation, is the function of the paratext, consisting of the peritext—the elements within the book—which, along with the epitext—the elements outside it—mediate between the book and the reader (Genette xviii). For the purposes of this thesis the examination will be limited to the former category of peritextual features.
Genette’s groundbreaking work on the elements immediately surrounding the text—the so called paratext—has been translated into English with the addition of a subtitle which is absent in the French title (Seuils): Paratexts: Thresholds of
Interpretation. The use of the concept “threshold” is actually very successful, since some of the paratextual features of a published work are the first ones to reach a reader, the first
125 impression before s/he enters the main part of the work. The importance of the peritext for translation research is made evident in the following statement: “The ideas traced in peritexts … will not only complement the description and analysis of the translated texts, but also help revise some of the conclusions arrived at after such an analysis” (Tahir-
Gürçağlar 59). In my analysis I will briefly examine certain of the peritextual features, namely a) the titles, b) the prefaces and notes, as well as, c) the publisher’s peritext, in relation to the Irishness in question.
As far as the book titles are concerned, Genette draws on Charles Grivel to describe their functions in the following way: “1) to identify the work, 2) to designate the work’s subject matter, 3) to play up the work” (76). The role of titles is of great importance, since, as Hazard Adams notes, they “are part of the works; though they are marginal, their marginality is central, and they are always synecdoches” (7).
The most important function of prefaces, on the other hand—at least of the original ones—is, according to Genette, “to provide the author’s interpretation of the text or … his statement of intent” (221). An interesting observation is the fact that none of the translated works at hand contains an original preface. There are, nonetheless, prefaces and introductions written by the translators and/or the editors—“allographic prefaces” in
Genette’s terminology (196; 263-275)—which offer, thus, their own introductory comments, their own interpretation, or even suggested readings along the lines of what they consider as essential features of the work. These texts along with the notes and commentaries that accompany the poems frame them with explanatory additions of cultural, historical, aesthetic and editorial character, often setting the tone of the reading experience.
126 Last but not least “the publisher’s peritext” refers to a range of features surrounding the text, from format and typeface to cover, title page and so forth. It is book covers that are mainly of interest in the examination of how national and cultural identity is represented in translated editions. However, I have used this umbrella term to highlight the fact that these are usually decisions made by publishers, as opposed to translators.
Through the examination of the above-mentioned features, I plan to show how certain aspects of the peritext obscure the Irishness of the works, while others underline it, sometimes even more than the translated poems themselves. The examination will be selective, focusing on examples that are related to the representation of national and cultural identity, and each poet will be treated separately.
3.2.1 Peritextual Analysis: W. B. Yeats
Of the four monographs of Yeats’s poetry, two bear the same neutral title Poiimata
(Poems), which also serves as a genre indication (ΠοΜΙΕΤ and ΠοΕΘ). The two editions by Spiros Iliopoulos, on the other hand, are entitled Mythologies kai Oramata
(Mythologies and visions)—a clear allusion to two of Yeats’s major non-poetic works— and 70 Erotika (70 Love poems) respectively. The latter emphasizes the theme of love poetry, probably the most universal of all themes, obscuring thus any specific origin. The aim of the title in this case is to tempt the reader, using love poetry as a lure, regardless of the literary tradition the poet belongs to. This is, nonetheless, soon reversed by other elements of the peritext of this publication, which will be discussed further on.
127 When it comes to the various anthologies that contain Yeats’s poems there is another significant issue: there are cases in which the titles of the collections (or the biographical information on Yeats) present him as English. The examples that follow are most characteristic. The first poetry anthology that included Yeats, published in 1944, was entitled Angloi Lyrikoi (English Poets). This is not at odds with the common practice of foreign publishing houses to include Yeats in compilations of English poetry, thus leading audiences to misread him as English, but it is certainly incompatible with Yeats’s self-identification as Irish and the strong national and cultural identity advocated by his work. The same phenomenon appears still, as late as 1986, in an anthology with the title
Anthologia Anglon poiiton empneysmenon apo tin Ellada (Anthology of English poets inspired by Greece), compiled and translated by Meropi Oikonomou, although the translator, in her introduction to Yeats, underlines his national origin and discusses “his devotion to Ireland” and his important contribution both to Irish literature and Irish politics (145-6).
The second issue worth discussing at this point is the use of introductions and commentaries. As far as the early translations in the literary periodicals are concerned, they appear with no introduction or comments. The only information given to the reader is the poet’s and the translator’s names and rarely the year in which the specific poem was published in English. One can thus easily reach the conclusion that this scarcity of information would lead Greek readers of the time to assume Yeats was English. On account of the stronger ties between England and Greece, authors who wrote in the
English language were almost automatically taken to be English, unless it was clearly indicated otherwise, which was seldom the case.
128 This seems to change, though, from the 1980s onwards, especially in the two collections edited by Spyros Iliopoulos (the second one co-edited with Maria
Sidiropoulou). Through his introductions and the extended commentaries on each poem, he provides the reader with valuable information about culture-bound elements, the symbolic dimension of images, figures and places and their relation to Ireland. Besides, both collections he edited are bilingual, so even if sometimes his translating decisions result in a rather domesticated version of the poem, bilingual readers can have a more complete view of each poem, by consulting both the poem in English and the comments.
The collection 70 Erotika is probably the most interesting case. First of all, there is a preface, which according to Genette, “has as its chief function to ensure that the text is read properly” (197, emphasis in the text). In their preface, the two editors do not explicitly guide their readers towards “a proper reading”; they do nonetheless place the poems they have chosen in context. This preface is followed by a 38-page essay entitled
(in free translation) “Yeats, the love-poet” (O erotikos Yeats). Additional information is given for every poem in the 55-page commentary, where Spyros Iliopoulos and Maria
Sidiropoulou also highlight aspects of the background and the publishing history of each poem and explicate any allusions to people or places, especially with reference to Ireland.
Especially in the case of those poems that contain mythological references, they explain them all in detail and underline their connection to Yeats’s spiritual quests and his love life. A very characteristic example is the commentary on the complexity of the “Rose of the World”: the editors inform the reader that the poet’s rose is Maud Gonne, for whom the poem is written, but also that it is a symbol identified with Ireland, as well as linked
129 to the poet’s interest in occultism (236-237).124 For the greatest part of this information
Iliopoulos and Sidiropoulou draw on work by Yeats’s major scholars, such as Richard
Ellman and Alexander Norman Jeffares; they also take into consideration Yeats’s own information on the poems, including extracts from Autobiographies, his letters, and from the notes in his Collected Poems, among other works.
Another interesting thing is the fact that Iliopoulos informs the reader of the initial titles the poems might have had in earlier editions, which are in most cases references to
Celtic mythology. The reader is, thus, told, for example, that the poem “He Thinks of his
Past Greatness when a Part of the Constellations of Heaven” was initially entitled “Song of Mongan”, and became later “Mongan thinks of his Past Greatness”, before it was given its final title. Apart from this piece of information, though, the editors go on to include a note by Yeats, in which Mongan’s character is briefly sketched and the significance of the other mythological references of the poem (“the Country of the
Young” and the magical “hazel-tree”) are explained.
The special issues of literary journals are also on the same wavelength. The Irish elements of Yeats’s work are emphasized to such an extent that it would be impossible for the readers to miss his Irishness. It seems that thanks to Yeats’s translators and critics the awareness that Yeats is an Anglo-Irish poet, whose work is inextricably linked to his national identity, is slowly but steadily embracing the Greek readers.
3.2.2 Peritextual Analysis: Patrick Kavanagh
124 Iliopoulos and Sidiropoulou also mention that “Rose” is the name of a dark-haired girl in Irish patriotic poetry and refer also to “Dark Rosaleen”, James Clarence Mangan’s famous poem. They explain how Yeats identifies Maud Gonne with figures from both Greek and Celtic mythology (Helen and Deirdre) and then give a rather long account of the legend of “Usna’s children”, based on information from The Love Poems, edited by Jeffares (236-7).
130
Prefaces also play a central role in the representation of Patrick Kavanagh as one of the most important exponents of Irish poetry in the mid-twentieth century. Amy Mims begins her rather sentimental preface to the collection 28 Poiimata informing readers that
Kavanagh “has been established—along with W. B. Yeats—as the greatest Irish poet of the twentieth century” (5, my translation). The rest of her text mentions in various instances the importance of his native countryside for his formation as a poet but also the intimate role of the Grand Canal of the Liffey River.
Nonetheless, it is not only the significance of place that is pointed out as a central characteristic of Kavanagh and his work. In the preface to the Greek translation of “The
Great Hunger”, Amy Mims—one of the two translators—stresses the connection she sees between Irish and Greek culture:
My first contact with Kavanagh was fateful, because I have believed ever
since that the Greeks and the Irish are blood brothers, and I set as a long-
term goal the match—even if just the literary one—of these two small and
yet so great peoples at the two far ends of Europe. (9, my translation)
Subjective as this statement may be, it nonetheless creates an impression of affinity between the two cultures and predisposes readers to search for ties while reading the poem.
Apart from the prefaces, the translators also make use of notes and glosses to complete their translations of the poems. In “The Great Hunger”, there is a page at the end reserved for ten glosses, which mainly explain place names encountered in the poem.
The collection 28 Poiimata, however, has a more extended list of notes at the end, in
131 which additional information is given and several allusions explained. Once again, many of them refer to place names, explicitating, thus, the connection between the Irish landscape and Kavanagh’s poetry.
There are also other elements that may attract the readers’ attention to the national origin of these two publications of Kavanagh’s work into Greek. In the translation of
“The Great Hunger”, for example, the page that follows the title page bears a short note on top informing readers that the translation was subsidized by the “ILE (Translation
Fund), Dublin Ireland” (6). A similar note is found in the collection 28 Poiimata which reads “The publisher acknowledges the financial assistance of Ireland Literature
Exchange (Translation Fund, Dublin, Ireland)” (2). The poet’s national identity is thus clearly designated by the notification that the translation of Kavanagh’s poetry into Greek has been promoted by the Irish State.
Furthermore, leafing through 28 Poiimata reveals several photos, some of which are indicative of a distinct national and cultural context. Such is the reproduction of an
Irish commemorative stamp, issued for the occasion of the 100th anniversary of
Kavanagh’s birth (14). The stamp bears on the upper right corner the official name of
Ireland in Gaelic—Éire—and its price in eurocents. Beneath it one can discern on the date stamp the name of the city of Dublin also in Gaelic: Baile Átha Cliath. Hence, readers may get a glimpse of the multilingualism and the two-fold character of Irish culture. Other pictures of Kavanagh posing in various spots in Dublin (outside an old- fashioned Irish pub and in front of Leopold Bloom’s house) on Bloomsday in different years (24-5) help recreate the context in which the poet wrote his poetry. Thus, although
132 the two publications are rather simple, their peritext provides quite a few pieces of evidence on Kavanagh’s national and cultural identity.
3.2.3 Peritextual Analysis: Seamus Heaney
Heaney’s first collection of translated poems in Greek bears the title Ta Poiimata tou valtou (poems of the bog). The title alludes to Heaney’s so-called bog poems, which is, as explained in the previous section, a series of poems in which he celebrates his native
Northern Ireland and is indicative of the role of place as a central element of his poetry.
The allusion is made explicit in the translator’s preface and is then confirmed by the content of the poems. This preface, entitled “Sta valtotopia tis metafrasis” (in the translation bogland), contains Katerina Angelaki-Rooke’s long explanation on the meaning of “bog”, its significance for Heaney and the Northern Irish community and its importance as part of the Northern Irish identity, as well as the difficulties such a compact word poses for translators:
Heaney considers landscape as the element that forms ‘national
consciousness’—it is of course the particular Irish landscape he is
referring to … This landscape is called ‘bog’ … ‘Bog’ is untranslatable
not only because it signifies a landscape, to which we have no analogous
image to think of. It is also because this monosyllable word with its two
glottal consonants contains in itself the description of landscape. (16, my
translation)
133 The translator’s decision to specifically highlight these elements of Heaney’s poetry in the preface and also to use the bog concept as emblematic in the title of the collection underline the alterity of his poetry, especially in connection to his national origin, and point to a foreignizing direction.
An interesting instance of a domesticating practice in another of Heaney’s translated collections, on the other hand, is an uncommon choice that regards the publisher’s peritext. It regards the cover of the book entitled To Alfadi, a selection of poems from Heaney’s The Spirit Level, the greatest part of which was translated by
Stratis Haviaras and Manolis Savvidis. The cover (See Appendix D) resembles a stone slab that bears a three-line engraving. The engraving consists of the author’s name and surname, the title of the collection, and the name of the publishing house and thus reads
ΣΕΪΜΟΥΣ ΧΗΝΥ ΤΟ ΑΛΦΑ∆Ι ΕΡΜΗΣ. However, the words of this short text are not separated in the conventional modern manner in which the beginning and end of each is clearly designated, but rather in a way that clearly alludes to an ancient Greek inscription.
Several reasons may support this choice. The perfect symmetry of the text (each line consists of eight columns of letters) gives the impression that they are indeed leveled with the aid of a spirit level. Moreover, the subject matter of five of the poems included in the collection, under the overarching title “Mycenae Lookout”, may have conditioned the choice of the cover, which creates a familiar aesthetics to the Greek audience (but shows at the same time complete obliviousness to the rest of the collection, much of which is informed by Irish subject matter). One could even assume that this image may be relevant to the name of the publishing house that alludes to the ancient Greek god Hermes. The fact is that there could hardly be a more domesticating choice than this. It should be noted
134 for the record that Haviaras and Savvidis are the translators that mostly favor Heaney’s
Greek themes mentioned in the previous section.
Besides, neither of the two collections translated by Manolis Savvides and Stratis
Haviaras has any prefaces or introductions. As far as notes, glosses and commentaries are concerned, there are none in any of the volumes of Heaney’s translated poetry. The translation of the five poems comprising the “Mycenae Lookout” (by Evangelia
Andritsanou and Giannis Zervas), published in the literary journal Poiisi, is the only instance in which there is an addendum: nonetheless, it focuses primarily on Heaney’s drama translations, connecting them to the “Mycenae Lookout” and the present political situation in Northern Ireland.
Conclusion
Certain conclusions could be drawn from this brief and selective analysis. It seems that for Greek translators, the Greek themes treated in Anglo-Irish poetry were the most attractive. As far as Yeats in particular is concerned, Greece does not seem to follow the
Northern and Western European trend that predominantly favors the Celtic Twilight verse. Kavanagh and Heaney’s translations into Greek, although smaller in number, are much more representative of the Irish context they evoke.
Coming back to the issue of value of the original texts mentioned in the first section of this chapter, I would like to observe that it makes sense that laureate poets such as Yeats and Heaney have been chosen for translation into Greek. In tune with polysystem theory, according to which translated literary texts enter another system and
135 add stature and perhaps influence it, the three poets considered in this thesis provide translators with prestigious, internationally recognized material to work on. However, the main concern of this thesis is not simply the fact that these very poets have been translated because of their status, which is by itself interesting but self-explanatory. What is more significant is the representation of the source culture to target culture audiences.
Taking as a starting point one of the most important changes that came about with the cultural turn in translation studies, namely the realization that what gets translated are not just texts, but a whole culture into another (Bassnett and Lefevere, Translation, History and Culture; Snell-Hornby “Linguistic Transcoding or Cultural Transfer?”), one could easily assume that what did get translated was just a fragment of the source culture and it can be argued that it is also a distorted one, since some extremely important facets of the poets’ work, such as the political dimension, are undertranslated (Heaney) or almost totally left out (Yeats).
As far as the peritext is concerned, on the other hand, there are also some interesting observations to be made. First of all it should be noted that peritextual elements such as the title and the cover, apart from influencing the reader’s choice whether to engage in reading the content of the volume, may affect the readers’ expectations and direct them towards specific, guided readings. In the number of works examined here these elements do not generally prepare readers to receive a specifically
Irish content.
The peritextual examination of the translations into Greek shows, nonetheless, a general tendency in more recent publications for translators to rely heavily on peritextual information, such as introductions, notes, glosses, etc. in which they underline the
136 national and cultural identity of the Irish poets. The poems included in literary journals are generally accompanied by abundant material which, apart from offering critical analyses, contextualizes the works. The national identity of the poets and the way this affects their work, is hence not neglected in these publications.
Nonetheless, there is another point that needs to be underlined. Although issues concerning the national origin of the poems are not generally obscured in the peritextual material of the more recent publications, this is not the case with issues related to the translators’ activity. With extremely few exceptions, there is no reference to the translators’ choices: their goals are not set clearly and their strategies are not discussed.
As a result, it is impossible for the reader to have a clear idea of the translator’s intentions.
Overall, the examination of the peritexts reveals two different tendencies, as far as the treatment of Irishness is concerned. It could be argued that publishers do not seem to be interested in promoting Irish poetry based on its Irishness, not even by taking advantage of the stereotypical exotic element of the Celtic tradition (which is very common in other foreign markets or in the case of other national literatures in the Greek book market). Notwithstanding this fact, most translators (especially contemporary ones) seem to be well-aware of the national and cultural context from which Irish poetry emerges and this is evident in their efforts to frame their work, often contextualizing both source texts and target texts.
137 CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSLATIONS: FORM
Introduction to the Chapter
The treatment of form is largely neglected in most discussions that concern translation and cultural identity. It is, nonetheless, of great importance, especially for poetry, in which form and content are inseparable for the complete meaning to be rendered. After all, form is not an isolated feature that can be easily overlooked, but rather an organic part of the original poem and an important indicator of the literary tradition within which the poem is written.
All three of the poets this thesis examines have written mainly metrical poetry.
Unfortunately, only some of the translations of Yeats are rendered in metrical verse and only occasionally is there an attempt to preserve metrical, rhythmical and rhyming patterns in translations of Heaney’s work. However, it is my contention that, since the primary material is poetry, an examination that would not at least touch upon the matter of form would be incomplete. Besides, as will be argued, in the case of Irish poetry there is a strong link between poetic form and cultural politics. For these reasons, I will attempt an approach to form, even if the translation material does not readily lend itself to such a
138 purpose.125 The examination will thus be based on the translations of Yeats,126 although I am fully aware of the asymmetry this will create in the treatment of the three poets.127
The examination of form will take two directions. First, I will briefly discuss the importance of orality in Anglo-Irish poetry and will compare this feature to its manifestations in Greek poetry, which often takes the form of ‘political verse’. This will be followed by the second part of the analysis, which will deal with the ways translators treat the traditional Irish form of the ballad.
4.1 From the Source Culture to the Target Culture
125 An exhaustive analysis of the ways form is rendered in the translated poetry of even one of the poets chosen for this thesis would extend well beyond its scope. I will only be touching on some very general issues of domestication and foreignization examining relatively briefly only the ballad, fully aware that this is not an in-depth approach, yet convinced that this is an aspect of the subject without which my research would be incomplete.
126 The case of Yeats is of particular interest, due to the influence of his poetry not only on the generation of Irish poets that succeeded him, who were mostly imitators of his poetry, but also on poets who deliberately transcended the Yeatsian poetics, such as Patrick Kavanagh. Yeats has exerted such a great effect on contemporary Irish letters that it would not be an exaggeration to claim that his work continues to condition Irish poetry at least up to the present. The literary forms the most prominent Irish poet used are, thus, of great importance, since they are exemplary; indicative of the character Irish poetry assumed in the twentieth century, and they also reflect the broader Irish context in which such works were created. Yeats was very meticulous about the form of his poems and consciously chose to write according to literary traditions. The following lines form “Adam’s Curse” are very representative of the poet’s stance towards poetry composition: “I said: ‘A line will take us hours maybe; / Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought, / Our stiching and unstiching has been naught’” (4-6). A master of diction and rhythm, Yeats was especially concerned with metrical patterns, rhymes, and sonic effects. He employed a great range of forms, from sonnets and elegies, to lyrical poems and poems in the form of the Irish ballad. He did not even experiment with free verse, however, and his poems grew all the more dense and compact as his poetry evolved. As Declan Kiberd argues, there is some formlessness in Yeats’s early poems, as a reaction to the “devotion to [the] mere mechanism” of the modern world, which was, nonetheless, soon abandoned in favor of strictly structured verse (Irish Classics 441). The use of conservative, very disciplined stanza forms, and the preference for strict rhymes, creates an elitist poetic style, addressed to his ideal readers.
127 Patrick Kavanagh has also written a number of ballads. Nevertheless, only two of them have been translated into Greek: “If Ever You Go to Dublin Town”, and “On Raglan Road” (which was also set to music in the 1960s and is still one of the most popular Irish ballads). Unfortunately, the sample is too small and not of special interest as far as the translator’s treatment of form is concerned and will, thus, not be examined here.
139 Obviously the poetic tradition of each culture has certain forms that are considered
“indigenous”, although they may later have been adopted by other cultures, too, and their use might have spread beyond the cultural context within which they were invented. By the same token, certain forms, even if they have originated elsewhere, suit the poetic expression of a certain culture, are largely employed and developed within it, and eventually become connected to its literary tradition. For example, despite its Italian origin and its later popularity with the poetic traditions of almost every European and
Western culture, the sonnet is a genre that has been largely associated with the English tradition, especially due to William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser.128 Long established as a major form of love poetry for centuries, it has come to form part of every
Western poetic tradition.
What should not be disregarded is the fact that translation has played an important role in this process, as it was through translation that literary systems were modified to include the sonnet as a form. As has been argued by polysystem theorist Itamar Even-
Zohar, translated literature may influence and form models for the literary system of the target culture (Polysystem Studies 19-22; Papers in Culture Research 67, 116). Thus, forms that did not previously exist in the target culture may be imported, first as translations and later as forms used by the target culture authors. Accordingly, these forms will then be recognizable and familiar and, in the event that a foreign literature that contains them is translated, it will be up to the translator to decide whether to preserve the original form or not; in the former case, s/he will be working with a familiar convention.
128 The genre owes its existence to the Italian poets of the Early Renaissance, especially Petrarch. Sir Thomas Wyatt is supposed to have introduced the sonnet into the English literary scene through his translations.
140 In Greece, up until the previous century, metrical poetry was translated as such, and so forms such as the afore-mentioned case of the sonnet were used in the translations of foreign poetry into Greek.129 The familiarization of the Greek literary system with the specific form allowed for the preservation of its metrical and rhyming particularities, should the translator decide to do so; it was expected that the receiving audience would recognize the form, too.
An interesting implication, however, concerns what happens when the form used in the source text does not exist in the target literature. In this case form may be seen in terms of the concepts of foreignization and domestication. As has been argued, where a certain poetic form exists in both poetic traditions, it is a question of whether its specific conventions will be preserved; this largely depends on the translator’s principles and abilities. When the specific poetic form is unique in the poetic tradition of the source culture, translators must decide whether to “import the new model”, clearly opting for a foreignizing approach, or use the resources of the target literature, domesticating the poem.130 These two views are represented in the Greek tradition of poetry translation by
Iakovos Polylas and Dionysios Solomos. The former considered the import of new models as an excellent opportunity for the Greek poetic tradition to be enriched and better host foreign verse in translation, while the latter objected to poets using forms unfamiliar to their own tradition (Spatalas 105, 260; Koutsivitis 116, 131-133).
129 Nasos Vagenas argues that there seems to be a decline in the quality of more recent poetry translations in Greece and locates the loss in poeticity in the fact that translators prioritize the translation of the semantic content of poems translating less, or totally neglecting their form (“To provlima tis metafrasis tou eleftherou stichou” 69-70). Elsewhere he maintains that metrical verse ought to be translated strictly in metrical verse (“I metrafrasi ton emmetron morfon stin epochi tou eleftherou stichou”).
130 Another option, wich appears to be more neutral, is to translate in free verse.
141 4.2 The particularities of Anglo-Irish poetry: Orality
Before proceeding, I would like to underline again some of the particularities of modern and contemporary Anglo-Irish poetry, mentioned briefly in the section entitled “Why
Poetry” in Chapter 3. The first feature one should bear in mind is the oral tradition to which contemporary Irish poetry is connected. At the turn of the nineteenth century, poets, including Yeats, experimented with traditional Irish genres, such as the ballad.131
Yeats, believing in Ireland’s potential to become a counter-culture for England, distinguished the Irish literary tradition from the English one and asserted the orality of the former as opposed to the latter:
Irish poetry and Irish stories were made to be spoken or sung, while
English literature, alone of great literatures, because the newest of them
all, has but completely shaped itself in the printing press. In Ireland to-day
the old world that sang and listened is, it may be for the last time in
Europe, face to face with the world that reads and writes, and their
antagonism is always present under some name or other in Irish
imagination and intellect. (Explorations 206)
The influence of the oral tradition on modern and contemporary Anglo-Irish poetry is particularly strong, affecting it to a great extent on the sonic level. Apart from metrical patterns and sonic effects such as assonance and alliteration, there are important elements
131 During the Revival, especially, there were many attempts to imitate or restore the oral poetic tradition. Declan Kiberd mentions, for instance, the Irish writer and Revivalist John Millington Synge underlining that “the desire to recapture ‘continued assonance and alliteration’ in the sensitive recitation of modern poetry is part of Synge’s deliberate attempt to revive bardic models” (The Irish Writer and the World, 81).
142 on the sonic level connected to Irish pronunciation. Observe, for example, Heaney’s “The
Ministry of Fear”, where line 27 reads “With hushed and lulled full chimes for pushed and pulled” (emphasis in the text). This line can only make sense sonic-wise if read out loud in an Irish accent. The pronunciation issue is actually picked up again more explicitly further on in the poem: “Have our accents/ Changed? ‘Catholics, in general, don’t speak/ As well as students from the Protestant schools’” (30-32). Another interesting traditional poetic genre revived by Seamus Heaney is the “dindshenchas”.132
He wrote his own contemporary versions of dindshenchas, a form of the Gaelic poetic tradition, in which the linguistic elements of and affection for a place name are explored.133 However, the genre that is chiefly associated with orality and actually forms part of the tradition of folk songs, as well, is the Irish ballad.
4.3 Orality in Greek Poetry: The Case of “Political Verse”
Before moving on to examine the distinct form of the ballad, I should examine briefly the
Greek metrical pattern of “political verse”,134 which is an iambic fifteen-syllable line (the so-called “iamvikos dekapentasyllavos” in Greek). The reason for doing so is that it appears several times in the translations of Yeats’s poems, especially, and this fact should not go unnoticed given the significance of this metrical pattern for Greek poetry;
132 For an overview of the dindshenchas tradition in Ireland, see Bowen.
133 Although the dindschenchas could provide excellent material for the discussion of how translation may treat such a particular genre, the fact that only one of Heaney’s numerous dindschenchas has been translated into Greek (“Anahorish”) does not allow for a comparative analysis.
134 “Political verse” (politikós stíchos) bears no connection to politics; the term derives from the Greek word politikós, which means “civil” to refer to secular, non-religious poetry. The term will, nonetheless, always appear in inverted commas in this text, to avoid confusion.
143 “political verse” is considered by many the Greek national verse (Politis 30, Stavrou 64) and also the most common meter in Greek folk poetry (or “dimotiki poiisi”) (Stavrou 64,
Beaton 44).
Although a line of “political verse”, in its typical form, consists in fact of a tetrameter and another seven syllables with a caesura between them, if scanned in a different manner, it could be seen as an iambic heptameter, plus an unstressed syllable,
(which can then be further broken down into the 4/3 ballad measure).
As far as translation is concerned, “political verse” has the advantage of accommodating the longer Greek words in translations and creates a sense of fluidity and orality. Consider how the following poems are rendered:
Had I the heaven’s embroidered cloths, Τα ουράνια τα µεταξωτά και χιλιοπλουµισµένα Enwrought with golden and silver light, που ’ναι µε µάλαµα από φως κι ασήµι δουλεµένα, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths τα γαλάζια τα διάφανα και τα βαθιά βαµµένα Of night and light and the half-light, µε φως, νύχτα και µούχρωµα, δικά µου αν τα ’χα ωστόσο, I would spread the cloths under your feet: Θα ‘θελα κάτω από τα δυο σου πόδια να τ’απλώσω. (W. B. Yeats, “He Wishes for the Cloths of (“Τα ουράνια τα µεταξωτά...,” 1-5, trans. Heaven,” 1-5) Melissanthi)
Never give all the heart, for love Όλη µη δίνεις την καρδιά, ποτέ, γιατί η αγάπη Will hardly seem worth thinking of σπάνια τραβάει την προσοχή, σπάνια τραβάει το µάτι
144 To passionate women if it seem των παθιασµένων γυναικών σαν κερδισµένη µοιάζει Certain, and they never dream γιατί αυτές, ξέρεις, ποτέ, ποτέ τους δεν τις νοιάζει That it fades out from kiss to kiss; Που από φιλί σ’άλλο φιλί η αγάπη θα ξεφτίσει· (W. B. Yeats, “Never Give All the (“Ποτέ µη δίνεις όλη την καρδιά,” 1-5, trans. Heart” 1-5) Spyros Iliopoulos)
Both poems are written in tetrameters. The first poem follows an abab rhyming scheme, while the second is a fourteener in rhymed couplets. In both cases the translators opt for
“political verse”, although there is a great time difference between the two translations— the former published in 1941 and the latter in 2000. The more extended Greek version contains additional semantic material in the form of extra words and meanings that do not exist in the original poems. The use of this meter, however, produces a poem that flows and carries the reader unhurriedly from one line to the next, an effect that is to a certain extent achieved in the originals also by the simplicity of diction. Hence, although the rhythm and metrical patterns between original and translations differ significantly, the effect of orality is retained in the translation. The importance of “political verse” for the translation of the ballad will be discussed further on.
4.4 The Irish Ballad
The Irish ballad is a traditional form that consists of quatrains of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter that follow the rhyming scheme abcb. It bears little resemblance to the form of the ballad used extremely rarely in Greek poetry, which consists of three stanzas with the same number of lines plus a fourth one, half their
145 length; the first stanza may have the same two rhymes from the beginning to the end, or different ones from the beginning to its middle and different ones from then on. The rhymes of the first stanza are repeated without variations in the second and third stanza, while the fourth one follows the rhymes of the second half of the previous stanzas
(Stavrou 124-25, Nikolaou 37).
What is of particular interest is the function of the ballad in the Irish context.
Apart from being kin to folk songs, and thus popular and well-diffused, the ballad has been connected to the Irish nationalist claims. Discussing nineteenth-century nationalist thinking, David Lloyd notes that, “The nationalist critic D. F. MacCarthy … argues that full knowledge of the ballad poetry of Ireland would furnish not only an aid to an archaeology of the Irish genius, but the very foundation on which an Irish literature might construct a distinctive identity” (14).135
4.5 Yeats and the Irish Ballad
Yeats’s fascination with the ballad form is well-established.136 His extensive use of the ballad form or elements thereof appears already in his first collections, but culminates in his Last Poems. Helen Vendler underlines the fact that
Yeats stretched the scope of the ballad while retaining (if also often
defying) many of the conventions that identify it: its narrative plot; its
quatrain stanza (sometimes accompanied by a refrain, sometimes extended
135 It has also been observed that “in the nineteenth century the patriotic ballad constituted a very considerable part of the total poetic production of Irish writers” (R. Chambers 579).
136 See Yeats’s article “Popular Ballad Poetry in Ireland” (1889).
146 to six lines); its simplicity of means; its focus on a dramatic moment; its
use of conversation; its impersonality; and its expression of a collective
voice. (111-112)
N. Jeanne Argoff suggests that the ballad is present in Yeats’s poetry not so much strictly in the metrical patterns but rather in the constant presence of the “vagabond peasant poet”, who becomes the dramatic speaker in certain of his poems (109).
Elizabeth Cullingford, on the other hand, connects Yeats’s fascination with the ballad form with his nationalist agenda:
In Yeats’s devotion to the ballad form … aesthetics cannot be separated
from national loyalties and social critique. … He admired popular ballads
that produced an image of arousing erotic desire and displacing it towards
the nation … Yeats’s early project was the formation of the Irish subject
into a nationalist subject through a poetics of desire for the free nation; as
a medium long associated in Ireland with both love and patriotism the
ballad provided an appropriate vehicle. (Gender and History in Yeats’s
Love Poetry 166)
Similarly, Helen Vendler asserts that, “Yeats never abandons the identification of the ballad with Irish resistance” (115). His use of traditional Irish forms such as the ballad and the composition of poems in the style of popular songs signify his desire to revive the
Irish past. As Cullingford notes, “he forged a relation between genre, national pride, and social history” (“The Erotics of the Ballad” 112). His constant preoccupation with Irish matters—politically and socially—may explain some of his choices, as far as the form of his poems is concerned. Irish matters were portrayed and negotiated through Yeats’s
147 poetic expression. And the truth is that the leading Irish poetic voice articulated the concerns of an entire nation, whose primary goals were independence and national pride.
4.6 The Translation of Yeats’s Ballads
Since only a relatively small fraction of Yeats’s poetry has been translated into Greek, most of his most important ballads have not been translated. Such is the case with many of the early ballads, such as “The Ballad of Father O’Hart”, as well as ballads such as
“The O’Rahilly”, which narrates the heroic death of the eponymous Republican during the Easter Rising, or “The Curse of Cromwell”, both from New Poems (1938), and “John
Kinsella’s Lament for Mrs Mary Moore” from Last Poems (1939), to name but a few.
This is very unfortunate because the Irish ballad, apart from being a formal container which allows in its endless transformations and variations in the hands of Yeats a great insight into his poetic development, has been used first and foremost in connection with his political beliefs, and for nationalist reasons in particular, and thus offers a valuable picture of Yeats’s poetry with regard to national identity. The way this form in its numerous versions would be “translated”, the extent to which its characteristics would be preserved or altered, would have a great significance as to the aspects of nation Yeats’s poetry may communicate.
It is interesting, nonetheless, to see what happens to the ballads that do get translated. As with every other feature of the poems, as far as form is concerned, different translators treat it differently. There are first of all certain translations, where the
148 translator does not seem to pay any attention to form. They are, fortunately, quite few and thus do not need to be further discussed. The following is a characteristic example:
‘O words are lightly spoken,’ Οι λέξεις είναι ανάλαφρα ειπωµένες Said Pearse to Connolly, Είπε ο Pearce (sic) στον Connolly, ‘Maybe a breath of politic words Ίσως µια ανάσα από λέξεις πολιτικές Has withered our Rose Tree; Έχει δώσει πνοή στην τριανταφυλλιά µας. Or maybe but a wind that blows Ή ίσως ο άνεµος που φυσάει Across the bitter sea.’ Πάνω στην πικροθάλασσα. (W.B. Yeats, “The Rose Tree,” lines 1-6) (“H τριανταφυλλιά,” lines 1-6, trans. Maria Archimandritou)
In this poem of political content Yeats has preserved many of the characteristics of the traditional ballad, primarily the 4/3 meter pattern.137 Admittedly, the fact that the equivalent word for the two-syllable “Rose Tree” is the five-syllable word
“τριανταφυλλιά” in Greek (which may thus expand over two feet) poses a great difficulty for the translator, who has to accommodate it within the limits of a single line. Even so, apart from the fact that the translator does not seem to have made a conscious effort to reproduce at least some aspect of the original form or use any other recognizable metrical pattern, she is not even careful to follow the punctuation of the original text. The omission of the inverted commas in her translation makes it harder for the reader to distinguish the direct speech of the two Easter Rising leaders. This omission alters significantly Yeats’s ballad, as its impersonal character—suitable for its patriotic content—is not retained.
137 The poem follows the rhymed scheme of the ballad stanza of four stresses in lines one, three (and five) and three stresses in lines two, four (and six), although the number of syllables 8/6 is not strictly followed—and neither is the number of lines.
149 There are, however various metrical forms employed by Yeats’s translators, as is illustrated in the following ballads:
‘Because I am mad about women «Σαν τον τρελό τις αγαπάω τις γυναίκες, I am mad about the hills,’ γι’ αυτό κι είµαι τρελός για τα βουνά», Said the wild old wicked man είπε και λάλησε ο γεροµουρντάρης Who travels where God wills, Που πάει όπου ο Θεός του ορµηνά. ‘Not to die on the straw at home, «Τούτα τα χέρια αν µου κλείσουνε τα µάτια, Those hands to close these eyes, Σαν το σκυλί στ’αµπέλι µη χαθώ, That is all I ask my dear, Αυτό καλή µου, µόνο αυτό ζητάω From the old man in the skies.’ Από το γέροντα στον ουρανό.» Day-break and a candle end. Χαράζει, σβήνει το κερί. (W.B. Yeats, “The Wild Old Wicked (“Ο γεροµουρντάρης,” lines 1-9, trans. Man,” lines 1-9) Sofia Skoulikari)
The poem in Greek consists mainly of lines of iambic hexameters (minus/plus an unstressed syllable) alternating with lines of iambic pentameters (blank verse). This is not strictly followed throughout the whole poem, however, while there is also some variation within certain lines (as in lines one and three, for instance, where the first foot is a trochee).138 The rhyming scheme is abab for the most part of the seven-stanza poem, or at least the poem rhymes on the even lines, as indicated in this excerpt.
Some translations may actually present a combination of metrical forms, as is the case with the next three-stanza ballad:
What sort of man is coming Τί σόι άντρας να’ναι πάλι αυτό τ’αρσενικό
138 This slight variation is in line with the rule of Greek metrics according to which the first foot of an iambic line may be substituted by a trochee (Stavrou 41).
150 To lie between your feet? που ανάµεσα στα πόδια σου έρχεται να πλαγιάσει What matter, we are but women. Μα τι πειράζει, αφού είµαστε γι’ αυτόν το θηλυκό, Wash; make your body sweet; πλύσου· καν’ το κορµί σου από γλύκα να ευωδιάσει, …………………………………...... He shall love my soul as though Τόσο βαθιά θε ν’αγαπήσει την ψυχή µου Body were not at all, Σα νάταν άυλο πέρα ώς πέρα το κορµί He shall love your body Και το κορµί σου θα λατρέψει διαλεχτή µου, Untroubled by the soul, Σα νάταν ξέχωρο τελείως απ’ την ψυχή· Love cram love’s two divisions Ο έρωτας σµίγει σώµα και ψυχή τόσο αρµοσµένα Yet keep his substance whole. Που από δυο αυτός τα ενώνει σ’ένα. The Lord have mercy upon us. Συγχώρεσέ µας Κύριε. (W.B. Yeats, “The Lady’s Second (“Της κυράς τραγούδι δεύτερο,” lines 1-4, Song,” lines 1-4, 8-14) 8-14, trans. Argyros Ioannis Protopapas)
This is the second of the sequence of six poems that follow the ballad “The Three
Bushes”, published in New Poems (1938). Yeats has changed the stanza form from quatrain to six lines, which are followed by the refrain; the poem definitely maintains the primary characteristics of the ballad, in terms of form as well as of content. Protopapas’s translation begins with “political verse” in the first stanza, in which the lady addresses the chambermaid, but continues with an alternation of an iambic thirteen-syllable line with an iambic twelve-syllable line (there is the occasional deviation as in lines 11-12 above) in the final two stanzas. His thirteen-syllable line either has a caesura after the fourth foot
(with two main stresses on the fourth and the eight syllable, as in lines 8 and 10) or after a stressed sixth syllable. This metrical pattern with both its versions has been introduced
151 into Greek by Iakovos Polylas in his translation of Hamlet (1889).139 The twelve-syllable lines, on the other hand, accented on the last syllable of the line without a predetermined caesura does not necessarily resemble the twelve-syllable line used in folk poetry, which always has a caesura after the seventh syllable (Stavrou 59). Nevertheless, the alternation of the two lines produces a dramatic effect, appropriately used in the two last stanzas, where the lady’s speech turns into a monologue and becomes more intimate. Hence, although the translator does not use a consistent formal pattern throughout the whole poem, he seems to reproduce, nonetheless, the nuances of the original, as the emotional force of the poem evolves and culminates from the beginning towards its end.
There are also cases in which the same ballad is rendered in different versions by different translators. Consider the “Fiddler of Dooney”, one of Yeats’s early ballads
(1899) and its two translations:
When we come at the end of time Κι όταν τελειώσει πια η ζωή µας και πεθάνουµε To Peter sitting in state, και πάµε µπρος στο θρόνο του Άγιου Πέτρου He will smile on the three old spirits, εκείνος θα χαµογελάσει και στις τρεις ψυχές, But call me first through the gate; Μα πρώτα εµένα θα καλέσει µέσα. ……………………………………… ...... And when the folk there spy me, Κι όταν ο κόσµος µ’ανταµώσει εκεί, They will come up to me, όλοι θα τρέξουν γύρω µου και θα φωνάξουν; With ‘Here is the fiddler of Dooney!’ «Να τος ο βιολιτζής του Ντούνεϋ!» And dance like a wave of the sea. και θα χορεύουν σαν της θάλασσας το κύµα. (W.B. Yeats, “The fiddler of (“Ο βιολιτζής του Ντούνεϋ,” lines 9-12, Dooney,” lines 9-12, 17-20) 17-20, trans. Dimitris Stavrou)
139 Evripidis Garantoudis, however, notes that it would be more accurate to consider Polylas the first one to systematically use the thirteen-syllable line, as there had been several sporadic, neglected cases where this metrical pattern had been used before (195).
152 Κι όταν στου βίου φτάσουµε το τέλος Κι όταν ο Πέτρος θα ’χει το κλειδί, Χαµογελώντας θα δεχτεί τους τρεις µας Αλλά εµέ θα βάλει πρώτον στη γραµµή...... Κι όταν ο κόσµος εκεί πέρα µε προσέξει, Στην αφεντιά µου θα’ρθουν όλοι παραχρήµα, «Να τος ο βιολιτζής του Ντούνυ!», θα φωνάξουν Και θα χορέψουν σαν της θάλασσας το κύµα. (“Ο βιολιτζής του Ντούνυ,” lines 9-12, 17-20, trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
What may seem odd is that the earlier translation, published for the first time in 1944, does not seem to follow a strict metrical pattern, while Iliopoulos’s translation is translated in metrical verse. This latter version is yet another case of a combination of patterns. The final stanza is written in “political verse”. The first four stanzas, however, are translated in iambic meter; eleven-syllable interchange with six-feet lines.
There are also instances where two different translations actually have elements in common, as is the case with the next two pairs of translations:
I know, although when looks meet Κι αν ζευγαρώνουν οι µατιές µας I tremble to the bone, ως και το κόκαλο ριγεί, The more I leave the door unlatched σαν µένει η πόρτα δίχως σύρτη The sooner love is gone, κι η αγάπη µου φεύγει γοργή, For love is but a skein unwound γιατί είναι η αγάπη ξέπλεκο κουβάρι Between the dark and dawn. ανάµεσα νύχτα κι αυγή. (W. B. Yeats, “Crazy Jane and the (“Η τρελή Τζέην και ο Τζακ ο ταξιδευτής,” Journeyman,” 1-6) lines 1-6, trans. Giorgos Varthalitis)
153
Ξέρω –και στο µεδούλι φτάνει η φρίκη σαν το καλοσκεφτώ– πως χωρίς µάνταλο την πόρτα αν αφήσω σύντοµα αγάπη δεν θα δω· θα βγει, αφού σαν νήµα ατύλιχτο είν’ απλωµένη από το βράδυ ώς την αυγή. (“Η τρελο-Τζένη κι ο Τζακ ο Μάστορας,” lines 1-6, trans. Maria Sidiropoulou)
The first translation, by Giorgos Varthalitis, retains the rhyming scheme of the original: abcbdb.140 Maria Sidiropoulou’s translation, on the other hand, follows a looser rhyming scheme with an internal rhyme in line 4 and clear rhymes in lines 4 and 6. Both translations, however, share the following characteristic: the odd lines of the poems are shorter that the even lines by at least one foot. This characteristic reflects the formal construction of the original poem, although the number of feet is not the same.
The same happens in two next two versions of another Crazy Jane ballad, again by Varthalitis and Sidiropoulou:
‘A woman can be proud and stiff — Περήφανη είναι µια γυναίκα When on love intent; σαν την αγάπη βρει. But Love has pitched his mansion in Ο οίκος όµως της αγάπης The place of excrement; στην κόπρο έχει κτιστεί, For nothing can be sole or whole και τίποτα δεν είναι ακέριο That has not been rent.’ προτού στα δυο σκιστεί.
140 Since lines 2, 4, and 6 end in words stressed on their last syllable, the rhyme includes the stressed vowel and at least the one consonant that precedes it (Kokolis 42), and this is why they are not considered to also rhyme with lines 3 and 5.
154 (W. B. Yeats, “Crazy Jane talks with the (“Η τρελή Τζέην µιλά µε τον δεσπότη,” Bishop,” 13-18) lines 13-18, trans. Giorgos Varthalitis)
»Αγέρωχη και δυνατή να δείξει µια γυναίκα ο έρωτας µπορεί· Μα της αγάπης η οµορφιά το χτίζει το παλάτι της σε βρωµερό µαντρί. Και τίποτα δεν είναι µόνο ή όλο χωρίς να µοιραστεί.» (“Η τρελο-Τζένη µιλάει µε τον Επίσκοπο,” lines 13-18, trans. Maria Sidiropoulou)
Varthalitis’s translation has a 9/6 syllable pattern throughout the whole stanza quoted here and the rhyme is again abcbdb. This is actually very close to the scheme of the original poem, which is 8/6 throughout (8/5 occasionally, as in this final stanza). The lines in Sidiropoulou’s translation, on the other hand, present a considerable difference in length. Lines 13, 15 and 17 have 15, 16 and 12 syllables respectively, while lines 14, 16 and 18 are steadily three feet each. She also uses the same rhyming scheme as Yeats and
Varthalitis.
These translations, written in iambic meter, with their retention of the original rhyming pattern and a similar line construction to the original (albeit different in length), manage to transfer more than these formal characteristics. The colloquial style and the flowing rhythm that attribute the sense of orality to the original are also present in the translations. The underlying erotic element—which in Yeats’s conception was directed beyond the strict sexual desire, towards the desire for the emancipation of the nation, according to Cullingford—is reproduced in the Greek translations, too. And although
155 such a profound semiotic connection is almost impossible to convey to Greek readers exclusively by means of the text itself, it seems that the translators, especially of these last poems, have far from neglected form and its particular function in Yeats’s poetry.
If orality, as one of the main characteristics of the ballad and Irish poetry in general, is traced in the above-cited poems, it is in the poems translated in “political verse” that it is clearly manifested. “Political verse” seems to be a rather common choice especially for Iliopoulos, who uses it quite often in his translations. The first example is a comparison of Yeats’s famous early ballad “Down by the Salley Gardens”, from
Crossways (1889), and its translation by the afore-mentioned translator. The first four lines of the Irish poem read:
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree … (1-4)
The original poem, written in ballad stanzas, becomes in Greek:
Κάτω στους κήπους στις ιτιές, η αγάπη µου µε βρήκε,
µες στις ιτιές το πόδι της λευκό, σα χιόνι, είχε·
οι αγάπες έλεγε είν’απλές, σα φύλλα, δες φυτρώνουν,
µα στην τρελή µου νιότη εγώ δεν τη συµµεριζόµουν...
(Κάτω στους κήπους 1-4)
Yeats’s poem has many of the characteristics of a ballad, and even the form 4/3, if each line is broken down in two parts, i.e. “Down by the salley gardens/ my love and I did
156 meet.” and so forth, whereby the rhyme also becomes ababcbdb, instead of couplets. The verse meter becomes “political verse”.
The next example is also indicative:
A crazy man that found a cup, Μια κούπα βρήκε ένας τρελός When all but dead of thirst, όταν πολύ διψούσε, Hardly dared to wet his mouth τα χείλη ίσα που δρόσισε Imagining, moon-accursed, κι όλο µονολογούσε That another mouthful πως µια γουλιά αν έπινε And his beating heart would burst η καρδούλα του θα σπούσε. (W.B. Yeats, “The Empty Cup,” lines 1-6) (“Η άδεια κούπα,” lines 1-6, trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
The translation is an alternation of iambic tetrameters with iambic trimeters plus a syllable (seven-syllable lines). This, written out differently, would become “Μια κούπα
βρήκε ένας τρελός όταν πολύ διψούσε,/ τα χείλη ίσα που δρόσισε κι όλο µονολογούσε/
πως µια γουλιά αν έπινε η καρδούλα του θα σπούσε.”—“political verse” rhyming in couplets. This is actually one of the rare cases in which the translated poem is actually shorter than the original, and this is achieved by substitutions and omissions, as in line four, where “imagining” becomes “µονολογούσε” (talked to himself) and “moon- accursed” is lost along with all its connotations and symbolic meanings it bore for Yeats.
It is nonetheless very close to the original in terms of form, which is actually an achievement, given the length of most Greek words.141
141 Discussing the difficulties of translating foreign poetry into English, James S. Holmes observes that “English contains an extraordinarily high proportion of monosyllabic words, a proportion that moreover is highest of all among the words most frequently used” (14). By the same token, translators who wish to render verse written in English into Greek face the same problem in reverse. See, for example, Gerasimos Spatalas, who comments on how the length of Greek words has conditioned Polylas’s
157 The poem that follows is actually the opposite as far as length is concerned; it necessarily contains several additions and alterations on the semantic level.
When you and my true lover meet Όταν µε τον πιστό µου εραστή θε ν’ ανταµώσεις And he plays tunes between your feet, κι ανάµεσα στα πόδια σου τον οίστρο του θα νιώσεις, Speak no evil of the soul, να µην καταφρονέσεις, σε ικετεύω, την ψυχή, Nor think that body is the whole, ξέρεις, το σώµα είναι µισό χωρίς αυτή, For I that am his daylight lady κι εγώ που είµαι της αυγής η αγαπηµένη Know worse evil of the body; στην αµαρτία του κορµιού είµαι µυηµένη. (W.B. Yeats, “The Lady’s Third Song,” (“Της κυράς τραγούδι τρίτο,” lines 1-6, lines 1-6) trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
“Political verse” is probably the most recognizable Greek metrical pattern, associated with folk poetry, constituting thus an obvious case of domestication. Nevertheless, in spite of the assimilation of the Irish poems to a familiar Greek traditional rhythm, the function of this particular form seems to correspond to that of the ballad. Simplicity, impersonality, orality are all qualities found in both the Irish and the Greek form. In this sense, it could be argued that “political verse” is used as a functional equivalent to the metrical pattern of the Irish ballad.
Conclusion
translation activity, obliging him to create new poetic constructions through his translations in order to accommodate into Greek English (and Italian) verse (110).
158 Certain general conclusions can be drawn from this brief analysis. First of all the formal pattern of the Irish ballad as such has not been used in the Greek translations, and thus one can assume that there has been no attempt to import the model per se. However, there are two distinct tendencies in the treatment of the ballad. On the one hand, there is the case of “political verse”, which seems to be used as a cultural equivalent to the traditional
Irish form. On the other hand, translators also use a pattern that consists of the alternation of longer and shorter (mainly) iambic lines. This rhymed scheme, despite its difference in length, can be said to resemble the original form of the ballad. Both patterns used by the translators, present a certain fluidity and a great degree of orality (“political verse”, especially).
The fact that the traditional Irish form of the ballad did not penetrate the Greek literary system through translation is significant. In other words, in terms of form, there is almost no evidence of a foreignizing approach, but rather an attempt to accommodate the new, unfamiliar form to the Greek literary conventions. Whether this choice has been influenced by a low degree of familiarity between the two cultures and their literary artifacts (discussed in more detail in the next chapter) or conditioned, to a certain extent, by the fact that Irish culture has been a rather peripheral, minor culture is an interesting question. The translators’ preference for Greek aesthetics or their wish to give priority to
Greek readers may also account for their choices.
The fact is that there are certain implications as far as the reception of this traditional Irish poetic form is concerned. Referring back to Toury’s three-stage methodology (discussed in the Methodology section, 2.6), which, among other things, considers the acceptability of the translation and draws conclusions by comparing the pair
159 of source text and target text, I would like to make the following observations. On the one hand, it could be argued that the prestige of the source text is, to a certain extent, undermined, since it reaches the Greek readers with significant alterations. Moreover, the role this form of poetry has in its original context—materialized in its integrity of formal pattern and content—is not conveyed to the readership of the target culture. As has been demonstrated in the previous sections, the Irish ballad has been of great importance for
Irish letters and has also been part of the nationalist narrative. However, their symbolisms and connotations, which, in their original context, are associated with and expected to be found in poems that assume this particular form, are not maintained when translated.
On the other hand, the employment of traditionally Greek formal and metrical patterns, despite the creation of a distance with the original text and context, creates—as is expected—a familiar frame for Greek readers. Hence, it should be noted that, although certain features which might have revealed the cultural specificity of the original—if rendered otherwise—are obscured, the overall reception of the Irish poems is up to a point facilitated.
160 CHAPTER 5
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSLATIONS
Introduction to the Chapter
The fifth chapter of this thesis deals with the analysis of the translations on the textual level. It begins with some preliminary considerations, discussing the different use of strategies, with reference to the concepts of domestication and foreignization, and outlining the factors that condition the choice of different approaches. Special attention will be given to the degree of familiarization between the two cultures. The textual analysis of the translations that will follow will focus on culture-specific elements. After briefly discussing the previous literature on translation research methodologies and the taxonomies of culture-specific items, I will proceed with the examination of specific poems. The categories selected for this analysis are the following: place; politics, history, and memory; myth, religion and folklore.
5.1 The Use of Translation Strategies: Domestication or Foreignization?
An issue that is of special interest is the general strategies adopted for the translation of the poems. These strategies are difficult to organize by poet on account of the multiplicity
161 of translators. As expected, there is a plethora of approaches and, thus, the strategies vary significantly. One of the purposes of this chapter is to see whether the strategies employed are mainly domesticating or foreignizing, according to the coinage proposed by
Lawrence Venuti.
Venuti has coined the two terms drawing on Freidrich Schleiermacher’s dichotomy: “Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as a much as possible, and moves the author towards him” (49). Taking up this dichotomy, Venuti describes domestication as “an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to target-language cultural values, bringing the author back home” (The Translator’s Invisibility 20), while he maintains that foreignization “entails choosing a foreign text and developing a translation method along lines which are excluded by dominant cultural values in the target language” (The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies 242). Elsewhere, he mentions that “Foreignizing translation signifies the difference of the foreign text, yet only by disrupting the cultural codes that prevail in the target language” (The
Translator’s Invisibility 20).
As far as the employment of Venuti’s ideas is concerned, certain points need to be underlined. Although he presents the two concepts of foreignization and domestication as a sort of dualism, I maintain that his scheme ought to be seen rather as a continuum, along which translators’ strategies may be placed. It is certainly not a wise idea to see the two notions in terms of a binary opposition, as in real translation practice there are seldom cases of exclusively domesticating and definitely not of purely foreignizing strategies, without any alternatives between the two poles.
162 It should also be mentioned that Venuti’s work has received a considerable amount of criticism (Pym, “Venuti’s Visibility”; Robinson, What is Translation? 97-112;
Hermans, Translation in Systems 1-3; Tymoczko, “Translation and Political
Engagement”). Douglas Robinson raises questions about “its uncomfortable rapprochements with elitism” (What Is Translation, 99), although he acknowledges
Venuti’s will to reject the elitism usually involved with foreignism and distance himself from the politics of cultural elitists such as Friedrich Schleiermacher and Antoine Berman
(ibid, 98). Moreover, he accuses Venuti of actually being devoted to the very fluency he attacks.
Maria Tymoczko underlines certain weaknesses in Venuti’s use of terms, maintaining they are not carefully defined. According to Tymoczko, Venuti fails to adequately defend or justify his terms, which are constantly shifting to accommodate the changes in his arguments.142 It should be made clear, however, that the notions of domestication and foreignization are used in the present thesis as broader theoretical concepts, with the aid of which the translators’ practical methods and techniques can be described and explained, with regard to Irishness. These two terms have been favored over other similar pairs, such as naturalization and excoticization, for instance, which bear different connotations that are inappropriate for my discussion.143 Hence, I am using
Venuti’s terms of domestication and foreignization, as I consider them to encompass the
142 On the contrary, Douglas Robinson seems to admire Venuti’s ability to use the terms in a variety of ways, without sounding monotonous (What Is Translation? 97).
143 Consider, for instance, the use of the term “exoticization” in other disciplines, such as women’s studies, where it is used to refer to the process by which a person is made “other”, yet in a mysterious and distanced way. The term “naturalization”, on the other hand, implies that the target culture—to which foreignness is adapted—is natural and normal, as opposed to the source culture.
163 adaptation to domestic values of the target culture, and the notion of the alterity of the foreign, respectively.
Another part of Venuti’s scheme which proves very useful is the idea of strategies of “resistance”, a point to which I will return shortly. One of the main arguments in
Anthony Pym’s critique, however, is that Venuti does not provide any historical examples that show that “resistant” strategies have had the power to change the undemocratic landscape of translation between languages/cultures of uneven power relations. In other words, he questions whether Venuti’s proposition for a foreignizing approach to translation (as a means that will bring about change and equality) can be successfully applied, since this has not been achieved on a large scale so far. Besides,
Pym observes that domesticating strategies which favor fluency generally prevail and are not to be found exclusively in translations into English (“Venuti’s Visibility” 170-172).
Indeed, Venuti discusses the status of translations from foreign languages into the
Anglo-American world and his work has been traditionally applied to pairs of languages and/or cultures where one is in a subordinate position in relation to the other. It should be and is applicable, however, also in every instance where cultural transfer is the key. Here, nonetheless, between the pair of Irish and Greek culture, the point of insisting on the use of foreignizing strategies is not necessarily the rectification of an imbalance between the two systems; rather, the use of foreignizing modes is sought as a more adequate tool for the representation of otherness in the receiving culture. More precisely, I am arguing that if there are elements that, even through the medium of the English language, are characteristically Irish—that are, in other words, identity differentials—foreignizing strategies can bring to light their particularity.
164 The essence of Venuti’s argumentation, especially in The Translator’s Invisibility, is clearly counterghegemonic. His proposed resistance to fluency through the use of foreignizing translation strategies intended for the norms of Anglo-American culture can find a different application in the present thesis. For the use of domesticating strategies, which conceal or obliterate the foreign, would—in the case of Anglo-Irish literature— obliterate the traces of a particular national and cultural identity, constructed to distinguish itself from the colonizing English culture. Counterhegemony, through foreignizing practices, in this sense is proposed not as much as resistance to Greek domestic values, but as a mode of maintaining the alterity of the original, making it clear to Greek readers that the translated literary works are of distinctively Irish origin.
Venuti argues that “The ‘foreign’ in foreignizing translation is not a transparent representation of an essence that resides in the foreign text and is valuable in itself, but a strategic construction whose value is contingent on the current target language situation”
(The Translator’s Invisibility 20). In other words—and I am drawing on Maria
Sidiropoulou (“Transforming National Cultures” 12) to formulate these questions—does the Greek context of reception expect a) literalness or b) familiarization and marginalization of the foreign elements? Do foreign elements tend to be assimilated and domesticated? An examination of the factors that govern the use of different strategies is related to these questions.
5.2 Factors Determining the Use of Different Strategies
165 There are numerous factors that play a role in the plethora of strategies used, the examination of which may allow for the emergence of a certain pattern. Besides the obvious differences in each translator’s “translating personality”,144 some of the reasons for the Greek translators’ varying strategies can be summed up as follows:
a) The time (era) during which each translator translates.
b) The translating tradition and its historical development in Greece.
c) The translator’s main occupation: translator, poet or writer, critic.
d) Editorial constraints.
All of the aforementioned factors could be described and explained by the Bourdieusian concepts of “field” and “habitus”. In their application in Translation Studies, these two inseparable notions represent the incorporation of the objective, external structures of field into the subjective dispositions of the agent/translator—the habitus.145 The interplay of these two notions accounts for the tendency of translators to reproduce certain patterns of translation.
As far as the fourth factor is concerned, the point is made clear, for instance, by a comparison of the collections edited by Spyros Iliopoulos and the ΠοMIET collection or the translations of Heaney’s poetry, in which the use of peritextual material in support of the translation varies greatly, as has already been pointed out in Chapter Three. Again,
144 As far as the issue of the translator’s personality is concerned, see K. Reiss 109-113; Hubscher- Davidson, “Translator Behaviour” 43-46, and “Personal Diversity and Diverse Personalities in Translation”.
145 For more details on the application of Bourdieu’s theories in the filed of Translation Studies, see: Simeoni; Inghilleri; and Gouanvic and Moore. Maria Tymoczko underlines the importance of habitus as a set of internalized structures of action and thought, which have become second nature for translators, when she writes: “Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus illustrates the extent to which participants are unconscious of their own culture, including those facets of culture constructed by language” (Translation in a Postcolonial Context 182).
166 time and tradition are important factors to be taken into consideration. There are also other important reasons why there can be such great differences in the translation of the same author by different translators. Venuti, discussing the decisions translators make automatically or even unconsciously, lists among the factors that condition a translator’s work:
pertinent information about the foreign culture, author or text, the canon of
the foreign literature in translation, translation traditions in the receiving
culture, the interpretation that the translator inscribes in the foreign text,
and the ways in which the publisher plants to print, market and promote
the translation. Such unacknowledged conditions subtly overdetermine the
translating, which can therefore result in consequences that the translator
did not anticipate, especially consequences for reception.
(“Retranslations” 29)
Furthermore, one facet that should not be overlooked is the degree of familiarization between the two cultures. Whether the two cultures have been in contact before, for how long and the nature of the contact are important issues. As Itamar Even-Zohar puts it, discussing literary interference between two cultures, it is the crucial “question of the degree of exposure of the target to the source” (Polysystem Studies 57). Economic or political contacts aside, with focus solely on the cultural sphere, there can either be a mutual exchange of literary artifacts or it can be a largely one-way process, when the greatest volume of transfer happens mainly in one direction, as is the case with dominant cultures and their relation to minor ones. It is widely accepted that the act of translation is an indispensable element for this contact and literary transfer to take place. In the case of
167 postcolonial literary texts (Anglo-Irish literature translated into Greek, in this case) things are even more complicated. First of all, as has already been argued, the fact that the source language is English, used as a medium for a non-English culture to express itself—resulting in the palimpsestic character of the texts—merits our attention.
Moreover, one should not overlook the fact that both source and target culture are minor ones and not in direct contact with each other. This results in the receiving Greek audience being little familiarized with the cultural and literary Irish context. And this poses great difficulties for Greek translators. Discussing the translation of literary texts from marginalized cultures, Tymoczko writes that because of the density of information contained in unfamiliar literary texts, translators are faced with the dilemma of whether to convey selected aspects thereof or choose a greater information transfer through the use of various commentaries (Translation in a Postcolonial Context 48-9), as has been discussed in Chapter Three.146
Thus, one could fairly assume that the target culture readers’ previous knowledge is very important for shaping both their cultural awareness and their horizon of expectations. If our understanding of a foreign culture—or aspects thereof—heavily depends on contextual information, on certain background assumptions, which are taken for granted by the source culture readers, it is clear that the abundance or lack of this
146 More specifically, Tymoczko observes: “This is why initial translations of unfamiliar texts are so often either popular or scholarly: the former are usually severely limited in their transfer intent and minimally representative of the metonymic aspects of the source text, while the latter allow a good deal of metatranslation to proceed, presenting quantities of information through such vehicles as introductions, footnotes, appendices, parallel texts and so forth. In a scholarly translation the text is embedded in a shell of paratextual devices that serve to explain many of the mentonymies of the source text, providing a set of contexts for the translation which often, accordingly, has a somewhat technical character and, hence, appeals to a limited audience. In the case of a popular translation, by contrast, the translator typically focuses on selected salient aspects of the literary text which are made accessible to a broad segment of the target audience” (Tymoczko, Translation in a Postcolonial Context 48-9).
168 information will affect not only the decoding of the meaning but also the reading experience as a whole for the target-culture readers.
5.3 The Structure of the Analysis
The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an analysis of the culture-bound elements found in the STs and their translations. This entails, on one hand, an examination of the
STs, in which culture-bound elements will be located as instances of text that constitute genuine translation problems on account of their being embedded in the specific culture, and an identification of the solutions the translators employed in the TTs, on the other.
The analysis will be done along the lines of descriptive translation studies, and will not focus on an evaluation of the quality of the translation products.
As far as the textual analysis of the poems is concerned, it is not my intention to examine exhaustively the various strategies and procedures used and analyze them statistically.147 My aim is rather to chart the translation tendencies (domesticating or foreignizing) through a selective analysis, as not every potential category of culture- bound elements can be examined. The culture-bound elements chosen for analysis are selected in connection with the features that constitute national and cultural identity markers, as discussed in Chapter Two. The categorization of the culture-bound elements is thus based on the broad categories of place; history, memory and politics; mythology, religion and folklore. In order to examine the texts systematically and provide a comparison between the STs and the TTs, the texts will have to be segmented into
147 The only exception is the examination of place names, which includes every Irish place name that appears in the translated poems.
169 manageable units which will then be discussed in relation to their context. Nevertheless, the comparative analysis of source and target texts will not be limited to isolated words and phrases, as is common with many models proposed for the description of how culture-bound items are treated in translation.148 Such strict analytical tools, despite offering an overall picture of the translation strategies and procedures used, often fail to take into consideration issues associated with the pragmatic dimension of culture-bound elements, which is considered very important for this study.
5.4 Culture-Specific Elements
Culture-specific elements, otherwise known as culture-bound or culturally-bound elements or realia, pose “genuine” translation problems for translators regardless of the translator’s competence.149 According to Roberto Mayoral Asensio, the first study on the translation of cultural differences goes back to Fiódorov as early as 1953 (67).150 Soon later Nida underlines the need to take into account and adapt cultural referents in Bible
148 Tymoczko observes: “Signature concepts of a culture are difficult to recognize one by one, but it is even more complex to perceive the systematicity of a culture, to understand the way the signature concepts of a culture relate coherently to each other and to other elements of the culture. It is not possible for the translator simply to proceed word by word through a text, signature concept by signature concept: in a sense the process of cultural translation calls for the translator to become sort of a sociologist or anthropologist, perceiving the larger cultural wholes within which the source text is situated” (Translation in a Postcolonial Context 182). Accordingly, I shall argue, the task of the translation studies scholar is to examine not only isolated instances of cultural specificity, but contextualize them in the larger cultural whole in which they are embedded.
149 Marta Inigo Ros observes that English-speaking translatologists use the terms “cultural words” or “culture-specific terms”, while German scholars (Koller, Bödeker and Freese, Nord, among others) show a preference for the term “Realia”; she discusses their definitions and approaches at length (17-32). The term realia was probably used for the first time by the Bulgarian scholars Vlakhov and Florin as early as 1968. See Vlakhov and Florin; and Florin. See also Leppihalme, Ritva, “Translation Strategies for Realia”.
150 Mayoral also notes that research on cultural referents is still conducted within the frame of what he calls the “Soviet and Slav School”, meaning the work of Alesina and Vinogradov (54-63) and Tcherednychenko and Koval (36-44).
170 translation (1964). At the same time scholars from the Leipzig School (especially Kade) undertake systematic research on culture-specific elements. Research on culture-bound elements has been of immense interest to translatologists ever since.
One of the greatest challenges we are faced with when addressing cultural specificity is defining what culture-bound elements are. Javier Franco Aixelá appropriately observes that:
The first problem we face in the study of the cultural aspects of translation
is how to devise a suitable tool for our analysis, a notion of “culture-
specific item” (CSI) that will enable us to define the strictly cultural
component as opposed to, say, the linguistic or pragmatic ones. The main
difficulty with the definition lies, of course, in the fact that in a language
everything is culturally produced, beginning with language itself.
(“Culture-Specific Items in Translation” 56-57)
Attempts have been made, however, to define cultural references. Jean-Pierre Mailhac, for instance, writes that “by ‘cultural reference’ we mean any reference to a cultural entity which, because of its distance from the target culture, is characterized by a sufficient degree of opacity from the point of view of the target reader to constitute a translation problem” (“Evaluation Criteria for the Translation of Cultural References”
173). Christina Schäffner and Uwe Wiesemann describe “culture-bound or culture- specific phenomena and terms” as “labels used for phenomena (i.e. objects, situations, events, etc.) that exist only in one of the two cultures that are compared in the translation process (i.e. they may be exclusive to this one culture, but not necessarily so; […] they
171 are specific to one of the two cultures, usually the source culture)” (32-33).151 Examining the subtitling of Anglophone films and TV programs, Jan Pedersen sees what he calls
Extralinguistic Culture-bound References (ECRs) as causing translation crisis points. He defines such an element as a “reference that is attempted by means of any culture-bound linguistic expression, which refers to an extralinguistic entity or process, and which is assumed to have a discourse referent that is identifiable to a relevant audience as this referent is within the encyclopedic knowledge of this audience” (2). For the Leipzig
School and the German scholars who followed that tradition, culture-specific elements include mainly those items that belong to objective reality but not abstract concepts
(Kade; K. Reiss).
Another interesting concept recently proposed for those elements which are specific to one culture and present certain difficulties in translation is that of “unique items” (Tirkkonen-Condit, “Translationese” and “Unique Items”).152 They refer to those words or expressions which may either carry finer semantic or pragmatic distinctions in the source language than their equivalents in the target language or may have a high degree of semantic ambiguity, since their pragmatic use is automatically understood by the source language users but not necessarily by the target language user (Kujamäki 189).
Finally, Georgios Floros suggests that the treatment of culture-specific elements is divided into two groups, a microstructural one and a macrostructural one. The first one
151 It should be noted that, indeed, it is not only the elements of the source culture that determine what should be considered a culture-bound element. Stressing the dynamic nature of translation studies, Franco Aixelá points out that “in translation a CSI does not exist of itself, but as the result of a conflict arising from any linguistically represented reference in a source text which, when transferred to a target language, poses a translation problem due to the non existence or to the different value (whether determined by ideology, usage, frequency, etc.) of the given item in the target language culture (57).
152 See also Kujamäki; and Chesterman, “What is a Unique Item?”, who further elaborate on the concept.
172 “regards items as isolated occurrences in the text, usually at word level,” while the second one regards “hidden’ culture” (2). “Hidden” cultural elements are elements in a text which presuppose the activation of relevant background knowledge in order to be recognized as cultural specifics.
Drawing on the concept of unique items and Floros’s distinction, as well as Ritva
Leppihalme’s work on the translation of allusions, I shall maintain that–contrary to
Franco Aixelá’s and other scholars’ views–culture-bound elements are not simply or solely extralinguistic problems. The most demanding ones are rather intralinguistic and their pragmatic dimension, which makes them more complicated, should definitely be taken into consideration.
Different typologies of culture-bound elements have been proposed, whose focus ranges from extralinguistic (lexical) to intralinguistic and pragmatic phenomena
(Leppihalme, Culture Bumps 2). Among the classifications are the following: the best- known and most frequently used and quoted typology is probably Newmark’s (A
Textbook of Translation 95), along the lines of ecology, material culture, social culture, organizations and customs, and, finally, gestures and habits.153 Much work has been conducted in the field of film and audiovisual translation, especially by Jan Pedersen and
Birgit Nedergaard-Larsen, who also propose their own categorizations. In an article investigating the translation of films, Maria D. Oltra Ripoll also attempts a “relatively exhaustive classification” which contains no less than nine broad categories, namely: a) nature, b) leisure, feasts and traditions, c) artificial products, d) religion and mythology, e) geography, f) politics and economy, g) history, h) art and literature, and i) science (77-
153 Newmark refers to strategies as translation procedures (when “used for sentences and the smaller units of language” (A Textbook of Translation, 81).
173 8). Various typologies have also been proposed to describe the strategies and methods used in the translation process which may also apply to elements that present some sort of cultural specificity (Vinay and Darbelnet; J. L. Malone; Newmark, A Textbook of
Translation; Baker; Delabastita; Chesterman, Memes of Translation; Kaindl; Pedersen;
Nedergaard-Larsen; Franco-Aixelá, “Culture-Specific Items in Translation”).
In the poems examined in this thesis there are a great number of culture-bound elements treated with a variety of strategies and methods. In typical cases of culture- bound elements, such as metric units or currencies, there are various procedures used ranging from domesticating to foreignizing ones. On the one hand, there are instances where there seems to be an effort to maintain certain foreign elements such as the following ones:
It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce ∆ε µεγαλώνει η τραγωδία για µιαν ίντσα ή µιαν ουγγιά (W.B. Yeats, “Lapis Lazuli,” line 24) (“Lapis Lazuli,” line 24, trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
As Respectability that knows the price of Όσο η ευπρέπεια που ξέρει την τιµή όλων all things των πραγµάτων And marks God’s truth in pounds and Και υπολογίζει την αλήθεια του Θεού σε pence and farthings. λίρες, σε πένες και σε φαρδίνια. (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” III, lines 43-44, trans. III, lines 40-41) Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki)
There are also cases where translators opt for a generalization, using the superordinate word νόµισµα (coin):
174
‘I have it mowed as clean as a new «Το θέρισα κι είναι σαν καινούριο, sixpence.’ γυαλιστερό νόµισµα». (Seamus Heaney, “Man and Boy,” line 22) (“Άντρας κι αγόρι,” line 22, trans. Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
Or cases, where domestication prevails, with the use of a cultural equivalent:
God be with the times when I Ποτέ δεν έδινα δεκάρα τσακιστή— Cared not a thraneen for what chanced Γι’ αυτούς σταλιά εγώ δε νοιάζοµαι: (W. B. Yeats, “Crazy Jane Grown Old (“Η τρελο-Τζένη γερασµένη κοιτάει τους Looks at the Dancers,” lines 17-18) χορευτές,” lines 17-18, trans. Maria Sidiropoulou)
This is a case of translation by cultural substitution. The word “thraneen” of the source text is an interesting case of a culture-bound reference. “Thraneen”, a variant spelling of traneen, derives from the Irish Gaelic trāithnīn, and means “blade of grass, herb bennet”.
It is a chiefly Irish term, whose definition is “something of little or no value; trifle”
(Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2425). It is, thus, a sign of alterity even in the original text; an indication of the influence of the Irish language on the English vernacular. The translator’s choice, however, totally obliterates any particularity that designates national and cultural specificity.
Another common procedure is the one of explicitation:154
And thought himself wiser than any man in Κι ήταν θαρρούσε ο πιο σοφός σ’ολόκληρο
154 For the use of the term “explicitation” as developed in the field of Translation Studies, see Klaudy.
175 the townland το χωριό. When he laughed over pints of porter Σκυµµένος πάνω από κούπες µαύρης µπίρας, γελούσε (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” I, lines 25-26, trans. I, lines 25-26) Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki)
What happens, though, where the culture-bound elements found in the poems are not just indicative of foreignness, but of a specific national origin? The list of culture-bound elements treated here is by no means exhaustive, but the categories chosen include elements which are identified as characteristically Irish in the original poems.
5.5 Culture-Specific Elements as Markers of Irish Identity
The analysis of the translation of culture-specific elements will be divided into three separate parts. In the first part, place is examined in two subsections: the first includes the procedures used in the translation of place names, while the second deals with every other reference and allusion to places in Ireland and the connotations they bear. The second part of the analysis examines the categories of history, memory and politics, while the third investigates how the elements related to mythology, religion and folklore are rendered in the Greek translations.
5.5.1.1 Place Names
One of the culture-bound elements worth discussing is place names. Although it has been argued that “Translating names is not usually a major concern, and certainly does not
176 pose great difficulties for translators” (Hervey, Higgins and Haywood 21), I maintain that the translation of place names is in fact of great importance and constitutes a genuine translation problem, especially in the case of literary texts. Moreover, it is of particular significance for the translation of Irish literary texts, as geographic precision and placelore are important elements of Irish literature.155 There are several procedures available, but the choice is not always simple. Problems associated with the translation of place names may vary from a lack of convergence between the phonemic systems of the two languages involved, to the difficulties posed by the connotations the names bear. The symbolic use of specific places in literature is indeed largely based on their connotative meaning and the pragmatic effect on the SC readers; these elements are extremely difficult to render in another language, despite their importance. Furthermore, since place names constitute an element of foreignness, the choices regarding their translation often offer an indication of the general approach used.
Franco Aixelá proposes a model for the translation of proper names, for both people and places (La Traducción Condicionada de los Nombres Propios 83 et seq.). The strategies included in his classification are seen from a cultural perspective and they are classified among the two poles of conservation and substitution, with a varying degree of cultural adaptation to the target language. The procedures which are listed under the category of conservation are the following: a) repetition, b) orthographic adaptation c) terminological adaptation, d) semantic translation, e) extratextual gloss, and f) intratextual gloss. Another six categories feature under cultural substitution, by which the cultural character of the proper name is neutralized: g) limited neutralization, h) absolute
155 For more extended discussions on the historical significance of topography and placelore for Irish literature, see Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses; Tarzia.
177 neutralization, i) naturalization j) ideological adaptation, k) omission, and finally, l) autonomous creation.
I employ this model in my description of the translation procedures used for place names for two main reasons. On the one hand, it offers a larger range of possibilities for the description of choices regarding the translation of proper names than most proposed taxonomies (Newmark, Approaches to Translation, and A Textbook of Translation; Moya;
Nord, “Proper Names in Translations for Children”; Vermes). On the other hand, the general division between the two extremes of conservation and substitution can be seen, to a certain extent, as akin to the pair of notions of foreignization and domestication, discussed in the previous sections. It should be noted, however, that this model was originally created to describe the translation of proper names between the Spanish and the
English language, so certain clarifications and adaptations will necessarily have to be made to suit the pair of English/Greek. In the following paragraphs the categories of the original model are explained, with examples in brackets taken from Franco Aixelá (they also include anthroponyms). Then the adaptations I have made to the original model are described.
The procedures under the general category of conservation are used for my description with minor changes. The first instance regards the category of repetition, which in the original scheme refers to the place names that remain intact (“Arthur” ‰
“Arthur”). In the case of English/Greek translation it will also designate the place names for which the Latin alphabet has been maintained. It should be noted, though, that this procedure has a greater impact when translating into Greek, as the use of a foreign alphabet disrupts the visual unity of the Greek text and highlights the foreignness of the
178 element. The second category of orthographic adaptation (“Lecky”‰ “Leckey”) will be used for the cases where place names have been converted into Greek characters.
However, there will be a further distinction between the cases of transliteration (the conversion of one script to another on a visual basis) and transcription (which attempts to reflect the phonetic articulation of words). The distinction will not be indicated wherever there is a match between the transcription and the transliteration of the place name into
Greek. By contrast, both terms will be used in mixed cases where part of the word is transliterated and part of it transcribed. Terminological adaptation (where the official version of the place name is used, for instance “London” ‰ “Londres”) will also be taken to mean either a) the use of an established precedent; in other words, the standard place name as adapted into the Greek grammatical system or b) a place name which is newly introduced into Greek by the translator, but is transferred in accordance with the Greek grammar (for example, the place name becomes gendered—sometimes according to its declinable ending). Semantic translation designates the place names which have their entire semantic content or part of it translated into the TL (“Neverland” ‰ “País de
Nunca Jamás”) and will be used in the same way for my description. So will the two categories of glosses, whether extratextual or intratextual (“Metropole” ‰ “Hotel
Metropole”). It should be noted that the last three categories in most cases appear in combination with other procedures in my corpus.
Of the procedures listed under the general title substitution, however, only two will be used to describe my corpus. The category of absolute neutralization (use of a referent not attributable to a specific culture, for instance Painted Deserts‰ la pradera) will also be used in my description for the translation of place names, wherever there is
179 use of a general word (or a superordinate) instead of the culture-specific place name.
Omission will be used to describe any instance that the original proper name is deleted or suppressed (i.e “O’Grady” ‰ ---).
Finally, the following categories do not serve my description, as there have been no such instances in my corpus: Limited neutralization (employment of another proper noun with a different referent, which is still considered exotic, as it also belongs to the
SC, for example “Pegasus” ‰ “Parnaso”); naturalization (“John” ‰ “Juan”); ideological adaptation (substitution of a proper name that is ideologically unacceptable for the TC, for instance “God and Clod” ‰ “Ángel y Bestia”); and autonomous creation
(introduction of a proper name which does not exist in the original, for example [---] ‰
“York”).
The following tables only include place names in Ireland; any other place names referred to in the poems are not presented here. Names of Irish universities, jails, and so forth, have not been included as they are considered to be names of institutions. The place names are grouped under the collections they are found in.
Yeats M & O Innisfree --- ommision Ινισφρί orthographic adaptation (transcription) Ίννισφρη orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Ιννισφρί orthographic adaptation (transcription/transliteration) Dooney Ντούνυ orthographic adaptation (transcription) Kilvarnet Κίλβαρνετ orthographic adaptation Mocharabuiee Μοκράµπγουϊ orthographic adaptation (transcription) (the) Sligo (fair) σε κάποιο πανηγύρι omission
180 ΠοΜΙΕΤ (the) Glasnevin (coverlet) (γη του) Γκλάσνεβιν orthographic adaptation (The grey rock of ) Cashel (στο γκρίζο βράχο του) repetition (x2) Cashel (x2)
∆ια Dromahair Ντρόµαχερ orthographic adaptation (transcription) Lissadell Λίζαντελ orthographic adaptation (transcription) (the well of ) Scanavin (στου) Σκάναβιν (το orthographic adaptation πηγάδι) Lugnagall Λούγκναγκαλ orthographic adaptation (transcription) Connemara (x2) Κονεµάρα orthographic adaptation (transcription)
Other Journals or Collections Coolaney ρεµατιά absolute neutralization Coole --- omission
Kavanagh 28Π Roscommon Κοµητεία του Ροσκόµµον orthographic adaptation (transliteration) + intratextual gloss + extratextual gloss Ballaghaderreen Μπαλλαχέντρην orthographic adaptation (transcription/transliteration) + extratextual gloss Boyle χωριό του Μπόιλ intratextual gloss The Far Field Rock το Φαρ Φηλντ Ροκ orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Ballyrush and Gortin χωριουδάκια του orthographic adaptation Μπαλλυράς και Γκόρτιν (transliteration) + intratextual gloss + extratextual gloss Armagh Αρµάχ orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss Glassdrummond Γκλασντράµοντ orthographic adaptation (transcription) + extratextual gloss the Matterhorn Ματτερχόρν orthographic adaptation (transliteration)
181 the Big Forth of Πανάρχαιο Οχυρό του semantic translation + Rocksavage Ροκσάβατζ orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss Shancoduff Σάνκονταφ orthographic adaptation(transcription) the Featherna Bush (στο) Φέθερνα-Μπας orthographic adaptation (transliteration) + extratextual gloss Monaghan Μόναχαν orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss Mullahinsha Μαλλαχίνσα orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss Drummeril Ντράµεριλ orthographic adaptation (transcription) + extratextual gloss Black Shanco Μαύρο Σάνκο semantic translation + orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss Mournes (στις) Μούρνες terminological adaptation (b) + extratextual gloss Forkhill Φορκχίλλ orthographic adaptation (transliteration) + extratextual gloss Gardiner Street (στην) οδό Γκάρντινερ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation Martello Tower (τον) Πύργο Μαρτέλλο semantic translation + orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Athy Αθάι orthographic adaptation (transcription) + extratextual gloss Grand Canal, Dublin Μεγάλο Κανάλι του semantic translation + ∆ουβλίνου terminological adaptation (a) the Big Forth το Πανάρχαιο Οχυρό semantic translation Raglan Road (Στην) Οδό Ράγκλαν semantic translation + orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss Grafton Street (Στην) Οδό Γκράφτον semantic translation + orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss Dublin Town ∆ουβλίνο terminological adaptation (a) Baggot Street στην Οδό Μπάγκοτ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation + extratextual gloss
182
ΜΠ Brannagan’s ∆ιάσελο του Μπράναγκαν/ orthographic adaptation ∆ιάσελο του Μπράναχαν (transcription) + (in the extratextual gloss) intratextual gloss + extratextual gloss Donaghmoyne Ντοναµόιν orthographic adaptation (transcription) + extratextual gloss Dundalk Νταντάλκ orthographic adaptation+ extratextual gloss Yellow Meadow Κίτρινο Λιβάδι semantic translation
Heaney ΠΒ on Toner’s bog Στο βαλτοτόπι του Τόνερ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation Anahorish Anahorish repetition (the great Chambers of ) (τις µεγάλες αίθουσες της) (semantic translation +) Boyne Μπόυν orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Orkney Όρκνεϋ orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Dublin ∆ουβλίνο terminological adaptation (a) the Liffey τον Λίφφυ ποταµό orthographic adaptation (transcription/transliteration) + intratextual gloss (plosive as) Dublin (και το έκκροτο όνοµα) orthographic adaptation Ντάµπλιν in the city of Dublin στην πόλη του ∆ουβλίνου terminological adaptation (a) (your) Bogside (το) Μπογκσάιντ (σου) orthographic adaptation Brandywell Μπραντυγουέλλ orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Lecky Road οδό Λέκυ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Belfast Μπέλφαστ orthographic adaptation South Derry Σάουθ Ντέρρυ orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Wicklow Ουΐκλοου orthographic adaptation (transcription) Brandon Μπράντον orthographic adaptation Dunseverick Ντανσέβερικ orthographic adaptation Devenish Ντέβενις orthographic adaptation
183 Boa Στην Μπόα orthographic adaptation Horse Island Αλογονήσι semantic translation Newry Νιούρι orthographic adaptation (transcription) Inishbofin Ινισµπόφιν orthographic adaptation Coleraine την Κολεραίν orthographic adaptation (transliteration) on the Bann Πάνω στο Μπαν orthographic adaptation (transcription)
ΤοΑλφ County Wicklow επαρχία του Γουϊκλοου semantic translation + orthographic adaptation (transliteration) (down) Castle Street την οδό Κάστλ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation (transliteration) (Crossed) the Diamond (Πέρασε τη) διασταύρωση absolute neutralization (Pulls up at) the Diamond (Περνάει) τη διασταύρωση absolute neutralization his Belfast accent µε την πρωτευουσιάνικη absolute neutralization προφορά Magherafelt (x2) Μαγκεράφελτ orthographic adaptation (transliteration) (via) Toombridge (µέσω) Τούµπριτζ orthographic adaptation up Broad Street στην κεντρική οδό semantic translation Wicklow (x2) Γουϊκλοου (x2) orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Dublin ∆ουβλίνο terminological adaptation (a) Glanmore (x4) Γκλάνµορ (x 4) orthographic adaptation Belfast Μπέλφαστ orthographic adaptation (At) Skerries (Στα) Σκέρρις orthographic adaptation (transliteration) (Pettigo Πέττιγκο orthographic adaptation the Sea of Moyle θάλασσα του Μόϋλ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation (transliteration) Sandymount Strand αµµουδιά του Σάντυµαουντ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation County Clare Επαρχία Κλαίρ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation (transcription) the Flaggy Shore Ακτή Φλάγγυ semantic translation + orthographic adaptation (transliteration)
184 AB Ballyshannon Μπαλυσάννον orthographic adaptation (transcription/transliteration) Glanmore Γκλάνµορ orthographic adaptation
The first conclusion drawn from the above analysis is that the procedure of orthographic adaptation prevails. Terminological adaptation, on the other hand, is not one of the commonest procedures, due to the fact that Irish place names are little known to
Greek readers, and thus, there are not many established precedents. However, there is an interesting detail: the use of different articles preceding the place names indicates that translators pay attention to their geographical dimension and attempt in such a manner to convey it to the Greek readers. Thus, for instance, “Skerries” (islands) become “Στα
Σκέρρις” (trans. by Manolis Savvidis) and “Boyne” becomes “της Μπόυν” which appropriately alludes to the valley of Boyne (and not the river of Boyne—translated by
Katerina Angelaki-Rooke). There are several cases of semantic translation—which is to be expected, since we are dealing with literary texts—and only relatively few cases of omission. Of all translators, Amy Mims is the only one to prioritize the procedures of intratextual and extratextual glosses—often used in combination—offering additional information about the SC to the reader. Surprisingly enough, there are even two cases of repetition—the most foreignizing of all procedures—where the word is transferred intact in Latin characters. “Anahorish” in Latin characters, being the title of a “dinnschenchas”
(see Chapter Four) seems like a rational option. The same procedure used for “Cashel”, however, is rather odd, as it is not at all common in literary texts.
There are also some interesting observations as far as the transliteration/transcription of place names is concerned. Translators do not seem always
185 to be consistent when transferring place names into the Greek writing system, as both techniques appear in the same collections and there are also quite a few mixed cases, where both techniques appear in the same word. There is often a tendency for translators to transfer place names in such a manner so that they become adapted to the Greek phonetic system. This is particularly evident in the cases where the stress is placed on the last syllable of the place name when translated into Greek, for example, “the Matterhorn”
‰ “Ματτερχόρν” and “Forkhill” ‰ “Φορκχίλλ” (translated by Mims); “Bogside” ‰
“Μπογκσάιντ” and “Brandywell” ‰ “Μπραντυγουέλλ” (translated by Angelaki-Rooke).
There are, nonetheless, attempts to preserve the pronunciation of the original, such as
“Dooney” ‰ “Ντούνυ” and “Mocharabuiee” ‰ “Μοκράµπγουϊ (both translated by
Iliopoulos). The general trend seems to be for place names to be converted in accordance with pronunciation and cadence of the TL. There are also cases where the translation deviates quite a lot from the original pronunciation, for instance “Magherafelt”
(pronounced /′mæherafelt/) ‰ “Μαγκεράφελτ”, but there are only few.
Overall, the range of foreignizing procedures—the ones of conservation according to the model used—has been generally preferred by Greek translators. Nonetheless, their general insistence on complying with the Greek pronunciation and cadence in the transfer of Irish place names alters an aspect of this important culture-specific element.
5.5.1.2 Place
As has been mentioned in previous chapters, the notion of place is of particular importance for all three poets. Yeats’s fascination with specific places in Ireland has
186 often been underlined. Some of his early poems are especially illustrative of his idyllic conception of the Irish landscape. The following poem is one of the most characteristic ones.
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree Θα σηκωθώ να φύγω τώρα, θα πάω στο Ινισφρί, And a small cabin build there, of clay and Με λάσπη και καλάµια την καλύβα µου θα wattles made: χτίσω, Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive Εννιά αυλακιές φασόλια ως και κυψέλες for the honey-bee, θα’χω κει ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. Dropping from the veils of the morning to Από το πέπλο της αυγής ως τ’άσµατα των where the cricket sings; γρύλλων· ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. And evening full of the linnet’s wings. Και τα βραδάκια γέµουνε απ’τα φτερά των σπίνων. (W.B. Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” (“Στης Λίµνης το Νησί,” lines 1-3, 6, 8, lines 1-3, 6, 8) trans. Sp. Iliopoulos)
Although the place name is omitted in the Greek title and is preserved only in the first line, the translation of the words that refer to the flora and fauna are rendered with Greek words that neutrally describe the plants, insects and birds that dwell on the island so idyllically presented by Yeats. The romantic image of the place is enhanced by the choice of words such as “το πέπλο της αυγής”, “τ’άσµατα”, and “τα βραδάκια γέµουνε”. In another two translations, however, the image of place is quite different.
Θα σηκωθώ να πάω τώρα, να πάω κει κάτω στο Ίννισφρη, ένα καλύβι εγώ θα χτίσω µε λυγαριές και µε πηλό
187 Ένα κυβέρτι µε µελίσσια θα’χω κ’ εννιά σειρές κουκιές …………...... ……………………….....…………. Απ’ της αυγής τους πέπλους στάζει και τα τριζόνια τραγουδούν. …………………...... …………………...………. Κι απ’ το φτερούγισµα των σπίνων γεµάτα ’ναι τα δειλινά. (“Η λίµνη του Ίννισφρη,” lines 1-3, 6, 8, trans. D. Stavrou)
Here the opposite is the case. Despite the fact that the title bears the place name intact— the transliteration that attempts to render the long and short vowels of the original according to the ancient Greek phonology is to be noticed—the translator’s choices in the main body of the poem obscure the original image of place. The original poem belongs to the early, romantic phase of Yeats’s poetry, which depicts an idealized rural Irish landscape, in contrast to the industrialized and urban images of England (see the related discussion in Chapter One of this thesis). Notwithstanding the fact that, as with
Iliopoulos’s translation, this rural and romanticized image is preserved (supported by phrases such as “απ’ της αυγής τους πέπλους στάζει” and “τα δειλινά”), in Stavrou’s poem the setting is no longer an Irish landscape, but has become a place more familiar to the Greek reader. “Wattles” become “λυγαριές”, 156 and even if the translator referred to wickers, the Greek word alludes to a common Greek tree (osier), much cited in Greek popular songs. Similarly, the bee-hive is translated with the unusual word “κυβέρτι” an apiculture term, while “bean-rows” become “κουκιές” (broad beans), a species that is but very little grown in Ireland or in Wales (Weathers, 81). The translator also prefers the word “τριζόνια”, a common Greek word for crickets, rather than the more neutral and
156 Iliopoulos makes a similar domesticating choice when he translates “under a broken tree” (“Human Dignity”, line 8) as “κάτω από λυγαριά σπασµένη” (“Αξιοπρέπεια”, line 8).
188 general word “γρύλοι” used by Iliopoulos.157 All these choices, along with the word
“καλύβι”, which bears connotations not only of poverty, but also of familiarity and intimacy, turn the Irish imagery into a domesticated version of place.
Another translation of the poem is found in-between the two previous ones:
Να ταξιδέψω λαχταρώ στο Ιννισφρί να πάω Κι ένα καλύβι από πηλό και βέργες κει να στήσω· Νά’χω εννιά σειρές κουκιές, κουβέλια για το µέλι, …………………………………………...... …. Στάλα τη στάλα στάζει εκεί που τραγουδάν οι γρύλλοι. ……………………………………...... ………. Κι από των σπίνων τα φτερά γεµάτο είναι το δείλι. (“Η λίµνη στο νησί του Ίννισφρί,” lines 1-3, 6, 8, trans. Meropi Oikonomou)
Bearing the most explicit title of the three translations, Oikonomou also uses in her poem the word “κουκιές”, as well as the term “κουβέλια”,158 to render the word “hive”, explaining it further with the addition of the phrase “για το µέλι” (for honey). The rest of her choices, however, are rather neutral and the overall romantic imagery is preserved in her version as well. It should be noted that Stavrou’s translation dates back to 1944, while
Iliopoulos’s translation was published for the first time in 1983, and Oikonomou’s version appears in the anthology she edited in 1986. The general tendency of earlier translations to domesticate foreign poetry is most evident in the translation of this poem.
Another interesting case of a poem translated more than once is “Sailing to
Byzantium”, one of Yeats’s mature poems (1928). Of the ten different versions in Greek,
157 Compare the poem “To trizoni”, by Odysseas Elytis, as well as the eponymous short story for children by Grigorios Xenopoulos.
158 The term originates from the Slavic word kublu, according to the following website on Greek folklore and apiculture: Laografia, < http://users.sch.gr/vaxtsavanis/melissokomia.html >.
189 four will be presented here. In the extract selected, Ireland is alluded to, and a contrast is created between a world of youth, desire and nature—represented by Ireland in this first stanza—and a world of wisdom and artifacts—described later on as Byzantium.
That is no country for old men. The young ∆εν είναι τόπος για τους γέροντες αυτός. Νέοι In one another’s arms, birds in the trees, στην αγκαλιά ο ένας του άλλου, πουλιά στα δέντρα, –Those dying generations–at their song, –τούτες οι γενεές που πεθαίνουν–στο τραγούδι τους, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, ποτάµια σµάρια οι σολοµοί, θάλασσες σµάρια τα σκουµπριά, Fish, flesh or fowl, commend all summer long το ψάρι, η σάρκα και το θήραµα, όσο βαστά το καλοκαίρι υµνούν Whatever is begotten, born and dies. Το κάθε τι που σπέρνεται, γεννιέται και πεθαίνει. (W.B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium,” lines 1- (“Ταξίδι στο Βυζάντιο,” lines 1-6, 6) trans. George Seferis)
Για γέροντες δεν είναι τούτη δω η χώρα. Οι νέοι Βρίσκονται σφιχτά αγκαλιασµένοι, στα δέντρα τα πουλιά –γενιές θνητές– δίνονται στο άσµα που τα εµπνέει, κοπάδια σολοµοί, πυκνά στις θάλασσες σκουµπριά, ψάρι, σαρκίο, και πουλί όλο το θέρος λέει τι συλλαµβάνεται, γεννιέται και πεθαίνει. (“Πλέοντας προς το Βυζάντιο,” lines 1-6, trans. Marios Byron Raizis)
∆εν είναι χώρα αυτή για γέρους. Οι νέοι Ο ένας σε άλλου αγκαλιά, στα δέντρα τα πουλιά
190 –Εκείνες οι εφήµερες γενιές– µε το κελάϊδηµά τους, Οι καταρράκτες όλο σολοµούς, τα πέλαα τα γεµάτα µε σκουµπριά, Τα ψάρια, η σάρκα, πετεινά, δοξολογούν όλο το θέρος Ό,τι κυήθηκε, γεννιέται και πεθαίνει. (“Πλέοντας για το Βυζάντιο,” lines 1-6, trans. Rois Papangelou)
Χώρα δεν είναι εκεί γι’ ανθρώπους γέρους. Ο ένας Στην αγκαλιά του άλλου οι νέοι, στα δέντρα τα πουλιά –Γενιές θανάτου εκείνες στο τραγούδι τους– Του σολοµού οι καταρράχτες, θάλασσες πορφυρές από µπαρµπούνι, Θρέµµα , πετούµενο ή ψάρι, αδιάκοπα υµνούν το καλοκαίρι Ετούτο που γεννήθηκε, γεννιέται και πεθαίνει. (“Πλέοντας προς το Βυζάντιο,” lines 1-6, trans. Maria Servaki)
The first line of the source poem reads “that is no country for old men”. The country Yeats is referring to, according to the most common interpretation and to Yeats himself on a BBC radio interview, is Ireland. Seferis, Raizis and Papangelou translate
“that country” as “δεν είναι τόπος αυτός”, “τούτη δω η χώρα”, “δεν είναι χώρα αυτή”, identifying it thus with the starting point of Yeats’s voyage–in a metaphorical sense–to his ideal Byzantium. Servaki on the other hand translates “χώρα δεν είναι εκεί”, which doesn’t make clear what “εκεί” (there) is referring to. Line four, which reads “the salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas” in Yeats, becomes in her text “του σολοµού οι
καταρράχτες, θάλασσες πορφυρές από µπαρµπούνι”, which further complicates things.
The image of red mullets (“µπαρµπούνια”), typical of the Mediterranean Sea, is not to be expected in this context. Neither is the image of a scarlet, purple sea given with the word
“πορφυρές”. All the other translators use the word “σκουµπριά”, which is the equivalent
191 word for mackerel. In Papangelou, however, there is another word that does not comply with the image of Ireland: the word “πέλαα”, which also bears Mediterranean and particularly Greek connotations (especially spelled the way it is). Raizis opts for the equivalent “θάλασσες-σκουµπριά”, but omits the image of the falls, while Seferis transforms falls into rivers, which is relevant but not equivalent. The choices of Raizis and Seferis could perhaps be explained, though, by the fact that they seem to pay attention to the form and the sonic effect, respectively. For Raizis a four-beat word such as “καταρράχτες” would be hard to fit in his strict verse line. As far as Seferis is concerned, he has produced a line that is symmetrical, and rich in alliterative effects
(esses and ems) “ποτάµια σµάρια οι σολοµοί, θάλασσες, σµάρια τα σκουµπριά”, which substitutes perhaps the alliteration of line 5 in the source text “fish flesh or fowl”; besides, he seems to be the one of the four who prioritizes the sonic effect so much. The translators’ choices once again reveal that there is a range of strategies, here presented from the most foreignizing to the most domesticating approach.
Sofia Skoulikari has translated seven of Yeats’s poems, for the special issue of the literary journal Diavazo. The original poems date from 1892 to 1920 and, according to her introductory note, the translator has chosen them because they are representative of the poet’s style and technique and, if read chronologically, they signal his transition from the imaginary to a more realistic approach (157). Although it is a hard task to sketch a representative picture of the poetry of such a great and multidimensional poet as Yeats with just a handful of poems, Skoulikari has at least succeeded in offering Greek readers an interesting glimpse of Yeats’s conception of place and its connection to Irish identity.
Here are excerpts from three of them:
192
He stood among a crowd at Dromahair; Στεκόταν στο Ντρόµαχερ, µες στην οχλοβοή· ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. Upon a woven world-forgotten isle σ’ένα νησί λησµονηµένο απ’όλους κι υφαντό Where people love beside the ravelled seas; Όπου αγαπιούνται οι άνθρωποι σ’απάνεµα ακρογιάλια· ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. He wandered by the sands of Lissadell; Περιπλανήθηκε στου Λίζαντελ τις αµµουδιές ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. But while he passed before a plashy place, κι όµως, σαν πέρασε µπροστά από ένα βαλτοτόπι ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. He slept under the hill of Lugnagall; Κάτω απ’ του Λούγκναγκαλ το λόφο
αποκοιµήθηκε And might have known at last unhaunted Κι ίσως να γνώριζε στο τέλος τον αιώνιο sleep ύπνο Under that cold and vapour-turbaned steep, Κάτω από κείνο τον κρύο, νεφελόσκεπο γκρεµό (W.B. Yeats, “The Man Who Dreamed of (“Ο άνθρωπος που ονειρεύτηκε τη Faeryland,” lines 1,8-9, 13, 17, 25, 29, 37- νεραϊδοχώρα,” lines 1,8-9, 13, 17, 25, 29, 39) 37-39, trans. S. Skoulikari)
Another early poem from The Rose (1893), “The Man who Dreamed of
Faeryland”, is characteristic of Yeats’s affection for his native land. The use of specific
Irish place names–Lissadell and Lugnagall in Sligo, and Dromahair 17 km away–connect directly dreamy Faeryland to Yeats’s Ireland. The description of the place, on the other
193 hand, graphically sketches Yeats’s romantic conception of the Irish landscape. The translator transliterates the names in Greek and maintains the romantic character of the original by using words such as “λησµονηµένο”, “υφαντό”, “ακρογιάλια”, “βαλτοτόπι”, and “νεφελόσκεπο”. Hence, the imagery is conveyed in a similar manner in the translation.
The next poem is from the collection In the Seven Woods (1904):
There’s many a strong farmer Ξέρω είναι πολλοί οι λεβέντες γεωργοί Whose heart would break in two, που θα τους έσπαγε η καρδιά στα τρία If he could see the townland σαν έβλεπαν που εµείς καµαρωτοί That they are riding to; τραβάµε για την πολιτεία Boughs have their fruit and blossom που’χει κλαδιά γεµάτα µε λουλούδια και καρπούς At all times of the year; όλη τη χρονιά· Rivers are running over µα και ποτάµια που κυλούν With red beer and brown beer. µε µπύρα κόκκινη και µπύρα καφετιά. An old man plays the bagpipes Σαν έβλεπαν το γέροντα να παίζει γκάιντα In a golden and silver wood; µέσα στο δάσος το ασηµένιο και χρυσό· Queens, their eyes blue like the ice, βασίλισσες, γαλάζια ίδια µε πάγο που’ν’τα µάτια τους Are dancing in a crowd. πλήθος αν στήνουνε χορό. ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. For O, the strong farmers γιατί, αχ, οι λεβέντες γεωργοί That would let the spade lie που αφήνουν κάτω το τσαπί τους Their hearts would be like a cup θα’χαν καρδιά ολόιδια µε ασκί That somebody had drunk dry. που κάποιος ρούφηξε από µέσα το ζουµί τους. (W.B. Yeats, “The Happy Townland,” lines (“Η χαρούµενη πολιτεία,” lines 1-12, 29- 1-12, 29-32) 32, trans. S. Skoulikari)
194
If “The Happy Townland” is indeed “the cheerful peasant-image of a Heaven running with red beer and brown beer and shaded by gold and silver trees” (Unterecker 101), it should be noted that it also bears a resemblance to Yeats’s idyllic Ireland. The translation follows a simpler diction than the previous poem, in line with the original. The rural image is maintained, albeit with a tone of familiarization for the Greek readers, due to the use of words such as “λεβέντες” and “τσαπί”, which domesticate the peasant image.
Although I can see him still, Μόλο που ακόµα τονε βλέπω να πηγαίνει The freckled man who goes τον άντρα µε το µούτρο µέσα στην πανάδα To a grey place on a hill στον γκρίζο τόπο καθώς ανεβαίνει In grey Connemara clothes Με γκρίζα ρούχα από την Κονεµάρα ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. This wise and simple man σοφό κι απλό τούτο τον άντρα. All day I’d looked in the face Καιρός που αντίκριζα όλη τη µέρα µου What I had hoped ’twould be κατάµουτρα ό,τι έλπιζα µε βεβαιότητα To write for my own race πως θα’τανε να γράψω για τη ράτσα µου And for reality; και την πραγµατικότητα· ……………………………………………. ……………………………………………. Imagining a man, να βγάζω έναν άντρα από τη λησµονιά, And his sun-freckled face, το πρόσωπό του από τον ήλιο όλο φακίδες And grey Conemara cloth, τα ρούχα του τα γκρίζα από την Κονεµάρα, Climbing up to a place να σκαρφαλώνει σ’ένα τόπο Where stone is dark under froth, µαύρη που είναι η πέτρα κάτω απ’ τον αφρό, (W.B. Yeats, “The Fisherman,” lines 1-4, (“Ο ψαράς,” lines 1-4, 8-12, 28-32, trans. 8-12, 28-32) S. Skoulikari)
195 According to John Unterecker, the man “In grey Connemara clothes” of the first stanza is
“the sentimental image for united Ireland” (140). Connemara is, thus, not simply a reference to a place in Western Ireland (mainly Irish speaking in Yeats’s time) but connotative of a nationalist sentiment. Although the connotations are inevitably lost in the translation, the poet’s intention to write for his own people drawing inspiration from the Connemara fisherman is made explicit in the translation in lines 12–translated literally–and 28, where “imagining a man” becomes the much stronger “να βγάζω έναν
άντρα από τη λησµονιά” (to drag a man out of oblivion).
Kavanagh’s conception of place, on the other hand, is also made explicit in a number of poems translated into Greek:
I have lived in important places, times Έχω ζήσει σε σπουδαία µέρη σε καιρούς When great events were decided: who owned Γεµάτους βαρυσήµαντα «µεγάλα γεγονότα»: «Σε ποιον That half a rood of rock, a no-man’s land Να ανήκε εκείνο το µισό πετρώδες στρέµµα, µια ουδέτερη Surrounded by pitchfork-armed claims. Ζώνη περικυκλωµένη από διεκδικητές οπλισµένους µε δίκρανα!» I heard the Duffys shouting ‘Damn your Ακούω την οικογένεια του Ντάφυ να soul’ φωνάζει: «Ανάθεµα την ψυχή σας!» And old McCabe, stripped to the waist, seen Και βλέπω τον γέρο-Μακάιµπ ως τη µέση γυµνό Step the plot defying blue cast-steel— Να µετράει τη γη, αψηφώντας τα µαυρογάλαζα, ατσάλινα εργαλεία— ‘Here is the march along the iron stones’. «Εδώ είναι το σύνορο ανάµεσα σ’αυτά τα σιδερολίθαρα!»
196 (Patrick Kavanagh, “Epic,” lines 1-8) (“Επικό,” lines 1-8, trans. Amy Mims)
In this poem Kavanagh presents a graphic picture of rural Ireland and her peasant people, building up the irony as petty disagreements, which have, nonetheless, great importance for the people involved, could actually provide the material for an epic.
It is his poem, “Shancoduff”, however, which is considered one of the most characteristic depictions of his native land:
My black hills have never seen the sun rising Οι µαύροι µου λοφίσκοι δεν είδαν ποτέ τον ήλιο να ανατέλλει. Eternally they look north towards Armagh. Αιώνια κοιτάζουν βόρεια προς την κωµό- πολη του Αρµάχ. Lot’s wife would not be salt if she had been Η γυναίκα του Λοτ δεν θα είχε µείνει στήλη άλατος Incurious as my black hills that are happy Αν δεν ήταν περίεργη, όπως οι µαύροι µου λοφίσκοι είναι When dawn whitens Glassdrummond chapel. Χαρούµενοι όταν η αυγή λευκαίνει το εκκλησάκι του Γκλασντράµοντ.
My hills hoard the bright shillings of March Οι λοφίσκοι µου έχουν σωρέψει τα λαµπερά κέρµατα του Μάρτη While the sun searches in every pocket. Ενώ ο ήλιος µάταια ψαχουλεύει την κάθε τσέπη. They are my Alps and I have climbed the Αυτοί είναι οι Άλπες (sic) µου και έχω Mattterhorn ανεβεί στο Ματτερχόρν With a sheaf of hay for three perishing Μ’ένα δεµάτι άχυρο για τρία ετοιµοθάνατα calves µοσχάρια In the field under the Big Forth of Στον αγρό κάτω από το Πανάρχαιο
197 Οχυρό Rocksavage. του Ροκσάβατζ.
The sleety winds fondle the rushy beards of Οι άνεµοι φορτωµένοι χιονόνερο χαϊ- Shancoduff δεύουν τα βουρλίσια γένια του Σάνκονταφ While the cattle-drovers sheltering in the Ενώ οι βοϊδολάτες που κουρνιάζουν στο Featherna Bush Φέθερνα-Μπας Look up and say: ‘Who owns them hungry Κοιτάζουν ψηλά και λένε: «Σε ποιον ανή- hills κουν εκείνοι οι πεινασµένοι λοφίσκοι That the water-hen and snipe must have Εγκαταλελειµένοι ακόµα κι από τη νερόκο- forsaken? τα και το µπεκατσίνι; A poet? Then by heavens he must be poor.’ Μήπως σε κάποιον ποιητή; Τότε µα το θεό, θα είναι πάµφτωχος.» I hear and is my heart not badly shaken? Κι εγώ τους ακούω, και η κρδιά µου τάχα δεν ταράζεται; (Patrick Kavanagh, “Shancoduff”) (“Σάνκονταφ,” trans. Amy Mims)
Translating “hills” as “λοφίσκοι” (just as translating “half a rood of rock” as “µισό
πετρώδες στρέµµα” in the previous poem) is a choice that belongs to a more technical jargon—as the suffix –ίσκος designates—which would perhaps be more suitable in an encyclopedia entry. In this case, however, its employment deprives the poems of the authenticity of place: the intimate relationship of the poet with the land is not appropriately conveyed if the keyword “hills” is rendered in such a way. Moreover, the internal connection of the poems that appear in the same collection is lost when two
198 pages further on “Monaghan hills” is translated as “Λόφοι του Μόναχαν”, with no obvious reason for the change: the Irish imagery of place, so elegantly put together by
Kavanagh, is shattered in the Greek translations, and the poet’s self-reference is compromised.159
The repetition of peasant scenes familiar to the poet but also the recurrent images of his native Inneskeen, in County Monaghan, construct a very eloquent picture of rural
Ireland. Very often, this result is achieved through the repetitive use of keywords, as in the afore-mentioned example. Consequently, when the poems are translated, consistency is important for the image of place to be rendered in a similar fashion. This does not seem to be the case with several of the translations of Kavanagah’s poetry, though. I shall use as another example the word “ditch”, very common in several of Kavanagh’s poems, as it brings together the natural dimension of the land, human intervention in the form of labor, as well as an allusion to the female body and the act of procreation. Here are some excerpts and their translation:
I saw her in a field, a stone-proud woman Την είδα σ’ένα χωράφι, γυναίκα υπερήφα- νη σαν βράχος, …………………………………………… …………………………………………… Engirdled by the ditches of Roscommon Ζωσµένη µε χαντάκια απ’ την Κοµητεία του Ροσκόµµον
159 Compare Antoine Berman’s “destruction of underlying networks of signification”, one of his twelve “deforming tendencies” (280), which prevent translation “from being a “trial of the foreign” (278). As he argues: “The literary work contains a hidden dimension, an ‘underlying’ text, where certain signifiers correspond and link up, forming all sorts of networks beneath the “surface” of the text itself … It is this subtext that carries the network of word-obsessions. These underlying chains constitute one aspect of the rhythm and signifying process of the text … If such networks are not transmitted, a signifying process in the text is destroyed” (284-285, emphasis in the text).
199 Stone ditches round her waist like serpents Με πέτρινες τάφρες (sic) τυλιγµένες γύρω coiled απ’ τη µέση της σαν ερπετά. (Patrick Kavanagh, “Pygmalion,” lines 1, (“Ο Πυγµαλίων,” lines 1, 3-4, trans. Amy 3-4) Mims)
Similarly, in another poem:
O stony grey soil of Monaghan, Ω γκρίζο, γεµάτο πέτρες χώµα του Μόναχαν, ……………………………….. ………………………………...... You flung a ditch on my vision Άνοιξες µία τάφρο στο δικό µου όραµα (Patrick Kavanagh, “Stony Grey Soil,” (“Ω γκρίζο, γεµάτο πέτρες χώµα,” lines 1, lines 1, 17) 17, trans. Amy Mims)
The double translation of the word “ditches” in “Pygmalion”, once as “χαντάκια” and once as “τάφρες” (especially when the correct form of the word in the accusative is
“τάφρους”) is misleading. The poet refers to the ditches found by the side of fields, sketching a peasant imagery, while the word “τάφρος” (moat) alludes to a knightly realm, alien to Kavanagh and his experience.
Heaney’s experience of rural Ireland and his attachment to place is also exemplary and its manifestations are very prominent in his poetry. “Digging”, from his first collection Death of a Naturalist (1966) is one of his best-known and most popular poems:
My grandfather cut more turf in a day Ο παππούς µου σε µια µέρα έκοβε περισσότερη τύρφη Than any other man on Toner’s bog. Από οποιονδήποτε άλλο στο βαλτοτόπι του Τόνερ. (Seamous Heaney, “Digging,” lines (“Σκάβοντας,” lines 17-18, trans. Katerina
200 17-18) Angelaki-Rooke)
These two lines of the original poem contain in a condensed form some of the major themes of Heaney’s first collections: the tie with previous generations, the tie with the land, and the motif of digging. The translation of the word “bog” as “βαλτοτόπι” is extremely significant. The translator has not chosen the neutral word “βάλτος” (swamp) or even “βαλτότοπος”, which designates a larger area but bears negative connotations, but has opted for a word that, being in the neutral gender, has an emotive effect of familiarity and tenderness, very close to the pragmatic function of the “bog” in this case.160 This translation choice for this word is crucial, as the bog is a central symbol in
Heaney’s poetry. The translator seems to be fully conscious of her choice as she uses it in her preface to the collection, which she entitles “Στα βαλτοτόπια της µετάφρασης” (In the translation bogs). In such a way, the reader gets a very clear picture of what is emblematic in Heaney’s poetry: the depiction of the bogland maps out Heaney’s concept of Northern Irish cultural identity. This is also maintained in the translation, as key poems have been chosen to be translated on the macro-level and keywords are rendered with consistency on the micro-level.
The imagery of the bog and its function for the dwellers of the region in
“Digging” is also supported by the content of “Kinship” from North.
Quagmire, swampland, morass: Έλος, τέλµα, βάλτος: the slime kingdoms, τα γλιστερά βασίλεια,
160 Compare other compound words which have the word “-τόπος” as their second component: “χαµότοπος”, “παλιότοπος”, etc. The suffix “-τόπι”, on the other hand, is used in compound words such as “βοσκοτόπια”, where the parallel makes clear how the place described has a certain usefulness in terms of an activity that provides some sort of supply or income—as the turf here—but is also the habitat of the people involved.
201 domains of the cold-blooded, επικράτειες των ψυχρόαιµων, and mud pads and dirtied eggs. της λασπουριάς και των λερωµένων αυγών
But bog Όµως «τυρφότοπος» meaning soft, σηµαίνει τόπος µαλακός, the fall of windless rain, βροχή που πέφτει χωρίς αέρα, pupil of amber. κι είναι του κεχριµπαριού η κόρη οφθαλµού. (Seamus Heaney, “Kinship II,” lines 1-8) (“Συγγένειες ΙΙ, lines 1-8, trans. Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
The Greek words in the translation of the first line are even more common than the words
Heaney uses (which are quite ordinary, with the exception perhaps of the word
“quagmire” at the beginning of the first line, which has a greater impact), but necessarily so, as there are many fewer terms for “marsh” in Greek. The effect is further enhanced as the impersonal words arranged in line create a contrast with the bog, the poet’s intimate place. The word “τυρφότοπος” in Greek has a double function. On the one hand, it attracts the reader’s attention as it is an unusual coinage, all the more so since it is placed in quotation marks, which signal its significance. On the other hand, the use of the word
“turf” as the first component of the compound word connects this poem to the poet’s
“turf-cutting grandfather” in “Digging”: the bog, the “turfland” of the Greek translation, is a place of tradition and continuity within time. This is one of the examples that demonstrates that the translator has managed to retain the cultural distinctiveness of the identity markers of the source text.
5.5.2 Politics, History, and Memory
202 Of the three poets examined in this thesis only Yeats and Heaney have written overtly political poems. However, as far as their translation is concerned, it is mainly Heaney’s political poems that have reached Greek readers.
As discussed in the previous chapter, Katerina Angelaki-Rooke has selected quite a few poems which are representative of the poet’s concern with the historical situation in
Northern Ireland. Heaney links the Irish past to the contemporary experience in a
Northern Irish context. The following poem describes a blacksmith’s trade, and in the excerpt that follows, it is the central character who makes this connection:
Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his Καµιά φορά µε την πέτσινη ποδιά του, nose, τριχίτσες στη µύτη, He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter Σκύβει έξω από το κούφωµα της πόρτας κι είναι σαν ν’ ακούει Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows; Κροτάλισµα από οπλές, ενώ αστράφτουν σειρές τα φώτα των αυτοκινήτων· (Seamus Heaney, “The Forge,” lines 10- (“Ο πεταλωτής, lines 10-12, trans. Katerina 12) Angelaki-Rooke)
This is one of the instances in which there is a shift in meaning not on account of a specific technique in the translation of a culture-bound element. The shift occurs due to the translation of the word “where” as “ενώ” (while) instead of “εκεί όπου”: the connection of the contemporary scene to the blacksmith’s memory/reverie becomes temporal rather that spatial in the Greek text, and thus the continuity of experience in the same place is disrupted.
A similar shift in meaning is found in the translation of “Bog Queen”. The poem refers to the Bog Queen of Moira, the body of a Viking woman discovered in the
203 eighteenth century in a bog near Belfast. Heaney explores the connection between
Northern Ireland and its Viking past. The Queen is a symbol of Mother Ireland but also of the revolutionary movement that remained under cover until the conditions were ripe for a strike against the oppressors.
I lay waiting Ξαπλωµένη περίµενα between turf-face and demesne wall, ανάµεσα στης τύρφης το πρόσωπο και τον µαντρότοιχο, ……………………………………… …………………………………………….. through my fabrics and skins µέσ’ απ’ τα υφάσµατα και τις επιδερµίδες µου the seeps of winter οι διαρροές του χειµώνα digested me, µε αφοµοίωναν, ……………………………………… …………………………………………….. My sash was a black glacier Ο ζωστήρας µου ένας µαύρος παγετώνας wrinkling, dyed weaves ζαρωµένος, βαµµένα υφαντά and Phoenician stitchwork και φοινικικά κεντήµατα retted on my breasts’ µουλιάζουν πάνω στα στήθη µου soft moraines. τα παγωµένα, µαλακά µου ερείπια. ……………………………………….. …………………………………………….. My skull hibernated Το κρανίο µου ξεχειµώνιαζε in the wet nest of my hair. στην υγρή φωλιά των µαλλιών µου. …………………………………………. …………………………………………….. and I rose from the dark, κι εγώ σηκώθηκα απ’ το σκότος, hacked bone, skull-ware, µε πελεκηµένα κόκαλα, κρανίο κι εξαρτήµατα frayed stiches, tufts, ξεφτισµένες βελονιές, τούφες, small gleams on the bank. µικρές αναλαµπές στην όχθη. (Seamus Heaney, “Bog Queen,” lines 1- (“Βασίλισσα του βάλτου”, lines 1-2, 9-11, 2, 9-11, 29-32, 39-40, 53-56) 29-32, 39-40, 53, 56, trans. Katerina
204 Angelaki-Rooke)
The first shift is the translation of the word “digested”, which is used to describe a process whereby useful nutrients feed an organism: here the Irish soil feeds on its Viking past, so that the colonized can rise once again and rebel against the colonizers. The Greek verb “αφοµοιώνω” might convey this meaning, but to a lesser extent, as it also means “to assimilate”, designating a more neutralizing, homogenizing process. The period of preparation for the rebellion described in terms of fermentation in the original poem is hence obscured in the translation. In line 32 of the Greek translation, the English verb
“retted” is rendered as “µουλιάζουν”—the only present tense in the whole poem. In the original poem the verb “retted” in its simple past tense describes the idea of a decaying, frustrating experience which belongs to a previous time; it has now ended as is confirmed by the rise of the Queen at last in the last stanza (lines 53-56). However, this is not accurately conveyed in the Greek translation, which gives the false impression that the
Queen is still waiting. Allusions to the nationalists’ impatient waiting are also found in several other instances in the poem. Line 39, for example, reads “My skull hibernated”: the Bog Queen, a symbol of Ireland itself, is waiting to wake up. The choice of the word
“ξεχειµώνιαζε” (wintered out), however, does not appropriately convey the allusion. The aforementioned shifts conceal the idea of a revolution waiting to happen, of the allegory of a nation waiting to rise to independence, obscuring, thus, one of the central themes of
Heaney’s poem.
The excerpt of the following poem is also full of political connotations:
That fist would drop a hammer on a Σαν σφυρί βαριά κι η γροθιά σαν βρεθεί
205 Catholic- κάνας καθολικός— Oh, yes, that kind of thing could start Α, ναι και πάλι θ’ άρχιζαν τα ίδια απ’ την again; αρχή. The only Roman collar he tolerates Το µόνο παπαδίστικο κολάρο που ανέχεται Smiles all round his sleek pint of porter. Χαµογελάει ολόγυρα στης απαλής του µπίρας το ποτήρι.
(Seamus Heaney, “Docker,” lines 4-8) (“Λιµενεργάτης”, lines 4-8, trans. Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
In this poem Heaney manages to combine in a single stanza issues of religion, identity politics and sectarian violence—offering a glimpse into the puzzle of the Northern Irish conflict—garnished with a (stereo)typical feature of Irish culture. The docker of the poem is obviously a Protestant, who would despise anyone, should they belong to the Catholic population, as is evident in line 6 with the reference to “the only Roman collar”. The
Greek translator has opted for a generalization: “παπαδίστικο” (priestly). This choice places more emphasis on the adjective than on the noun, which gives the impression that the docker is intolerant towards religion in general. Greek readers would have to have a prior basic knowledge of the Catholic priests’ outfit to make the connection between the specific garment and the Roman Catholic Church. It is possible, however, that readers may miss the allusion to the important political issue that lies beneath the word “Roman”.
Nevertheless, the translator compensates for the feeling of resentment towards the
Catholics attributed to the Protestant docker, with the addition of the word “κάνας” (that could be freely back-translated as “a random Catholic”), which appropriately conveys scorn and blind hatred without the reasons behind these feelings being fully-understood.
206 There are, nevertheless, poems in which the translation emphasizes the national origin of the poet:
I am neither internee nor informer; ∆εν είµαι ούτε έγκλειστος ούτε σπιούνος· An inner émigré, grown long-haired Ένας εµιγκρές του µέσα είµαι, που του µακρύναν τα µαλλιά And thoughtful; a wood-kerne Και του πλήθυναν οι σκέψεις· ένας Ιρλανδός αντάρτης Escaped from massacre, Που γλίτωσε απ’ το µακελειό, Taking protective colouring Παίρνοντας χρώµα προστατευτικό From bole and bark, feeling Από φλύδα και κορµό, και κάθε αεράκι Every wind that blows; Νιώθει που φυσά· (Seamus Heaney, “Singing School: 6. (“Εκτεθειµένος,” lines 30-36, trans. Exposure,” lines 30-36) Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
In this excerpt, Heaney touches directly on issues of identity, exploring how the self is shaped by—among other things—external forces that derive from the national and cultural frame with which the individual interacts. The references to “internees”,
“informers” and “massacres” sketch the Northern Irish setting of the time. The corresponding words in the translation retain the dramatic force of the original, while in line 32 the national identity of the poet is made more than explicit: “a wood kerne” is thoroughly transformed into “ένας Ιρλανδός αντάρτης” (an Irish guerilla).
The following poem treats the “accidental” killing of a fisherman during a curfew imposed by the Provisional IRA in Derry, after the murder of thirteen protesters by the
British army on Bloody Sunday. The allusion to an act that is “accidental” or “incidental” is encapsulated in the title “Casualty”, for which there is no equivalent in Greek.
207 I would manage by some trick Κατάφερνα µε κάποιο τέχνασµα To switch the talks to eels να γυρίσω την κουβέντα στα χέλια Or lore of the horse and cart Στ’ άλογα και τα κάρα των πατέρων µας Or the Provisionals. Ή στον προσωρινό ΙΡΑ.
But my tentative art Αλλά η δισταχτική µου τέχνη His turned back watches too: Τη γυρισµένη του πλάτη µε τη σειρά της παρατηρούσε He was blown to bits Τινάχτηκε κείνος στον αέρα σε χίλια κοµµάτια Out drinking in a curfew Γιατί είχε βγει να πιει µ’ απαγορευµένη την κυκλοφορία Others obeyed, three nights Ενώ οι άλλοι είχαν συµµορφωθεί, τρεις νύχτες After they shot dead Μετά που σκότωσαν The thirteen men in Derry. Τους δεκατρείς άντρες στο Ντέρρυ. PARAS THIRTEEN, the walls said, ΠΑΡΑΣ-∆ΕΚΑΤΡΙΑ, διάβαζες στους τοίχους BOGSIDE NIL. That Wednesday ΜΠΟΓΚΣΑΪΝΤ-ΜΗ∆ΕΝ. Εκείνη την Τετάρτη Everybody held όλοι βαστούσαν Their breath and trembled. Την ανάσα τους και τρέµαν. (“Seamus Heaney”, “Casualty”, (“Θύµα,” lines 32-46, trans. Katerina lines 32-46) Angelaki-Rooke)
The translator uses two different procedures to render the references to the political/military situation in Northern Ireland. For the “Provisionals” the translator opts for the addition of the acronym IRA in Greek characters, rendering the original more explicit. In the case of “PARAS”, on the other hand, which refers to the paramilitary loyalist groups operating in Ulster, she maintains the English word—in upper case as in the original—transliterating it into Greek. The context provides a certain amount of information for the reader to decipher the connection of the writing on the wall to the
208 events in Derry; the translation of “PARAS”, however, does not seem to give an insight into what the word refers to.161 It may either be perceived as a place-name—provided that the reader will have registered “Bogside” as a place-name from “The Ministry of Fear”, also translated in the same collection—or, although a far-fetched possibility, be misread as the Greek low-register word for “money”.
A point worth mentioning, however, which appears to be typical of many of
Angelaki-Rooke’s translations of Heaney’s poems, is the attempt of the translator to facilitate the reading with the addition of connectives and conjunctions with an explanatory function. This is noticeable in this poem, for instance, in lines 39, where she has turned the line into a causative clause with the addition of “γιατί” (because) and 40, where the adversative “ενώ” (while) underlines the contrast of the fisherman’s attitude to the general stance of the community. This addition could be considered a use of deictic markers, which—despite not belonging to the commonest categories of person, time and place—serve, nonetheless, to reconstruct the conditions that inform the events described in the poem, thus highlighting the larger cultural context from which the poem originates.
One of Heaney’s most emblematic poems is “Whatever You Say Say Nothing”. It is political without resorting to political propaganda, describing the dire situation caused by religious strife in Northern Ireland.
I’m writing this just after an encounter Το γράφω αυτό µετά από µια συνάντηση With an English journalist in search of Μ’έναν Εγγλέζο δηµοσιογράφο που ζήταγε ‘views «απόψεις
161 The truth is that, as the word is not part of the standard English vocabulary, even an English- speaker should have certain background knowledge of the political situation in Northern Ireland to understand the reference; it is, however, expected that it is at least intelligible to the British and Irish putative readership.
209 On the Irish thing’. I’m back in winter για το Ιρλανδικό». Είµαι ξανά στη χειµε- ρινή µου Quarters where bad news is no longer Έδρα όπου τα κακά νέα δεν είναι πλέον news, (I, lines 1-4) νέα, (I, lines 1-4) …………………………………………….. …………………………………………….. Northern reticence, the tight gag of place Αυτοσυγκράτηση των βορείων, το σφιχτό φίµωτρο του τόπου And times: yes, yes. Of the ‘wee six’ I sing Και των καιρών: ναι, ναι. Τους «έξι νοµούς» τραγουδώ Where to be saved you only must save face Όπου για να σωθείς πρέπει µόνο τα προσχήµατα να σώσεις And whatever you say, you say nothing. Και ό,τι και να πεις δεν λες τίποτε.
Smoke signals are loud-mouthed compared Τα σινιάλα του καπνού είν’ εκκωφαντικά with us: µπροστά σε εµάς: Manoeuvrings to find out name and school, Ελίσσεται το όνοµα και το σχολειό να µάθεις, Subtle discrimination by addresses ∆ιακρίσεις ανεπαίσθητες µε βάση τις διευθύνσεις With hardly an exception to the rule Και σπάνια εξαιρέσεις στον κανόνα
That Norman, Ken and Sidney signalled Που θέλει Προτεστάντες τον Νόρµαν, τον Prod Κεν και τον Σίντνεϋ And Seamus (call me Sean) was sure-fire Και τον Σέιµους (λέγε µε Σων) Παπικόν Pape. του κερατά. O land of password, handgrip, wink and Ω χώρα του συνθήµατος, της χειραψίας, nod, του νεύµατος, Of open minds as open as a trap… (III, 9- Των ανοιχτών µυαλών, που είν’ ανοιγµένα 20) σαν παγίδες... (III, 9-20) (Seamus Heaney, “Whatever You Say Say (“Ό,τι και αν Πεις µην Πεις Τίποτε,” trans. Nothing,” Manolis Savvidis and Stratis Haviaras)
210
The translators have rendered “the Irish thing” (line 3) in a fashion that is common in
Greek when referring to territorial dispute, achieving at once accuracy and a sense of familiarity in the translation of the original expression. For the idiomatic expression “wee six” (line 10), which refers to the six of nine Ulster counties that comprise Northern
Ireland, the translators have chosen the denotative term “νοµός”, making explicit the information contained in the original. It should be noted, however, that the term “νοµός” is used for the Greek administrative structure; its use instead of the calque “κοµητεία”
(county) decreases the foreignness of the concept. Culture-bound elements such as the derogatory slang words for Protestants and Catholics—“Prod” and “Pape”, respectively
(lines 17-18)—present further difficulties. “Prod” is translated with the Greek word for
Protestants, while for “Pape” the translation is more complex. The literal meaning of the word “Παπικός” is “papal”; however, in this context and with the addition of the offensive expression “του κερατά”, a back-translation could be “bloody popish”. The expression “του κερατά” is certainly a lot stronger than the “sure-fire” of the original and also quite vulgar. Its use, nevertheless, can be considered as a strategy of compensation for the disparaging quality of the original expressions. Moreover, there is a contrast between this phrase and the form of the word “Παπικός”—an accusative in katharevousa—which enhances the derogatory effect.
The fact that the two words that refer to members of the two major religious communities of Northern Ireland are translated with the use of different procedures is significant for the sense of identity encapsulated in this poem. Heaney uses disparaging words for both, demonstrating, thus, that hatred and prejudices reside on both sides of the
211 conflict. Nevertheless, the translation of “Pape”, as opposed to the neutral word
“Protestants” translated simply according to its denotative meaning, creates an image of discrimination against the Catholics, and so, readers are naturally led to sympathize with them provided they identify themselves with “Seamus”, the poetic “I” of the Greek translation. Even though taking sides does not seem to be Heaney’s intention in this poem, the Northern Irish Catholic identity he represents is clearly highlighted in this translation.
Of Yeats’s many poems that treat political issues, on the other hand, less than a handful have been translated, so the sample is necessarily very limited. In “The Rose
Tree”, James Connolly and Padraig Pearse, the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, have a fictional conversation. The Rose Tree, a recurring symbol in Yeats’s work and in folk poetry, is a symbol of Free Ireland (Jeffares 167; Cairns and Richards, Writing Ireland
68; Kearney, Transitions 218).
‘O words are lightly spoken,’ Οι λέξεις είναι ανάλαφρα ειπωµένες Said Pearse to Connolly, Είπε ο Pearce (sic) στον Connolly, ‘Maybe a breath of politic words Ίσως µια ανάσα από λέξεις πολιτικές Has withered our Rose Tree; Έχει δώσει πνοή στην τριανταφυλλιά µας. …………………………………...... There’s nothing but our own red blood Τίποτα δεν υπάρχει παρά µόνο το αίµα µας το κόκκινο Can make a right Rose Tree.’ Που να µπορεί να φτιάξει µια σωστή τριανταφυλλιά. (W. B. Yeats, “The Rose Tree,” lines 1-4, (“Η Τριανταφυλλιά,” lines 1-4, 17-18) 17-18) trans. Maria Archimandritou)
212 This is one of the rare cases where the translator has decided to maintain the Latin alphabet when transferring proper names (despite the spelling or typing mistake that could also be the publisher’s or typesetter’s responsibility), which is the procedure placed at the far end of the foreignizing-domesticating continuum, and is not particularly common in literary translation. Nonetheless, the most substantial element on the semantic and pragmatic level is the symbol of the Rose Tree. Connotations are of course extremely difficult to transfer in translation. However, should the lexical unit retain capitalization, and thus remain marked in a certain way, just as it is in the source text, Greek readers would perhaps suspect its symbolic significance, especially when connecting it to the last two lines of the poem that portray the familiar image of blood sacrifice for the cause.162
Since this keyword appears with an uncapitalized initial letter, its significance is weakened and the retention of the connotation is seriously compromised.
Another interesting case is the translation of the poem “To a Shade”, which refers to Charles Stewart Parnell and the attacks against him, despite his efficiency as a leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. There are also references to Sir Hugh Lane and William
Martin Murphy.
If you have revisited the town, thin Shade, Αν ξαναπέρασες από την πόλη µας, αχνή σκιά Whether to look upon your monument… είτε για ν’ αγναντέψεις το µνηµείο σου... (W. B. Yeats, “To a Shade,” lines 1-2) (“Σε µια σκιά,” lines 1-2, trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
162 Compare Odysseas Elytis’s The Axion Esti, which holds an outstanding position among Greek readers in terms of popularity.
213 The poem appears in two different publications, first in the literary journal To Dentro, and then as a reprint in the collection Poiimata of Morfotiko Idryma Trapezis tis Ellados.
In its first publication the poem is accompanied by a gloss in the form of a short paragraph that explains what the poem is about and provides background information.
Unfortunately, in the poetry collection this peritextual element is not included along with the poem, and so all political and historical allusions are probably bound to be concealed for the Greek audience.
5.5.3 Religion, Mythology, and Folklore
The last category selected is threefold. As far as religion is concerned, it is an element that does not have the same importance for all three poets, and thus does not take up the same position in their work. It is conceived and used differently in the poetry of each, just as Irishness assumes different nuances for each.
Of the three poets selected for this thesis, Patrick Kavanagh is the one considered a religious poet, at least to a certain extent. Much of his poetry is informed by a religious ethos, and religious images and allusions are found in numerous of his poems.163 As the poet himself asserted: “literature is not the activity of wild bohemians but is part of the religious mind. … it is, in fact part of religion” (qtd in Walsh, 104). The importance of faith and religion for Kavanagh and his stance towards the Church are representative of their role for the majority of the Irish nation. For this reason the way the religious elements of his poetry are rendered into Greek is of particular significance, as they
163 See Tom Stack, ed., No Earthly Estate: God and Patrick Kavanagh: An Anthology, in which 138 poems that contain religious references—nearly one-half of Kavanagh’s poems—are discussed.
214 portray the religious consciousness of the Catholic Irish in the middle of the 20th century and sketch, thus, an important aspect of their cultural identity.
Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki’s choices for the translation of religious elements cover a wide range of procedures as indicated in the following characteristic passage:
Maguire knelt beside a pillar where he Ο Μαγκουάιαρ γονάτισε πλάι σε µια στήλη could spit για να µπορεί να φτύσει Without being seen. He turned an old Χωρίς να τον βλέπει κανείς. prayer round: Γυρόφερνε στο νου του µια παλιά προσευχή: ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph pray for us «Ιησού, Μαρία και Ιωσήφ, προσευχηθείτε για µας τώρα και για κείνη Now and at the Hour.” Heaven dazzled την ώρα». death. Ο ουρανός εθάµπωσε το θάνατο. …………………………………………….. …………………………………………….. Who lives in Christ shall never die the Όποιος ζει εν Χριστώ δε θα πεθάνει. death. Ποτέ δεν θα τον βρει ο θάνατος στ’αλήθεια. And the candle-lit Altar and the flowers Και ο καντηλοφώτιστος βωµός και τα λουλούδια And the pregnant Tabernacle lifted a Και το κυοφορούν αρτοφορείον σηκωµένο moment to Prophecy για µια στιγµή στην προφητεία Out of the clayey hours. Μέσα από τις χωµάτινες ώρες. Maguire sprinkled his face with holy Ο Μαγκουάιαρ ράντισε το πρόσωπό του µε water. άγιον ύδωρ As the congregation stood up for the Last Καθώς σηκωνόταν το εκκλησίασµα για το Gospel. τελευταίο ευαγγέλιο. (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” IV, lines 17-21, 25-31,
215 IV, lines 15-18, 23-28) trans. Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki)
The transparency of the word “Prophecy”, and of the phrase “Jesus, Mary and
Joseph”–the most common Irish invocation–allows for a literal translation, which is also the case in the translation of the “Last Gospel”. For the translation of the phrase “who lives in Christ” and the terms “Tabernacle” and “Holy Water”, the translators opt to render them with the equivalent Greek phrases and terms in katharevousa. “The Hour”, which obviously refers to the Christian’s Day of Judgment, is translated as “κείνη την
ώρα” (that time). Although there is an addition, the meaning is actually not made explicit, but rather obscured, as the word “ώρα” is not capitalized. The oddest choice, however, is the translation of “the candle-lit Altar”. The adjective becomes “καντηλοφώτιστος”, which means “lit by hanging oil lamps”; an image very common in Greek Orthodox churches–thus, a cultural equivalent. The word “altar”, on the other hand, is not translated as “Αγία Τράπεζα”–the most common Greek term to refer to this structure of Christian churches–but as “βωµός”, which is also used in this sense, but is not as common, and, most importantly, bears primarily connotations of pagan religious practices, resulting, thus in a strange combination of adjective and noun.164
Culture-bound elements retain part of their foreignness at times:
Mass-going feet Πόδια που πήγαιναν στη Λειτουργία, Crunched the wafer-ice on the pot-holes, Θρυµµάτιζαν τον πάγο λεπτό σαν «όστια»
164 It should be noted, however, that the translators are consistent in the translation of the word “altar”, which also appears elsewhere: “Maguire watches the drills flattened out/And the flints that lit a candle for him on a June altar” (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” I, lines 21-22) becomes “Ο Μαγκουάιαρ ατενίζει τα ισοπεδωµένα αυλάκια και τους πυρόλιθους/ Που του άναψαν λαµπάδα στο βωµό του Ιουνίου” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” I, lines 21-22, trans. Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki). Once again, the word “λαµπάδα” is a domesticating choice.
216 στους λάκκους. (Patrick Kavanagh, “A Christmas (“Ο πατέρας µου έπαιζε το ακορντεόν,” Childhood (II),” lines 14-15) lines 14-15, trans. Amy Mims)
“Wafer” refers to the communion wafer used to offer Holy Communion to practising
Catholics, during the ritual of the Eucharist. The translator uses the recognizable word
“όστια”, the established term used in Greek to describe the sacramental bread used in the
Catholic Church. She places it in quotation marks, though, and in this way she highlights the fact that it as a foreign element as opposed to the Greek Orthodox tradition.
In other instances, however, the opposite is the case.
Among your earthliest words the angels stray. Μες απ’ τις πιο γήινες λέξεις σου περιπλανούνται οι αγγέλοι (Patrick Kavanagh, “In Memory of my (“Στη µνήµη της µητέρας µου,” 8, Mother,” 8) trans. Amy Mims)
And I had a prayer like a white rose pinned Κι εγώ είχα µία προσευχή σαν άσπρο ρόδο On the Virgin Mary’s blouse. Καρφιτσωµένη πάνω στο ρούχο της Παναγιάς. (Patrick Kavanagh, “A Christmas (“Ο πατέρας µου έπαιζε το ακορντεόν,” Childhood (II),” lines 35-36) lines 35-36, trans. Amy Mims)
These two examples are indicative of a domesticating approach. The mere change of stress in both words—“αγγέλοι” and “Παναγιά”, instead of the neutral words “άγγελοι” and “Παναγία” turns them into folk words and creates an effect of familiarity.
Although Kavanagh was a devoted Catholic, he was, nonetheless, critical of certain religious institutions and the limitations they imposed. His views on faith and
217 religiosity are fully exposed particularly in “The Great Hunger”. However, his stance towards religion and the Church should by no means be seen in simplistic terms. As
Peggy O’Brien explains: “In ‘The Great Hunger’ even the satirizing of ecclesiastical religion is mitigated by a recognition of the communal value of the Church. Kavanagh’s trenchant critique of Irish Catholicism never descends into simple anticlericalism” (130).
So, how are these features of Kavanagh’s poetry so closely linked to fundamental elements of Irish society and Irish identity rendered when translated into Greek?
Ah, but the priest was one of the people Αχ, µα ο παπάς ήταν άνθρωπος του λαού too— A farmer’s son—and surely he knew —Γιος αγρότη—και σίγουρα ήξερε The needs of a brother and sister. Τις ανάγκες του αδελφού και της αδελφής. Religion could not be a counter-irritant Η θρησκεία δεν επουλώνει τις πληγές like a blister, By the certain standard measured and Είναι σίγουρο πρότυπο, γνωστό και known µετρηµένο By which a man might re-make his soul Που στηρίζει τον άνθρωπο να ξαναφτιάξει την ψυχή του. though all walls were down Ακόµα κι όταν έχουν πέσει όλοι οι τοίχοι And all earth’s pedestalled gods thrown. Κι όλοι οι θεοί της γης έχουν γκρεµιστεί από τα βάθρα τους. (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” VII lines 22-29, trans. VII, lines 22-28) Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki)
All or nothing. And it was nothing. For Όλα ή τίποτα. Και ήταν το τίποτα. God is not all Γιατί ο Θεός δεν είναι µόνο σ’ένα µέρος, In one place, complete and labelled like a ολόκληρος case in a railway store
218 Till Hope comes in and takes it on his Ώσπου µπαίνει στη µέση η ελπίδα και το shoulder— παίρνει στον ώµο της— O Christ, that is what you have done for Ω, Χριστέ, αυτό είναι όλο κι όλο που us: έκανες για µας: In a crumb of bread the whole mystery is. Σε µια ψίχα ψωµιού υπάρχει όλο το µυστήριο...... Men build their heavens as they build their Οι άνθρωποι χτίζουν τους ουρανούς τους circles όπως χτίζουν τους κύκλους Of friends. God is in the bits and pieces of Των φίλων τους. Ο Θεός βρίσκεται µέσα Everyday— στα ξέφτια της καθηµερινότητας. (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” VI lines 7-11, 16-17,
VI, lines 5-9, 14-15) trans.Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki)
What is particular about these passages is the omission of similes and metaphors. These choices seem to be at odds with the occasional instance in which the translators interpret the pragmatic intention of the poet and translate accordingly:
Religion, the fields and the fear of the Lord Η θρησκοληψία, τα χωράφια και ο φόβος And Ignorance giving him the coward’s Κυρίου µαζί µε την άγνοια blow; Ήταν γι’ αυτόν πλήγµα του δειλού. He dare not rise to pluck the fantasies ∆εν τολµούσε να σηκώσει το ανάστηµά του From the fruited Tree of Life… Και ν’αποσπάσει όραµα από το καρποφόρο δέντρο της ζωής. (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” VII lines 56-60, trans. IV, lines 51-4) Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki)
219 However, this passage is exemplary for yet another reason: it is characteristic of the translators’ choice to constantly transfer all capitalized religious allusions and what we might call “personified values”, demarcating them and weakening the emotive force they have in the source text. Thus, in this instance, the “Tree of Life”, a common symbol in many religions, also mentioned in the Book of Revelation (NIV 22:1-2), goes unnoticed in the translation. This allusion is of particular significance, as Patrick Maguire’s reluctance and incompetence to fulfill his desires—symbolically represented by the Tree of Life—becomes exemplary of Kavanagh’s critique of how certain impositions of the
Irish Church oppressed the faithful, in this case dooming the ones who had not yet been married to chastity and celibacy. Accordingly, “Ignorance”, with a capitalized “I”, a leading force in Maguire’s actions—compare “Hope” in the previous excerpt (line 7)—is not given in the translation the attention it is granted in the original. A similar case is the one cited below:
He met a girl carrying a basket— Συνάντησε µια νέα κοπέλα µε το καλάθι της. And he was then a young and heated Ήταν κι εκείνος νεανικός και θερµόαιµος fellow. Too earnest, too earnest! He rushed Αν και πολύ σοβαρός, υπερβολικά σοβαρός beyond the thing Έτρεχε πέρα από τα πράγµατα στο µη πραγµατικό To the unreal. And he saw Sin Έβλεπε την αµαρτία γραµµένη µε πιο Written in letters larger than John µεγάλα γράµµατα Bunyan dreamt of. Από κείνα που είχε οραµατιστεί ο Τζων Μπάνιαν. For the strangled impulse there is no Για τη στραγγαλισµένη παρόρµηση δεν
220 redemption. υπάρχει εξαγορά. (Patrick Kavanagh, “The Great Hunger,” (“Η µεγάλη πείνα,” VII lines 22-29, trans. IV, lines 33-38) Amy Mims and Roula Kaklamanaki)
The “Sin” of the source text (line 36)—or actually its avoidance—is one of the cornerstones of the Catholic religion, particularly in Ireland. However, its centrality is obscured in the translation, as the text seems to refer to the particular instance, and not the major general concept of the original (underlined by the reference to Bunyan’s allegorical texts, in which “Sin” is often personified).165 The importance of the concept is further concealed as the religious meaning of “redemption” (salvation, deliverance from sin) is ignored (line 38) and the term rendered as “ransom” (BTT). Consequently one of the most essential notions of the Irish Catholic faith, an important component of
Irishness, is seriously undermined in the translation.
As evident in some of the examples already used, in Seamus Heaney’s poetry, religion is intertwined with issues of national and cultural identity. The following poem from his collection Wintering Out (1972) treats the religious divisions in Ulster that may cast a shadow over neighborliness.
Thigh-deep in sedge and marigolds, Χωµένος ως το µπούτι στους κατιφέδες και στο σπαθόχορτο a neighbour laid his shadow ο γείτονας έριξε τη σκιά του on the stream, vouching στο ρέµα και «µα την αλήθεια», είπε ‘It’s as poor as Lazarus, that ground,’ «είναι φτωχό σαν τον Λάζαρο τούτο το χώµα» ………………………………………. …………………………………………….. he prophesied above our scraggy acres, προφήτευε δεινά πολλά πάνω απ’ τα φτωχά
165 See, for instance, Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) and The Holy War (1682).
221 χωραφάκια µας then turned away και µετά έκανε στροφή towards his promised furrows προς τη δική του οργωµένη Γη της Επαγγελίας on the hill, a wake of pollen πάνω στο λόφο, ενώ κάτι υπόλοιπα γύρης drifting to our bank, next season’s παρασύρονταν ως τη δική µας όχθη, ο tares. (I 1-4, 17-21) βίκος της επόµενης χρονιάς. (I 1-4, 17-21) ……………………………………… ……………………………………………... His brain was a whitewashed kitchen Το µυαλό του ήταν µια ασβεστωµένη κουζίνα hung with texts, swept tidy µε αφορισµούς στους τοίχους, σκουπισµένη όλο τάξη as the body o’the kirk. (ΙΙ 10-12) σαν το σώµα της ‘κλησιάς. (ΙΙ 10-12) ………………………………………… ……………………………………………… …. Then sometimes when the rosary was Κι έπειτα ήσαν φορές που τράβαγε
dragging ατελείωτα η προσευχή mournfully on in the kitchen πένθιµα µες στην κουζίνα we would hear his step round the gable κι ακούγαµε το βήµα του από δίπλα though not until after the litany και µόνο σαν είχε τελειώσει το Κύριε (III 1-4) Ελέησον (III 1-4) (Seamus Heaney, “The Other Side”) (“Η άλλη µεριά,” trans. Katerina Angelaki- Rooke)
The translation of the religious terms and biblical references is of great significance for this poem, as they provide the context into which the neighbors’ dissension is inscribed.
The poem is full of religious allusions and words with biblical connotations, such as the old-fashioned, biblical verb “vouching” (line 3), and the word “tares” (line 21) used instead of the more common word “weeds”. In the Greek translation the religious connotations in these two instances are not preserved. There is, nonetheless, a
222 compensation in line 19, where the allusion to the Promised Land becomes explicit in the translation that reads “οργωµένη Γη της Επαγγελίας” (ploughed Promised Land). An important point that is obscured in the translation, however, is the opposition between the two religious communities as manifested through the differences in their religious practices. The recitation of evening prayers with the aid of a rosary, for instance, which may seem rather mysterious to Protestants, becomes simply an instance of prayer
(προσευχή) in the Greek text. Similarly, “the litany” is rendered as “Κύριε Ελέησον”, an equivalent that also forms part of the mass of the Greek Orthodox Church. Accordingly, the description of what is customary in relation to the Protestant religion, also described elsewhere in the poem—i.e. the recitation of biblical names and texts in section II166 — and evident in lines 10-12 of section II does not have the estranging effect of the original poem. The effect of austerity related to the Protestant Church achieved with the reference to the unadorned church, as well as the estranging effect of the “exotic” word “kirk” with its German root are substituted with the phrase “της ’κλησιάς” and the imagery of a tidy, neat, well-kept place, along the lines of Greek house-keeping. Hence, although the translator pays attention to the stylistic aspect, the connotations of the Protestant religion are lost and a domesticating imagery prevails, instead.167 The contrast between the practices of the Roman Catholics and those of the Protestants does not seem to be appropriately conveyed in the translated poem, at least not to the extent that is highlighted in the original poem. Hence, it is not certain that the Greek reader will fully
166 It should be noted that the religious allusions and references attributed to the Protestant neighbor are mostly from the Old Testament, which is considered more austere.
167 Another point that is worth mentioning is the difficulty in the translation of line 10, where the words “brain” and “whitewashed” in the same line may allude to the brainwash members of both religious communities are raised with. Unfortunately, since it is one of the instances that only the referential meaning of the word is rendered in the translation (ασβεστωµένη), any other allusion is necessarily lost.
223 grasp that religious diversity—a foremost issue in the national and cultural identity in
Northern Ireland—is the main theme of the poem.
Another poem that evokes Heaney’s sense of what national identity should entail is “Funeral Rites”. In this poem Heaney makes an appeal for one undivided nation in
Ireland.168 He connects the funeral ceremony for dead relatives (section I) to burial rites that could reconcile the religious communities in Ireland (section II), drawing a parallel with the mythological figure of Gunnar (section III).
I shouldered a kind of manhood Τον ώµο µου προσφέροντας ανδρώθηκα stepping in to lift the coffins σαν µπήκα για να σηκώσω τα φέρετρα of dead relations. (I, 1-3) νεκρών συγγενών. (I, 1-3) ……………………………….. ………………………………………….. Now as news comes in Όπως λοιπόν καταφθάνουν τα νέα of each neighbourly murder για τον κάθε φόνο στη γειτονιά we pine for ceremony, νοσταλγούµε τις τελετές, customary rhythms: τους ρυθµούς που συνηθίσαµε: the temperate footsteps τους συγκρατηµένους βηµατισµούς of a cortège, winding past της ποµπής που ελίσσεται και περνά each blinded home. µπροστά απ’ τα σφαλιστά µάτια των σπιτιών. I would restore Σαν να τις βλέπω the great chambers of Boyne, τις µεγάλες αίθουσες της Μπόυν prepare a sepulchre και το µνήµα να στήσω µπορώ under the cupmarked stones. κάτω απ’ τις βαθουλωτές πέτρες. ………………………………. …………………………………………….. imagining our slow triumph και φαντάζονται τον αργό µας θρίαµβο towards the mounds. προς τα µνήµατα.
168 See also Christopher Malone, who, discussing the readers’ expectations of Heaney’s poetry, claims that Heaney explores in his poetry Ireland’s divided “political past and seemingly looks for and hopes to provide answers that might lead to some articulation of an undivided Irish identity” (277).
224 Quiet as a serpent Σιωπηλή σαν φίδι in its grassy boulevard, στη χλοερή της λεωφόρο, the procession drags its tail η ποµπή σέρνει την ουρά της out of the Gap of the North βγαίνει από την Πύλη του Βορρά as its head already enters ενώ η κεφαλή της έχει κιόλας περάσει the megalithic doorway. (II, 1-11, το µεγαλιθικό κατώφλι. (II, 1-11, 21-28) 22-29) …………………………….. ……………………………………………. the cud of memory το µηρυκαστικό της µνήµης allayed for once, arbitration ευχαριστηµένο για µια φορά, of the feud placated, το προαιώνιο µίσος κατευνασµένο, imagining those under the hill ενώ θα φανταζόµαστε εκείνους κάτω απ’ τον λόφο disposed like Gunnar να έχουν την τύχη του Γκουννάρ who lay beautiful που ξάπλωσε όµορφος inside his burial mound, µέσα στον τύµβο του, though dead by violence κι ας τον είχε βρει βίαιος θάνατος and unavenged. (III 5-13) κι ας µην είχε πάρει εκδίκηση. (III 5-13) (Seamus Heaney, “Funeral Rites”) (“Νεκρώσιµη ακολουθία,” trans. Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
The poet is concerned with acts of violence that occur very close to home–“neighbourly murder” (II, line 2)–and elaborates on the urgent need for ritual. What Heaney proposes as an alternative to current religious practices is the revival of a pagan ceremony that would unite both religious communities and help them transcend their differences. This would be a “slow triumph” (II, line 22) and would result in “the feud placated” (III, line
7). A symbol that assumes particular significance and further supports Heaney’s cry for the cease of religious strife through the return to pagan burial rites is the serpent (II, 24-
29): according to the legend, snakes were banished from Ireland by the Catholic patron
225 Saint Patrick; its being recalled underlines Heaney’s suggestion to turn to a traditional pagan rite.
Nonetheless, certain choices in the translation modify this reading of the original poem, loosening the concept of the united funeral procession. First of all the context is slightly altered: “Each blinded home” (II, line 7) does not simply refer to houses with their curtains drawn closed, but alludes to the fact that both communities seem to reject any chance of reconciliation. The word “blinded” is also associated with such concepts as
“blind hatred” and “blind hit”, concepts that were at the heart of the cycle of killings in
Northern Ireland. The phrase “σφαλιστά µάτια των σπιτιών” (shut eyes of the houses), poetic as it may be, does not convey the complexity of meaning of the original, but creates an impression of abandonment, instead. The image of windows fastened, likened to shut eyes, enhances the concept of death, but not of deliberate ignorance, as implied in
Heaney’s poem.
Moreover, the main theme of the poem does not come across as clearly in the translation. The key phrase “I would restore” (II, line 8) is apparently interpreted as the revival of the great burial site of Boyne in the poet’s memory and not as the poet’s wishful intention to actually have the pagan ritual restored. It is thus rendered as “σαν να
τις βλέπω” (as if I can see them), as a memory or a reverie. His concept for a burial granted the dignity of tradition in the centre of Ireland is built up in lines 9-11 of section
II. However, the choice of the word “µνήµα” for “sepulchre” alters the pagan image. The same Greek word is also used in line 23 in the plural and bears an even stronger connotation to the Christian tradition, and may very probably remind the Greek reader of
226 familiar cemeteries. The choice of the word “τύµβος” for the translation of “burial mound” seems a much more suitable choice (III, line 11).
Besides, there is a shift in the way the myth of Gunnar is rendered. The Norse hero is used as a symbol of the notion that there could be an end to killings and other atrocities, without the need to avenge previous acts of violence. In the Greek translation, however, the myth is changed: the line “κι ας µην είχε πάρει εκδίκηση” (even though he had not taken revenge) moves the action of revenge to a moment prior to Gunnar’s death, and designates him as the person responsible for vengeance. All these options alter the poet’s plea for unity through a return to traditional practices and a potential reversion to pagan customs, obscuring his vision for a nation which relies on what people from different religious communities have in common rather than what separates them.
As far as religious references are concerned, what could be generally said about the translations of Heaney’s poetry is that there seem to be two tendencies. The first one is the use of domesticating techniques. Consider the following excerpts:
their dough-white hands τα άσπρα αλευρένια χέρια τους shackled in rosary beads δεµένα γερά µε κοµποσκοίνι. (Seamus Heaney, “Funeral Rites,” lines 7- “Νεκρώσιµη ακολουθία,” lines 7-8, 8) trans. Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
You are like a rich man entering heaven Είσαι σαν τον πλούσιο που εισέρχεται εις την Βασιλείαν του Θεού (Seamus Heaney, “The Rain Stick,” line (“Η ∆ιχάλα,” line 17, trans. Manolis 17) Savvidis)
227 When all the others were away at Mass Όταν οι υπόλοιποι ήσαν στη Λειτουργία ………………………………………… ...... So while the parish priest at her bedside Κι όταν ο εφηµέριος στο προσκέφαλο της Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for Επιτελούσε το ευχέλαιο ενθέρµως the dying (Seamus Heaney, “Clearances III,” lines 1, (“Ξέφωτα γ’,” lines 1, 9-10, trans. Manolis 9-10) Savvidis and Stratis Haviaras)
The following poem is probably the most impressive example, because of the connotations the translators’ choice bears.
Fishermen at Ballyshannon Στο Μπαλλυσάνον οι ψαράδες Netted an infant last night Έπιασαν ψες στα δίχτυα ένα µωρό Along with salmon. Μαζί µε σολωµούς. An illegitimate spawning, Ένας εξώγαµος γόνος, …………………………...... Now limbo will be Τώρα ο Άδης θα είναι
A cold glitter of souls Μια ψυχρή αναλαµπή από ψυχές Through some far briny zone. Μέσα από µια µακρινή και αλµυρή αχλύ. (Seamus Heaney, “Limbo,” lines 1-4, 16- (“Άδης,” lines 1-4, 16-8, trans. Manolis 18) Savvidis and Stratis Haviaras)
The “Limbo of Infants”, the status of unbaptized infants that died, considered to be one of the four distinct parts of the underworld in medieval theology, does not exist as a concept in the Greek Orthodox Church and is, therefore, probably unknown to most Greek readers. The translators have opted for “Hades”, a term for the abode of the dead, as used in the New Testament in Greek, a hypernym for “Limbo” in this case. For the average reader, however, the term “Hades”, is more closely related to its use as the underworld of
228 the Ancient Greeks. It should then be expected that the concept will be associated with the pagan Greek world rather than with the Christian religion.169
The second tendency in the translations of Heaney’s poetry concerns the treatment of elements that allude to pagan or ancient religious practices. In his poetry Heaney blends past and present, constructing a distinct sense of continuity. Just as Viking traditions are seen in parallel to contemporary incidents in Northern Ireland, for example, customs and figures from various mythological traditions are intertwined with the Irish pagan past and juxtaposed to Catholicism. In the translation of these complex allusions, there seems to be a tendency to interpret them as part of the Catholic faith. In the next two poems the treatment of the word “god” is characteristic.
I deified the man Θεοποίησα τον άνθρωπο who rode there, που όδευε εκεί god of the wagon, του κάρου Θεός, the hearth-feeder. του οίκου του τροφός. (Seamus Heaney, “Kinship V,” lines 9-12) “Συγγένειες V,” lines 9-12, trans. Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
The capitalization of the word “god” automatically places the concept in a Christian context. Similarly, in the following poem:
and I make a morning offering again: κάνω ξανά µια πρωινή προσευχή: that I may escape the miasma of spilled είθε να γλιτώσω από το µίασµα του blood χυµένου αίµατος,
169 A different choice for the translation of the term is found in an online translation of the poem by Nikos Panagopoulos, in which “Limbo” is rendered as “Καθαρτήριο” (Kathartirio), the established translation for “Purgatory” (Vakhikon
229 govern the tongue, fear hybris, fear the god να κυριαρχήσω στη γλώσσα, να φοβάµαι την ύβρη, να φοβάµαι τον Θεό until he speaks in my untrammeled mouth. ως να µιλήσει αυτός µες στο αδούλωτο στόµα µου. (Seamus Heaney, “Shelf Life: Stone from “5. Μια πέτρα από τους ∆ελφούς,” lines 3- Delphi,” lines 3-6) 6, trans. Katerina Angelaki-Rooke)
In this second poem, not only the capitalization of “god” but also the choice of the word
“προσευχή” (prayer) to render the word “offering” situates the poem in a recent/ contemporary Christian setting, rather than an ancient pagan one.
In certain poems, traditional religious ceremonies are described or alluded to. The customs and rituals the poems refer to are characteristically Irish and some times even date back to ancient times. “A Brigid’s Girdle” is a most characteristic example.
Bridgid’s Girdle, also known as Crios Bríde, was a hoop usually made of braided straw with four crosses tied to it, which was traditionally carried in procession on February 1st from home to home, where people would pass through it to ensure the Saint’s protection and good health.
Now it's St Brigid's Day and the first Τώρα είναι της Αγια-Μπριγκίτας και το snowdrop πρώτο χιόνι πέφτει In County Wicklow, and this a Brigid's Στην επαρχία του Γουΐκλοου, και τούτο Girdle εδώ που πλέκω για χατίρι σου I'm plaiting for you, an airy fairy hoop Είναι µιά ζώνη της Αγίας Μπριγκίτας, µια ανάλαφρη στεφάνη (Like one of those old crinolines (Σαν εκείνες που τέντωναν παλιά τα they'd trindle), κρινολίνα),
230 Twisted straw that's lifted in a circle Πλεγµένο άχυρο σε κύκλο αναρτηµένο To handsel and to heal, a rite of spring Για γούρι και για γιατρειά- µυσταγωγία του έαρος As strange and lightsome and traditional Ιδιόρρυθµη κι αέρινη κι εθιµοτυπική As the motions you go through going Σαν τις κινήσεις που επιτελείς through the thing. επιτελώντας την. (Seamus Heaney, “A Brigid’s Girdle,” 13- (“Μια Ζώνη Μπριγκίτας,” lines 13-20, 20) trans. Stratis Haviaras)
The first thing to be noticed is the naturalization of the Saint’s name into “Brigkita”, an inflected form that perhaps better suits the Greek phonology, but certainly removes the
Saint from the Irish context. Then the keyword “girdle” is rendered as “ζώνη”, which in the Greek text can only be perceived as having the limited meaning of “belt”; hence, the original object on which the ritual is based is misrepresented. Additionally, the function of the girdle which is described in the last line of the poem is completely obscured in the translation.
Religious references in W. B. Yeats’s poetry do not have the same significance as in the work of Kavanagh and Heaney. W. B. Yeats belonged to the Protestant minority in
Ireland, but religion as such was not one of the poet’s concerns or key themes, and is only referred to in his poetry in connection with his spiritualist and occultist interests or as an aspect of some of his peasant characters’ personality, especially in his ballads. That said, it is understandable that Yeats’s vision of a sovereign Ireland, his conception of an ideal
Irishness, did not involve religion—and certainly not Catholicism.
It is, however, interesting to see the various ways religious references are treated and consider whether religion takes up the same position in his poetry when translated into Greek. The most common strategy is literal translation.
231
Lord, what would they say Κύριε! Και τι θάλεγαν Did their Catullus walk that way? Αν απ’ τον ίδιο δρόµο περνούσε ο Κάτουλός τους! (W. B. Yeats, “The Scholars,” lines 11-12) (“Οι Λόγιοι,” lines 11-12, trans. Melissanthi)
Even if there are subtle variations in favor of rhythm, with the use of a synonym in some cases:
Μα, Κύριε, τι θα ‘λεγε η αφεντιά τους Αν είχε ο Κάτουλλος το βάδισµά τους; (“Οι Λόγιοι,” lines 11-12, trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
Θεέ, και τι θα λέγαν αν ο Κάτουλλός τους Έσερνε κι αυτός έτσι τα βήµατά του; (“Οι Φιλόλογοι,” lines 11-12, trans. G. P. Savvidis)
Θεέ µου, τι θα έλεγαν Αν περπατούσε ο Κάτουλλός τους έτσι; (“Οι Φιλόλογοι,” lines 11-12, trans. Maria Archimandritou)
Μα Θεέ µου, τι θα έλεγε το έρµο τους κεφάλι ο Κάτουλλος αν είχε τη γεροντική περπατησιά τους; (“Οι Φιλόλογοι,” lines 11-12, trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
Although the addition of the possessive pronoun in the last two excerpts renders the expression more intimate than it is in the source text, the change is not particularly great.
There has been one case of the use of a cultural equivalent:
232
And broke the chain and set my ankles free, Έσπασες τους χαλκάδες και µου ελευθέρωσες τα πόδια, Saint George or else a pagan Perseus; Ίδιος ο Άη Γιώργης ή των αρχαίων ο Περσεύς. (W. B. Yeats, “Her Triumph,” lines 9-10) (“Τα επινίκιά της,” lines 9-10, trans. Antonis Zervas)
And there has only been one case in the entire number of translated poems where there is an omission:
God be with the times when I Ποτέ δεν έδινα δεκάρα τσακιστή— Cared not a thraneen for what chanced Γι’ αυτούς σταλιά εγώ δε νοιάζοµαι: (W. B. Yeats, “Crazy Jane Grown Old (“Η τρελο-Τζένη γερασµένη κοιτάει τους Looks at the Dancers,” lines 17-18) χορευτές,” lines 17-18, trans. Maria Sidiropoulou)
There are extremely few cases where religious references are downplayed, as in
Iliopoulos’s translation, where the allusion to the Garden of Eden is lost in the translation due to the capitalization of the beginning of each line:
The Garden died Κήπος χωρίς ζωή· God took the spinning-jenny Του ’πλασε ο Θεός απ’ την πλευρά Out of his side Μια κλωστοµηχανή. (W. B. Yeats, “Fragments,” lines 1-3) “Θραύσµατα,” lines 1-3, trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
We also find occasional instances of religious references that go unnoticed or misinterpreted and thus translated with an inappropriate method:
233
That girls at puberty may find Τα έφηβα κορίτσια µπορεί ν’ανακαλύψουν The first Adam in their thought, Τον πρώτο Αδάµ στη σκέψη τους, Shut the door of the Pope’s chapel Κλείνουν την πόρτα στην εκκλησία του Παπά (sic) (W. B. Yeats, “Long-legged Fly,” lines 21- (“Σα µύγα µακρυπόδαρη,” lines 21-23, 23) trans. Maria Archimandritou)
Michael will unhook his trumpet Ο Μάικλ θα ξεκρεµάσει την τροµπέτα του From a bough overhead από ‘να κλαδί λιγάκι πιο ψηλά, And blow a little noise και θα σαλπίσει σύντοµο σκοπό When the supper has been spread. άµα µοιράσουµε τα φαγητά. Gabriel will come from the water Ο Γκάµπριελ θα βγει απ’ το νερό With a fish-tail and talk µε µια ουρά ψαριού, και θα µιλήσει Of wonders that have happened για θαύµατα που γίναν πριν από καιρό On wet roads where men walk σ’ ολόβρεχτες οδούς που ’χουν οι άνθρωποι βαδίσει, (W. B. Yeats “The Happy Townland,” lines (“Η χαρούµενη πολιτεία,” lines 41-48, 41-48) trans. Sophia Skoulikari)
In the first case the choice of the word “εκκλησία” does not appropriately describe the
Sistine Chapel the source text is referring to and the spelling/typing mistake of the misplaced stress that turns Pope into priest (παπάς instead of Πάπας), even though the word is capitalized, obscures the reference even further.170 The same happens in the second instance, where the translator uses the strategy of transliteration for the
Archangels’ names instead of their translation—as is standard with proper names from
170 Compare Nikos Dimou’s translation which reads “Για να βρούνε οι κοπέλες στην ήβη/ τον πρώτο Αδάµ στην περισυλλογή,/ κλείστε την πόρτα του παπικού παρεκκλησίου” (“Μακρυπόδo έντοµο”), where he also translates correctly the verb “shut” as an imperative. .
234 the Bible. Although she uses the verb “σαλπίσει” (blare forth), which is suitable in the religious context, she misses the rest of the allusions, rendering the word “trumpet” as
“τροµπέτα”, the word used in Greek for the instrument used in concerts, instead of
“σάλπιγγα” (trump in the ecclesiastical sense), and neglects the word “supper”.171
Apart from the procedures demonstrated above, which only amount to a very small portion of the translation of religious references, there is another, more significant observation to be made. As the examples below indicate, there is an enhancement of the religious references of the source text or the addition of a religious element where there is no such reference in the source text.
That we descant and yet again descant να οµιλούµε εµείς επί µακρόν κι επίµονα Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song: για της Τέχνης και του Τραγουδιού το θείο θέµα. (W. B. Yeats, “After Long Silence,” lines (“Μετά µακρά σιωπή,” lines 5-6, trans. 5-6) Maria Sidiropoulou)
I met the Bishop on the road Ευρήκα τον Επίσκοπο στο δρόµο And much said he and I. Και είπαµε πολλά, αυτός κι εγώ, προτού νυχτώσει. ……………………………...... «Live in a heavenly mansion, Σε σταύλους να µη σέρνεσαι», µου είπε, Not in some foul sty.» «τα θεία να τα σέβεσαι, τη Γνώση.» (W. B. Yeats, “Crazy Jane talks with the (“Η τρελο-Τζένη µιλάει µε τον Επίσκοπο,” Bishop,” lines 1-2, 5-6) lines 1-2, 5-6, trans. Maria Sidiropoulou)
171 As this study proceeds along the lines of descriptive translations studies, it will only be limited to the illustration of the translator’s choices, without prescriptively insisting on the use of alternative options as the correct ones.
235 I am in love Μα το Θεό τον αγαπάω. (W. B. Yeats, “The Lady’s First Song,” (“Της κυράς τραγούδι πρώτο,” line 7, line 7) trans. Argyros Ioannis Protopapas)
Consider also the refrain that appears at the end of all eleven stanzas in one of Yeats’s ballads:
O my dear; O my dear.172 Ω, Θεέ µου! (W. B. Yeats, “The Three Bushes,” lines 7, (“Οι τρεις θάµνοι,” lines 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84, 91, 98, 105, 91, 98, 105 trans.Maria Sidiropoulou)
There has also been another case where there is an addition of a target-culture reference in the translated poem. The example that follows does not contain a strictly religious reference, but rather an element of folklore:
Troy passed away in one high funeral η Τροία εχάθη σε µια λάµψη όπου ο gleam, Χάρος κυβερνάει, (W. B. Yeats “The Rose of the World,” (“Το Ρόδο του σύµπαντος κόσµου,” line 4, line 4) trans. Argyros Ioannis Protopapas)
The editors of the collection 70 Ερωτικά, in which the above-cited translated poems are included, also mention in their introduction the last two excerpts as examples of the deliberate use of references to God and death (which they place under the umbrella-term explicitation). The aim of this procedure is to “enhance the emotive charge in Greek” (52, my translation). Indeed, the translation might have a strong emotional effect on Greek
172 Yeats based “The Three Bushes” on a ballad by Dorothy Wellesley. It has been argued that the particular refrain “Oh my dear, oh my dear” reflects the poet’s sexual desire for Wellesley, as their correspondence reveals that this exact phrase appears constantly in his letters to her (Harper 217). According to this interpretation, the religious element is absent in the original poem.
236 readers; nonetheless, the recurring religious references in the translated poems distort the image of religion Yeats had used in his poetry, magnifying its force and thus misrepresenting it.
As far as the element of folklore in Yeats is concerned, the editors of 70 Erotika make the conscious choice to adapt the references to “ghosts” as elements “not absolutely compatible to Greek culture-bound elements” (53, my translation):
A lonely ghost the ghost is Αέρινη, µοναχική φιγούρα, όραµα That to God shall come και θα ‘ρθει στο Θεό ……………………………………… ...... The skein so bound us ghost to ghost Μας ένωσ’ η κλωστή. ∆εµένοι· ... (W.B. Yeats, “Crazy Jane and Jack the (“Η τρελο-Τζένη και ο Τζακ ο Journeyman,” lines 7-8, 15) Μάστορας” lines 7-8, 15-16, trans. Maria Sidiropoulou)
This choice, however, obscures an extremely important aspect of Irish culture, which also fascinated Yeats; his occultist and spiritualist interests were closely connected to Irish heritage and age-old legends. Hence, an element that is specifically Irish is deliberately underrepresented, while religion that was rather immaterial to Yeats is relatively stressed in his translated poems.
If religion is of little significance in Yeats’s poetry, mythology, on the other hand, was very central for the poet, especially in his plays. However, as explained in Chapter
Three, few of his poems that contain mythological references and allusions have been translated into Greek. The poems presented here are the most representative. As most of the poems with mythological references are contained in the collection 70 Ερωτικά, the
237 main procedure is retention of the reference and use of glosses in the extended commentary at the end of the edition.
Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam, η Τροία εχάθη σε µια λάµψη όπου ο Χάρος κυβερνάει, And Usna’s children died. Έτσι όπως χάθηκαν και του Ούσνα τα παιδιά (W. B. Yeats “The Rose of the World,” (“Το Ρόδο του σύµπαντος κόσµου,” lines lines 4-5) 4-5, trans. Argyros Ioannis Protopapas)
Do you not hear me calling, white dear Σε καλώ, δε µ’ ακούς, ελάφι λευκό δίχως with no horns? κέρατα; I have been changed to a hound with one Έγινα κυνηγόσκυλο, κι έχω µονάχα έν’ red ear; αφτί, κόκκινο I have been in the Path of Stones and the Των αγκαθιών το δάσος διάβηκα µα και Wood of Thorns, της Πέτρας το Στρατί. ……………………………………………...... I would that the Boar without bristles had Κι εύχοµαι τώρα ο Κάπρος να φανεί, ο come from the West άτριχος, απ’ τη ∆ύση And had rooted the sun and moon and stars Και ήλιο, σελήνη κι άστρα απ’ τον ουρανό out of the sky… να ξεριζώσει (W. B. Yeats, “He Mourns for the Change (“Λαχταρά το τέλος του Κόσµου,” lines 1- that Has Come upon Him and his Beloved, 3, 10-11, trans. Argyros Ioannis and Longs for the End of the World,” lines Protopapas) 1-3, 10-11)
Translators have taken care to retain the pronunciation of the Gaelic names when transliterating them:
238 III Ribh in Ecstacy ΙΙΙ Ο Ρίβ σε έκσταση (W. B. Yeats, “Supernatural Songs,” [title]) (“Υπερφυσικά Τραγούδια,” [title], trans. Spyros Iliopoulos)
The following excerpt presents another interesting procedure:
Who met Fand walking among flaming Κι αυτό που του θεού Μακλίρ τη σύζυγο dew την ηύρε By a grey shore where the wind never Σε φλογισµένη δρόσο εκεί σιµά στο blew, ακρογιάλι Όπου αγέρας δεν φυσά· για µια ξένη αγκάλη And lost the world and Emer for a kiss; Την Έµερ έχασε εκεί κι ολάκερη την πλάση (W.B. Yeats, “The Secret Rose,” lines (“Το µυστικό Ρόδο,” lines 14-17, trans. 13-15) Spyros Iliopoulos)
Instead of transferring the name Fand by transcribing it, the translator opted for a descriptive equivalent (god macLir’s wife). Since the edition is bilingual, it offers
English-speaking readers the opportunity to discover and compare the additional information within the texts themselves, before resorting to the commentary. The poem also contains several allusions to other Irish mythological figures, such as Conchubar,
Caoilte, and Cuchulain, without naming them, which are discussed in detail in the commentary as well.
Cuchulain, also appears elsewhere, in a literary journal:
A man that had six mortal wounds, a man Μ’έξι θανάσιµες πληγές, άντρακλας φηµισµένος,
239 Violent and famous, strode among the dead; Αγριωπός, βηµάτιζε µέσα στους πεθαµένους.
(W.B. Yeats, “Cuchulain Conforted,” lines (“Ο Κούχουλαν Παρηγορηµένος,” lines 1-2) 1-2, trans. Μ. Β. Raizis)
Cuchulain is the main hero of the Ulster cycle of sagas, a character “revived”, in fact by
Yeats. He features in several of his poems, as well as in his play The Death of Cuchulain
(1939), which tells the story of how Cuchulain received “six mortal wounds”. In the
Greek translation, the heroic quality of the character is retained; his image, however, is somewhat altered, mainly due to the use of the word “άντρακλας”. The word alludes perhaps to popular Greek heroes, such as Digenis Akritas (or even to fighters of the
Greek War of Independence), and thus provides in a sense an equivalent effect to Greek readers; its connotations, nonetheless, domesticate the image of the hero, rather than neutrally presenting him to the Greek audience. Still, Cuchulain is such a chief character of the Celtic mythology, and has also become a central symbol of Yeats’s writings, that even the fact that a poem that refers to him was translated is important in itself.
Unfortunately, it is but a single poem, which appears in a journal and not in a poetry collection, but still, this is a significant start.
Conclusion
Although there is a wide range of strategies used in the translation of culture-specific elements, the analysis reveals that in many cases there is an attempt at semantic or
240 communicative translation, and also, more often than not, domesticating strategies (use of cultural equivalent, omissions, and so forth) are mostly favored by the Greek translators.
It should also be noted, however, that some of the translators occasionally use procedures that compensate for the cultural difference of the source texts. Such procedures include mainly the use of explicitation, with the use of a descriptive equivalent or an addition to the literal meaning of the original segment of text (word or phrase). Such procedures are more common in the most recent translations of Yeats’s poetry and the translations of Heaney’s work, especially in his more loaded political poems. Another method worth mentioning is the use of deictic markers by Katerina
Angelaki-Rooke. Although it does not directly involve the translation of culture-bound elements, overspecifying certain deictic elements in the target texts highlights the instances of cultural difference, facilitating their perception by target-culture readers.
As far as place is concerned, the idealized Ireland of Yeats’s poetry seems to be well-represented, in terms of material. The imagery of the Irish landscape, though, is in many cases altered to become more familiar to the target culture, by use of domesticating translation procedures. Heaney’s depiction of the Northern Irish scenery, on the other hand, is rendered with consistency into Greek. This is not the case with the translations of
Kavanagh’s poetry, though. As there is no consistency in the translation of the key words that sketch the poet’s intimate Irish countryside, the internal connection of the poems is lost and the overall imagery of place is fractured. The examination of the translation of place names, on the other hand, demonstrates that Greek translators generally seem to prioritize foreignizing procedures, although there is a great tendency to alter the names, so that they become adapted to the pronunciation and cadence of the target language.
241 As has been pointed out before, religion assumes a different role in the work of the three poets, with varying importance for each. In the case of Irish identity examined here, the different conceptions of religion signify different nuances of Irishness, as perceived by the poets and manifested in their work. The examination of the translations has demonstrated that this cultural marker appears altered in the translated poems.
Kavanagh’s religious references are either underplayed or mistranslated, while there does not seem to be a clear strategy for rendering such cultural elements into Greek.
The result is a distorted representation of an aspect that is important not only for
Kavanagh’s poetry, but also for the construction of Irish identity. In the translations of
Yeats’s poetry, on the other hand, religious references are also presented in a different way than in the original, albeit in the opposite direction: religious elements are enhanced.
As far as the 70 Erotika collection is concerned, this is a choice consciously made by the translators, who explain their reasons for doing so (52-3; one of the few cases where translators discuss their options). Similarly, they state that certain elements of folklore that appear in the poems of this collection are deliberately adapted to the target culture
(53).
In the translations of Heaney’s poems, on the other hand, what comes across is a rather monolithic version of his religious references. The diversity between the different religious communities is not rendered into Greek, thus concealing an important facet of
Northern Irish identity. This manifests itself as one of two tendencies in the translations of his work—the first being a domestication of religious references, especially by translators such as Haviaras and Savvidis, but also by Angelaki-Rooke. The second is located in the translation of the numerous references and allusions to paganism which
242 come across in the translations as part of the Catholic faith and practice. The difference in
Heaney’s conception of identity with regard to the potential role of religion is rendered in a distorted way.
So are the nuances which color Heaney’s conception of Irishness, found in his references to politics, history, and memory. Heaney’s Irishness is inscribed in the present, but nurtured by the past. The revival of tradition as a bridge between the religious groups in the North is a recurring theme in his poetry, but does not appear as strong in the Greek translations.
Coming back to the different factors that determine translation strategies, discussed in section 5.2, I would like to make certain observations. First of all, the era and the translating tradition in which poems are translated are important, as they impose certain norms. Earlier translators of Yeats’s poetry, for instance, seem to disregard his political and mythological poems and show a preference for his lyric poetry and his romantic subject matter. Earlier translations also tend to domesticate more. The main occupation of the translator also plays an important role in the creation of the final translation product. As the different use of stylistics—however intriguing—is not the focus of the present research, I will limit the comment regarding the translators’ background to the following. Although it is the poets and writers who seem to take greater liberties, it is the academics that actually offer additional information in the form of glosses or explanatory notes, and justify their choices, either in introductions or commentaries (I am referring mainly to Iliopoulos and Sidiropoulou). Editorial constraints could be the reason for the lack of such information, as more often than not
243 collections concentrate almost solely on the poems, containing little or no extratextual material.
In fact, this point needs to be underlined once again: the translators’ goals are not specifically described or explained, so it is impossible for one to know whether their strategies are decided upon beforehand or rather formed during the translation process.
Hence, the discussion on their choices and difficulties does not arise from their own accounts (either in their introductions or their commentaries, where available), but necessarily derives from an examination of the translation products. In the variety of strategies and approaches, an attempt to familiarize the foreign for Greek readers’ sake seems to prevail. The effect of this treatment for the representation of Irishness through the translated texts will be further elaborated on in the final concluding chapter.
244 CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSIONS
6.1 Overview of Significant Findings
The examination of the three poets’ work rendered into Greek, which involved not only a textual analysis, but also an approach that took into consideration the selection of texts, their peritext, form, and also their context, has yielded certain interesting conclusions, regarding not only the representation of each poet, but also the concept of Irishness as constructed for Greek readers, and the overall act of translation as mediation between two cultures.
None of the three poets has had his entire oeuvre translated. As has been demonstrated in Chapter Two, this conditions the way the poet’s work is presented to the foreign readership, creating a fragmentary image. Moreover, the image of the culture and the national literature the poets represent is also altered.
As far as W. B. Yeats is concerned, although a great deal of his poetry has been translated, there is unevenness in the representation of his themes. Priority has been given to his love poems, as well as to poems with Greek themes (despite their comparatively small share in his original collections). A number of the poems which are related to his spiritualist and occultist interests have also been translated, while his many poems on the
245 political and historical situation in Ireland remain almost untranslated, a fact that conceals the poet’s concerns with national identity.
The great number of translators of Yeats’s poetry accounts for a multitude of approaches and styles in the target texts. The fact that the translation and reception of his work spans about seventy years—far longer than the two decades that have passed since the other two poets began to be translated—allows for a diachronic comparison of practices. The earlier publications do not contain any significant peritextual information that would underline the poet’s national origin; they even occasionally mispresent him as
English. Nonetheless, more recent special issues in literary journals and book publications—especially the ones that bear Spyros Iliopoulos’s signature—include supporting material in the form of prologues and notes, in which the poet’s national identity does not go unnoticed.
Seamus Heaney’s poetry is probably better-represented in terms of subject matter.
Katerina Angelaki-Rooke has translated a selection of poems that cover the first twenty- five years of Heaney’s writing. Not only are they typical of the poet’s recurring themes, sketching a complex picture of Heaney’s concerns, but in the prologue the translator contextualizes the texts by underlining their connection to Heaney’s native Northern
Ireland.
The publications of Heaney’s poetry for which Manolis Savvidis and Stratis
Haviaras are responsible, on the other hand, present a somewhat different picture. As far as the selection of texts is concerned, especially in Alfavita, there seems to be a tendency to project themes, places and concepts which are related to Greece in a rather disproportionate manner. In both collections, their translations are also rather
246 domesticating in terms of diction and semantics, through the use of archaic words and of concepts which allude to the Greek tradition, especially to ancient Greek times. In line with this approach, the cover of the Alfadi collection features the title and the names of the author and the publishing house in the form of an ancient Greek inscription—a remarkably domesticating image.
Last but not least, Kavanagh’s poetry in Greek translation presents an interesting variety of poems with reference to their content; yet the number is still a very humble one. In his case, the fact that, so far, there have only been two (collaborating) translators of his work does not leave much room for the range of translation products as with Yeats and Heaney. Moreover, the fact that Amy Mims, who has translated most of the poems, is not a native speaker of Greek greatly affects the outcome. Although the poems selected contain several typical images of both the Irish landscape and rural life in Ireland, as well as scenes from Kavanagh’s Dublin years, this imagery is conveyed in an odd way. There is certain awkwardness in expression, which does not, however, convey an experience with the foreign, or point to what could be considered a clearly foreignizing approach. In fact, the oscillation between domesticating and foreignizing techniques with no obvious goal seems to disorient the reader.
The findings of this research suggest that, overall, domestication has prevailed.
Translators seem to greatly favor Greek themes, perhaps in an attempt to search for connections between Irish poets and Greek readers. This tendency to “bring the poets closer to the Greek readers” is also evident as far as translation strategies are concerned.
Despite the fact that they vary greatly, there seems to be a general tendency for domestication, which is apparent on both the lexical and the formal level. Venuti’s view
247 seems to describe the situation appropriately: “Translation is an inscription of the foreign text with intelligibilities and interests that are fundamentally domestic, even when the translator maintains a strict semantic equivalence with the foreign text and incorporates aspects of the foreign-language cultural context where that text first emerged
(“Retranslations” 25). The examination of the translated poems at hand confirms David
Connolly’s observation that “historically, most translations tend towards the domesticating approach (Μεταποίηση, 121, my translation).
A fact that should be underlined, nevertheless, is the difficulty for specific translation strategies to be traced and described. The translators seem to work ad hoc and do not state their goals precisely. Even in more recent editions, in which the translated texts are accompanied by introductions, prologues or notes, translators do not seem to take advantage of the opportunity to discuss and give reasons for their choices.173 Any attempt by researchers to illustrate the use of strategies is, therefore, limited to the examination of the translation products, and involves a degree of speculation as far as the translators’ intentions are concerned.
6.2 The Representation of Irishness through Greek Translations
Irish identity, as any kind of identity, is not stable, but assumes many forms. This is evident in its different conceptions and manifestations in the works of the three poets selected for this thesis. Initially conceived of as opposing itself to its English counterpart in Yeats’s vision, rejected as such and celebrated in the familiar and the ordinary by
173 The only exception are probably the collections Spyros Iliopoulos edited or co-edited (Μ & Ο; 70Ε), where there are certain comments concerning the translators’ choices.
248 Kavanagh, and then revisited through encounters with the past and negotiated anew through the historical challenges of the present by Heaney, Irishness is a significant feature in the three poets’ work.
Not only are these texts evocative of the cultural context from which they emerge
(Tymozcko, Translation in a Postcolonial Context), but part of their significance lies in the fact that they originate from a postcolonial context. In other words, identity, reclaimed and negotiated after centuries of subordination, is of the utmost importance for the culture involved and is reflected in its literary production. These texts are, thus, representative of a distinct national culture.
The question, then, is how is Irish culture represented through the texts translated from its literature? Have its particularities, with the specificity owing to the postcolonial experience, been rendered accurately in the translated texts? Are the traces of a multiple conception of Irishness evident in the translations? Does the body of translated texts convey the evolution of the concept of Irishness? As has been argued earlier, to the extent that translators act not only as mediators between cultures but also as ethnographers, their role is crucial. Since the entire oeuvre of the poets in question has not been translated, and there has necessarily been a selection of poems, the result is inevitably a fragmented image of both their poetry and the cultural context from which it originated. Moreover, as has been pointed out, the tendency to domesticate the poems results in translations which on many occasions assimilate the foreign elements of the source texts, thus concealing, their Irishness. Indeed, in the case of the literary texts this thesis deals with, the translation products have not succeeded in capturing the subtle or more prominent nuances Irishness assumes for each poet. The centrality of national identity, so evident in
249 Yeats, for instance, has not been maintained in the translations of his work. The sample of Kavanagh’s iconoclast poetry is too small, and Heaney’s particular conception of
Irishness through the contact with tradition does not come across in the translations.
Cultural specificity has been underemphasized to comply with the norms of the target culture. The attempts to render the Irish ballad into Greek have not resulted in the importation of a new formal model into the Greek literary tradition, but rather in the assimilation of the foreign form to Greek conventions. Meanwhile, the translation of place names has been done in a manner that is phonetically closer to the Greek language rather than the source language, to name but a few examples of domesticating choices that this thesis has discussed.
Venuti suggests that, insofar as literary translation is representative of a foreign culture, every attempt should be made to maintain and underline those elements that bear cultural difference, cultural experience other than one’s own. In the case of Anglo-Irish poetry translated into Greek, however, artistic integrity, style and the appeal to the implied Greek reader were usually prioritized over cultural difference. If literary translation is seen as an instance of cultural encounter, Irish identity is represented to
Greek readers only to a certain extent. Bhabha’s “staging of cultural difference” is achieved only partially.
Nonetheless, one should bear in mind the limitations of translatability. As Maria
Tymoczko argues, “It is much easier to prescribe an ideological stance on cultural translation than to conceive of and practically execute a translation strategy to convey cultural difference with the sort of specificity that the representation of the signature concepts of a culture requires” (Translation in a Postcolonial Context 182). If identity is
250 indeed translatable, does this mean it has to be modified through translation to assimilate the domestic tradition? Does translatability, in practice, mean familiarization of the foreign? It seems that to a certain extent the answer to the above questions is probably positive, as indeed translation practice actually demonstrates a prioritization of domesticating strategies.
Taking this train of thought further, one could actually maintain that opting for an approach which is rather domesticating may not necessarily have negative results on the translation products. In fact, one could argue that domesticating strategies and techniques have the advantage of familiarizing the reader with the foreign text, thus facilitating its reception. Although Irishness seems to be compromised, the fact that the texts have become more familiar, accessible—and perhaps more appealing—to the Greek readers could actually mean that the path to the reception of Irish culture has been well paved.
On the other hand, one should not disregard the effect of these translation practices on the representation of Irish culture to the Greek readers. Irish cultural identity—articulated in various forms in the three poets’ work, fluid and thus constantly transforming—seems to have been translated to adhere to the target culture. This does not owe to the fact that Irish identity is untranslatable. On the contrary, its multifaceted character, historically and culturally variable, which allows for a range of literary manifestations, also invites a variety of interpretations and potential translations. This fluidity (or provisionality of meaning) offers a great flexibility to translators who operate in the space in-between cultures, in the sense that they have a multitude of choices as to the manner in which to convey this cultural specificity. It seems that in the case of the
Greek translations of the three poets’ work the attempt to bring the literary texts towards
251 the target culture readers has prevailed and cultural specificity has been obscured in the process. It could be argued, in other words, that the transfer of Irish identity has been
“incomplete”. There is a new image of Irishness that emerges at the point of contact between Irish and Greek literature and their conventions. However, this image is quite distant from the image present in the source texts.
In the process of cultural transfer there surely is a certain degree of misunderstanding (necessarily present in any intercultural exchange), which is difficult to overcome. In the case of 20th-century Anglo-Irish poetry translated into Greek there is also an attempt to domesticate the Other so that the foreign culture can be presented in terms familiar to Greek readers. Undeniably the whole endeavor and its results can be considered a gain for both cultures involved. Yet, although translation has managed to create a meeting point between the Irish and Greek culture, allowing the Greek readers to come into contact with Irish literary texts, the fact is that the specificity of Irishness as communicated to them has been significantly altered.
6.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Further Research
This study has discussed a number of issues involved in the representation and reception of Irish culture through the Greek translations of its literary texts. It has also raised certain questions regarding the concepts of cultural transfer and the translatability of cultures. The findings of this research add to the field of Translation Studies, with regard to the impact of translation on the reception of foreign cultures. They also offer a new
252 dimension to the previously neglected area of translation in relation to modern Irish literature and culture.
The present study has certain limitations that need to be taken into account. The first point that needs to be stressed regards its generalizability. Since my research has focused exclusively on the particularities of Irish culture, special attention has been paid to the concept of national identity, and the scheme of cultural markers employed was selected in order to appropriately describe the specificity of Irish identity. This means that it could probably not be used in its present form, without any alterations, to examine the transfer of cultural identity through translation in another pair of languages/cultures.
Nevertheless, another more general or inclusive model could be developed along the lines of my scheme, which would be applicable in other cases of cultural identity in transfer.
Another issue that could be considered a shortcoming of this research is the choice not to include language in the cultural markers examined. There is a variety of features that range from the phonetic level to the specificities of the Irish English vocabulary which may also distinguish Irish literature as such, and are thus of great importance for the manifestation of Irishness in the literary texts. Perhaps a future study could deal at length with these features, tracing these linguistic features in the source texts and examining their treatment in the target language.
This study has been conducted on the basis of the actual translated texts and their peritexts. A difficulty that has already been outlined is the scarcity of information concerning the translators’ goals and the reasoning behind their choices. The employment of a different method, such as the use of questionnaires addressed to the translators, could highlight these matters and offer a better insight into the activity of literary translation
253 and its connection to cultural matters. Similarly, this study could equally well form the basis for a further investigation of the epitexts of the translations (material located outside the book, such as interviews, review articles, advertisements regarding the publication, and so forth),174 exploring the issue of reception from a different angle.
Another suggestion for further research regards the issue of form, as it is generally not paid the attention it deserves, especially in the field of translation studies. A completely different idea was generated by the observation that most concepts of
Irishness present it as gendered, a fact that is at odds with the poetic production of a great number of contemporary female poets. In both cases, an in-depth examination of the issues involved, combined with an attempt to translate metrical poetry as well as women poets may prove to be an interesting challenge.
174 For further discussion regarding epitexts, see Genette, 5.
254
APPENDICES
255
APPENDIX A
LIST OF TRANSLATIONS OF YEATS’S POETRY
CROSSWAYS (1889) ΣΤΑΥΡΟ∆ΡΟΜΙΑ The Indian upon Ο Ιντιάνος για το ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου Νέα εστία, τχ. 604 (1 God Θεό Σεπ. 1952), σ. 1113. Ephemera Εφήµερα Μάριος Βύρων ∆ιαβάζω (αφιέρωµα Ραΐζης στο W.B. Yeats), τχ. 391 (1998), σ. 142. Down by the Salley Στους κήπους µε τις Μελισσάνθη Νεοελληνικά Gardens ιτιές γράµµατα, (5 Μαρ. 1941), σ. 4. Οι νοµπελίστες της λογοτεχνίας, τοµ. Β’, Αθήνα: ∆ίφρος, 1974, σ. 64. Κάτω στα περιβόλια ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου Άγγλοι λυρικοί, Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις «Άλφα» Ι. Μ. Σκαζίκη, 1944, σ. 107. Ανθολογία της ευρωπαϊκής και αµερικανικής ποιήσεως, Αθήνα: Σίµος Συµεωνίδης, 1962, σ. 31. Ποιήµατα, Αθήνα: Μορφωτικό Ίδρυµα Εθνικής Τραπέζης, 1993 (α’ ανατύπωση 1999), σ. 9. Νέα παγκόσµια ποιητική ανθολογία, τόµος Γ’, Αθήνα: ∆ιόσκουρος, [χ.χ.], σ. 1070. Κάτω στους κήπους Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70 Ερωτικά, Αθήνα: Εστία, 2000 (β’ έκδοση 2002), σ. 67. To an Isle in the Στα Νερά και στο Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μυθολογίες και Water Νησί οράµατα, Αθήνα: Πλέθρον, 1983, σ. 39.
256 Μυθολογίες και οράµατα, Αθήνα: Γαβριηλίδης, 1999, σ. 39.
THE ROSE (1893) ΤΟ ΡΟ∆Ο The Rose of the Το Ρόδο του Αργυρός Ιωάννης 70Ε, 2000, σ. 69. World Σύµπαντος Κόσµου Πρωτόπαπας The Pity of Love Ο φόβος του έρωτα Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 71. The Sorrow of Love Των σπουργιτιών η Λέανδρος Κ. ΝΕ, τχ. 383 (15 αµάχη ψηλά στην Παλαµάς Μαΐου 1943), σ. 582. υδρορροή Παγκόσµια ποιητική ανθολογία, τόµος Α’, Αθήνα: Αυλός, 1977, σ. 25-6. Των σπουργιτιών η Λέανδρος Κ. Φιλολογική αµάχη Παλαµάς Πρωτοχρονιά, τόµος ΙΣΤ’ (1959), σ. 272. ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 65. Η θλίψη του έρωτα ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου ΆγγλΛ, 1944, σ. 111. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 12. 70Ε, 2000, σ. 73. When You Are Old Σα θα γεράσεις ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου ΆγγλΛ, 1944, σ. 110. ΑΕΑΠ, 1962, σ. 31. ΝΠΠΑ, [χ.χ.], σ. 1070-1. Σαν του χρόνου έρθ’ Μ. Καραγάτσης ΝΕ, τχ. 428 (15 Απρ. η νάρκη 1945), σ. 164. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 10. When you are old Άρης ∆ικταίος Σ’ αναζήτηση του … Απόλυτου: Ιστορική Ανθολογία της Παγκοσµίου Ποιήσεως, Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Γ. Φέξη, 1960, σ. 635. Όταν γεράσεις Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 68. Ανθολογία Άγγλων ποιητών εµπνευσµένων από την Ελλάδα, Αθήνα: Σύλλογος προς διάδοσιν ωφέλιµων βιβλίων, 1986, σ. 148.
257 Όταν γεράσεις Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 75. Όταν γεράσεις ∆ιονύσης Καψάλης Μπαλάντες και Περιστάσεις, Αθήνα: Άγρα, 1997, σ. 71. A Dream of Death Όνειρο θανάτου Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 77. The Man Who Ο άνθρωπος που Σοφία Σκουλικάρη ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), Dreamed of ονειρεύτηκε τη σ. 149. Faeryland νεραϊδοχώρα The Lake Isle of Η λίµνη του ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου ΆγγλΛ, 1944, σ. 109. Innisfree Ίννισφρη ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ.11. Η λίµνη στο νησί Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 68. του Ιννισφρί ΑΑΠΕΕ, 1986, σ. 147. Στης Λίµνης το Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 41. Νησί Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 41.
THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS Ο ΑΝΕΜΟΣ ΣΤΙΣ ΚΑΛΑΜΙΕΣ (1899) The Lover Tells of Ο ποιητής λέει για το Σοφία Σκουλικάρη ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), the Rose in His ρόδο στην καρδιά σ. 148. Heart του Το ρόδο στην καρδιά Σοφία Σκουλικάρη 70Ε, 2000, σ. 79. του The Fish Το ψάρι Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 81. Το ψάρι Μαρία W.B Yeats: Ποιήµατα, Αρχιµανδρίτου Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδοτική Θεσσαλονίκης, 2005, σ. 25. The Lover Mourns Θρηνεί για το χαµό Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 83. for the Loss of Love του έρωτα He Mourns for the Λαχταρά το τέλος Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 85. Change that Has του Κόσµου Come upon Him and His Beloved and Longs for the End of the World He Bids His Για τη γαλήνη της... Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 87. Beloved be at Peace A Poet to His Ο ποιητής στην Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 89. Beloved αγαπηµένη του He Gives His Στίχοι για την Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 91. Beloved Certain αγαπηµένη
258 Rhymes He Tells of the Περί τελείας Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 93. Perfect Beauty καλλονής
He Hears the Cry of Η φωνή του αγέρα Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 95. the Sedge He Thinks of Those Την κακολογούν Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 97. Who Have spoken Evil of His Beloved The Secret Rose Το µυστικό Ρόδο Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 97. The Lover Pleads Οι παλιοί φίλοι Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2002, σ. 103. with His Friend for Old Friends He Wishes His Εύχεται το θάνατο Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 105. Beloved Were Dead της αγαπηµένης του He Wishes for the Τα ουράνια τα Μελισσάνθη ΝΓ, 1941, σ. 4. Cloths of Heaven µεταξωτά... ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 13. 70Ε, 2000, σ. 107. ΝΠΠΑ, [χ.χ.], σ. 1072. Επιθυµίες Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 66. Λόγια αγάπης Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΑΑΠΕΕ, 1986, σ. 148. He Thinks of His Κάποτε ήταν µέρος Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70 Ε, 2000, σ. 109. Past Greatness when των αστερισµών a Part of the Constellations of Heaven The Fiddler of Ο βιολιτζής του ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου ΆγγλΛ, 1944, σ. 106. Dooney Ντούνεϋ ΑΕΑΠ, 1962, 30. ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 66. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ.15. ΝΠΠΑ [χ.χ.], σ. 1069-70. Ο Βιολιτζής του Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 43. Ντούνυ Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 43. Into the Twilight Μέσα στο δειλινό Λέανδρος Κ. ΝΕ, τ. 34, τχ. 387 (15 Παλαµάς Ιουλ. 1943), σ. 907. ΠΠΑ, 1977, σ. 26. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 14. Μέσα στο δειλινό ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου ΆγγλΛ, 1944, σ. 108. ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 65.
259
IN THE SEVEN WOODS (1904) ΣΤΑ ΕΦΤΑ ∆ΑΣΗ Never Give Αll the Ποτέ µη δίνεις όλη Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 111. Heart την καρδιά Adam’s Curse Η κατάρα του Αδάµ Κώστας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 113, Μπουρνουζάκης 115. The Happy Η χαρούµενη Σοφία Σκουλικάρη ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), Townland πολιτεία σ. 150.
THE GREEN HELMET AND OTHER Η ΠΡΑΣΙΝΗ ΠΕΡΙΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ ΚΑΙ POEMS (1910) ΑΛΛΑ ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΑ No Second Troy Όχι άλλη Τροία Σοφία Σκουλικάρη ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), σ. 148. Όχι άλλη Τροία Σοφία Σκουλικάρη 70Ε, 2000, σ. 117. Όχι άλλη Τροία Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 29. Αρχιµανδρίτου The Coming of Η σοφία της Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 39. Wisdom with Time ωριµότητας Αρχιµανδρίτου A Drinking Song Του κρασιού Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 119.
RESPONSIBILITIES (1914) ΕΥΘΥΝΕΣ The Realists Οι ρεαλιστές Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 49. Αρχιµανδρίτου Fallen Majesty Παλιές δόξες Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 121. Friends Φίλες Σοφία Σκουλικάρη ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), σ. 151. Φίλες Σοφία Σκουλικάρη 70Ε, 2000, 123, 125. The Magi Οι Μάγοι Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 45. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 45. Οι Μάγοι Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 16. A Coat Το πανωφόρι Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 33. Αρχιµανδρίτου To a Shade Σε µια Σκιά Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος ∆εν, τχ. 33, (Μάρτιος 1983), σ. 481. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 17.
THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE (1919) ΟΙ ΑΓΡΙΟΚΥΚΝΟΙ ΣΤΟ ΚΟΥΛ The Wild Swans at Οι άγριοι κύκνοι Γιώργος Ποίηση, τχ. 10, Coole Βαρθαλίτης Φθινόπωρο- Χειµώνας 1997, σ. 94. Solomon to Sheba Ο Σολοµών στη Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 127. Βασίλισσα του Σιδηροπούλου Σαβά The scholars Oι Λόγιοι Μελισσάνθη ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 65.
260 ΝΠΠΑ [χ.χ.], σ. 1072-3. Οι φιλόλογοι Γ. Π. Σαββίδης Εφήµερον Σπέρµα, Αθήνα: Ερµής, 1978, σ. 55-56. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 18. Oι Λόγιοι Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 47. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 47. Οι φιλόλογοι Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 129. Οι Φιλόλογοι Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 31. Αρχιµανδρίτου The Fisherman Ο ψαράς Σοφία Σκουλικάρη ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), σ. 151. His Phoenix Ο φοίνικάς του Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 131, 133. A Thought from Μια σκέψη από τον Αλεξάνδρα «Η ποίηση του W.B. Propertius Προπέρτιο Πλακωτάρη Yeats», Εποχές, τχ. 32, ∆εκ. 1965, σ. 41. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 22. Μια σκέψη από τον Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 51. Προπέρτιο Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 51. Μια σκέψη από τον Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 135. Προπέρτιο Broken Dreams Χαµένα όνειρα Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 137, Σιδηροπούλου 139. A Deep-sworn Vow Βαρύς όρκος Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 141. Presences Παρουσίες Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 143. Lines Written in Γραµµές Γραµµένες Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 47. Dejection µε Κατήφεια Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 47. Στίχοι γραµµένοι µε Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- βαρυθυµία Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 95. The People Ο Λαός Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 49, 51. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 49, 51. The Balloon of the Το Αερόστατο του Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 51. Mind Νου Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 51. Ego Dominus Tuus Ego Dominus Tuus Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 53, 55, 57. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 53, 55, 57. Ego Dominus Tuus Αντώνης Τα Πέτρινα Μάτια της
261 ∆εκαβάλλες Μέδουσας: ∆οκίµια, Αθήνα, Κέδρος, 1981, σ. 142-144. Ego Dominus Tuus Μίλτος Το εργαστήρι του Φραγκόπουλος µεταφραστή, Αθήνα: Πόλις, 2003, σ. 156. The Phases of the Οι Φάσεις της Αντώνης ΠΜΜ, 1981, σ. 136- Moon Σελήνης ∆εκαβάλλες 141. The Cat and the Η Γάτα και το Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 59. Moon Φεγγάρι Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 59. ∆εν, τχ. 35. (Νοέµβ.- ∆εκ. 1987), σ. 132. Η γάτα και το Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- φεγγάρι Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 95. Γάτα και Φεγγάρι Μαρία Σερβάκη ΚΕ, τοµ. Β’, τχ. 17 (Άνοιξη 1960), σ. 146-147. ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 67. The Saint and the Ο Άγιος κι ο Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 61. Hunchback Καµπούρης Μ & Ο, 1999 σ.61. Ο Άγιος κι ο Αντώνης ΠΜΜ 1981, σ.145. Καµπούρης ∆εκαβάλλες The Double Vision Το διπλό όραµα του Σπύρος Τσακνιάς Ο µύθος της Ελένης, of Michael Robartes Michael Robartes Μέγαρο Μουσικής Αθηνών, 1993, σ. 405-407. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 19.
MICHAEL ROBARTES AND THE Ο ΜΙΧΑΗΛ ΡΟΜΠΑΡΤΗΣ ΚΑΙ Η DANCER (1921) ΧΟΡΕΥΤΡΙΑ Solomon and the Ο Σολοµών κι η Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 145, Witch µάγισσα Σιδηροπούλου 147. The Rose Tree Η Τριανταφυλλιά Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 37. Αρχιµανδρίτου The Second Coming Η ∆ευτέρα Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Ευθύνη, τχ. 106 (Οκτ. Παρουσία 1980), σ. 565. Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 63. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 63. Η ∆ευτέρα Γιώργος Σεφέρης Αγγλοελληνική Παρουσία Επιθεώρηση, τοµ. Β’ (Απρίλιος 1946), σ. 39. ΑΕΑΠ, 1962, σ. 32. Αντιγραφές, Αθήνα,
262 Ίκαρος, 1965, σ. 11. Αντιγραφές, β’ έκδοση, Αθήνα, Ίκαρος, 1978, σ. 11. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 23. ΝΠΠΑ [χ.χ.], σ. 1071-2. Η ∆ευτέρα Αντώνης ΠΜΜ 1981, σ.156- Παρουσία ∆εκαβάλλες 157. Η ∆ευτέρα Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 51. Παρουσία Αρχιµανδρίτου
THE TOWER (1928) Ο ΠΥΡΓΟΣ The Wheel Ο Τροχός Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 65.
Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 65. Fragments Θραύσµατα Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 65. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 65. All Souls’ Night Ψυχοσάββατο Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 67- 73. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 67- 73. Ψυχοσάββατο Αντώνης ΠΜΜ 1981, σ. 179- ∆εκαβάλλες 182. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 29-32. (Two Songs from a ∆ύο τραγούδια από Αντώνης ΠΜΜ 1981, σ. 153- Play [The ένα θεατρικό έργο ∆εκαβάλλες 154. Resurrection]) ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 24. Τραγούδι από ένα Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΑΑΠΕΕ, 1986, σ. θεατρικό έργο 149. Leda and the Swan Η Λήδα και ο Μαρία Σερβάκη ΚΕ, τοµ. Β’, τχ. 17 κύκνος (Άνοιξη 1960), σ. 144-5. Η Λήδα και ο Μάριος Βύρων Κυπριακός Λόγος, τµ. κύκνος Ραΐζης 7, τχ. 40, 1975, σ. 284. Εθνικός Κήρυξ, 13 Μαρ. 1975, σ. 4. «Ο Γέητς και το σύµβολο του Βυζαντίου», Νέα
263 Εστία, τχ. 1182 (1 Οκτ. 1976), σ. 1286. Ένα όραµα175 Μάριος Βύρων ΠΠΑ, 1977, σ. 28-9. Ραΐζης Η Λήδα και ο Μάριος Βύρων Αγγλόφωνη κύκνος Ραΐζης Φιλολογία: Συγκριτικές Μελέτες, Αθήνα: Κέδρος 1980, σ. 39. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 26. Η Λήδα και ο Αντώνης ΠΜΜ, σ. 148-9. κύκνος ∆εκαβάλλες On a Picture of a Στην εικόνα ενός Σοφία Σκουλικάρη ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), Black Centaur by µαύρου κενταύρου σ. 152. Edmund Dulac του Έντµουντ Ντούλακ Sailing to Ταξίδι στο Βυζάντιο Γ. ∆. Κλιγγόπουλος «Ο W. B.Yeats και το Byzantium Βυζάντιο», Αγγλοελληνική επιθεώρηση, τοµ. 6, τχ. 1, 1953, σ. 70. Πλέοντας προς το Μαρία Σερβάκη ΚΕ, τοµ. Β’, τχ. 17 Βυζάντιο (Άνοιξη 1960), σ. 144-5. Προς Βυζάντιον Άρης ∆ικταίος ΑνΑπ, 1960, σ. 634-5. Ταξίδι στο Βυζάντιο Γιώργος Σεφέρης Αντι, 1965, σ. 12-13. Αντι, 1978, σ. 12-13. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 27. Πλέοντας προς το Μάριος Βύρων «Ο Γέητς και το Βυζάντιο Ραΐζης σύµβολο του Βυζαντίου», ΝΕ, τχ. 1182 (1 Οκτ. 1976), σ.1288. , ΠΠΑ, 1977, σ. 27-8. ΑγγλΦ 1980, σ. 43- 44. ∆εν, τχ. 33, Μάρτιος 1983, σ. 482. Αρµενίζοντας στο Αντώνης ΠΜΜ 1981, σ.162- Βυζάντιο ∆εκαβάλλες 163. Πλέοντας για το Ε. Ν. Μόσχος ΝΕ, τχ. 1333 (15 Ιαν. Βυζάντιο 1983), σ. 93.
175 Although it appears under a different title (“Ένα όραµα”), the translation is identical to Raizis’s translation entitled “Η Λήδα και ο κύκνος”.
264 Πλέοντας για το Ρόης Παπαγγέλου Η Απόγνωση της Βυζάντιο Επίγνωσης, Αθήνα, ∆ιογένης, 1983, σ. 14-15. Πλέοντας για το Βαγγέλης Ευθύνη, τοµ. 14, τχ. Βυζάντιο Αθανασόπουλος 165 ( 1985), σ. 437- 41. Ταξίδι στο Βυζάντιο Στυλιανός Αλεξίου Το Εντευκτήριον: Μεταφράσεις. Αθήνα: Στιγµή, 2004, σ. 55- 6.
From A MAN YOYNG AND OLD Από το ΕΝΑΣ ΑΝ∆ΡΑΣ ΝΙΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΓΗΡΑΙΟΣ Human Dignity Αξιοπρέπεια Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 149. The Mermaid Η γοργόνα Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 151. Σιδηροπούλου Η γοργόνα Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 21. Αρχιµανδρίτου The Empty Cup Η άδεια κούπα Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 153. His Memories Οι αναµνήσεις του Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 155.
THE WINDING STAIR AND OTHER Η ΚΥΚΛΙΚΗ ΣΚΑΛΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΛΛΑ POEMS (1933) ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΑ Death Θάνατος Μαρία Σερβάκη ΚΕ, τοµ. Β’, τχ. 17 (Άνοιξη 1960), σ. 146. ΝοµπΛ, 1974, σ. 66. Ο Θάνατος Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 43. Αρχιµανδρίτου Blood and the Moon Το αίµα και η Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- σελήνη ΙΙΙ Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 96. Quarrel in Old Age Γερόντων φιλονικία Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 157. The Nineteenth ∆έκατος ένατος Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΑΑΠΕΕ, 1986, σ. 67. Century and After αιώνας και αργότερα Statistics Στατιστική Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 45. Αρχιµανδρίτου Three Movements Τρεις Κινήσεις Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 75. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 75. The Mother of God Μήτηρ Θεού Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 75. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 75. Byzantium Βυζάντιο Μαρία Σερβάκη ΚΕ, τοµ. Β’, τχ. 17 (Άνοιξη 1960), σ. 145-6. Βυζάντιο Μάριος Βύρων «Ο Γέητς και το
265 Ραΐζης σύµβολο του Βυζαντίου», ΝΕ, τχ. 1182 (1 Οκτ. 1976), σ.1291. (Το Βυζάντιο) Μάριος Βύρων ΠΠΑ, 1977, σ. 26-7. Ραΐζης ΑγγλΦ, 1980, σ. 49- 50. Βυζάντιο Αντώνης ΠΜΜ, 1981, σ.169- ∆εκαβάλλες 170. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ.33. Βυζάντιο Ε. Ν. Μόσχος ΝΕ, τχ. 1333 (15 Ιαν. 1983), σ. 94. Vacillation Ταλάντευση ΙV Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 77. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 77. Ταλάντωση ΙV Γ. Π. Σαββίδης Βασικά θέµατα της ποίησης του Καβάφη, Αθήνα, Ίκαρος, 1993, σ. 54. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 35.
From WORDS FOR MUSIC Από το ΛΟΓΙΑ ΓΙΑ ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ, PERHAPS ΙΣΩΣ Crazy Jane and the Η τρελο-Τζένη κι ο Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 159-61. Bishop Επίσκοπος Σιδηροπούλου Η Τρελή Τζέην µιλά Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- µε τον δεσπότη Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 97. Crazy Jane Η απόρριψη της Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 163. Reproved τρελο-Τζένης Σιδηροπούλου Crazy Jane on the Η τρελο-Τζένη και η Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 165. Day of Judgment ∆ευτέρα Παρουσία Σιδηροπούλου Crazy Jane and Jack Η τρελο-Τζένη κι ο Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 167. the Journeyman Τζακ ο Μάστορας Σιδηροπούλου Η Τρελή Τζέην και Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- ο Τζακ ο Ταξιδευτής Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 96. Crazy Jane on God Η τρελλοτζένη Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Ευθύνη, τχ. 106 (Οκτ. µιλάει για το Θεό 1980), σ. 565-6. Η τρελο-Τζένη Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 79. µιλάει για το Θεό Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 79. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 36.176 Η τρελο-Τζένη Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 169,
176 The translation in this edition only contains a few minor changes compared to the one included in M & O.
266 µιλάει για το Θεό 171. Crazy Jane Talks Η τρελο-Τζένη Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 173. with the Bishop µιλάει µε τον Σιδηροπούλου Επίσκοπο Crazy Jane Grown Η τρελο-Τζένη Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 175. Old Looks at the γερασµένη κοιτάει Σιδηροπούλου Dancers τους χορευτές Girl’s Song Το τραγούδι της Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 177. κόρης Σιδηροπούλου Young Man’s Song Το τραγούδι του Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 179. νιου Σιδηροπούλου After Long Silence Μετά µακρά σιωπή Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 181. Σιδηροπούλου The Delphic Oracle Ο ∆ελφικός Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 81. upon Plotinus χρησµός για τον Πλωτίνο Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 81. Ο δελφικός χρησµός Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- για τον Πλωτίνο Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 98.
From A WOMAN YOYNG AND OLD Από το ΜΙΑ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ ΝΕΑ ΚΑΙ ΓΡΑΙΑ Father and Child Πατέρας και τέκνο Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 183. Before the World Προτού ο κόσµος να Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 185. was made γίνει Πριν ο κόσµος γίνει Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 98. A First Confession Πρώτη Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 187. εξοµολόγηση Her Triumph Τα επινίκιά της Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 189. Consolation Παραµυθία Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 191. Παραµυθία Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 23. Αρχιµανδρίτου Chosen Εκλεκτοί Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 193. Parting Χωρισµός Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 195. Her Vision in the Το όραµα της στο Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 197, Wood δάσος 199. A Last Confession Τελευταία Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 201- εξοµολόγηση 203. Meeting Αντάµωση Αντώνης Ζέρβας 70Ε, 2000, σ. 205.
A FULL MOON IN MARCH (1935) From Supernatural Songs Από το Υπερφυσικά Τραγούδια III Ribh in Ecstasy ΙΙΙ Ο Ριβ σε Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 83. έκσταση Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 83.
267 IX The four Ages of Οι τέσσερες ηλικίες Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Ευθύνη, τχ. 106 (Οκτ. Man του ανθρώπου 1980), σ. 566. ΙΧ Οι τέσσερεις Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 83. ηλικίες του ανθρώπου Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 83. Οι τέσσερις ηλικίες Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 41. του ανθρώπου Αρχιµανδρίτου
NEW POEMS (1938) ΝΕΑ ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΑ The Three Bushes Οι τρεις θάµνοι Μαρία 70Ε, 2000, σ. 207, Σιδηροπούλου 209, 211. The Lady’s First Της κυράς τραγούδι Αργυρός Ιωάννης 70Ε, 2000, σ. 213. Song πρώτο Πρωτοπαπάς The Lady’s Second Της κυράς τραγούδι Αργυρός Ιωάννης 70Ε, 2000, σ. 215. Song δεύτερο Πρωτοπαπάς Το δεύτερο Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- τραγούδι της Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 99. γυναίκας The Lady’s Third Της κυράς τραγούδι Αργυρός Ιωάννης 70Ε, 2000, σ. 217. Song τρίτο Πρωτοπαπάς The Lover’s Song Το τραγούδι του Αργυρός Ιωάννης 70Ε, 2000, σ. 219. εραστή Πρωτοπαπάς The Chambermaid’s Της δούλας Αργυρός Ιωάννης 70Ε, 2000, σ. 221. First Song τραγούδι πρώτο Πρωτοπαπάς The Chambermaid’s Της δούλας Αργυρός Ιωάννης 70Ε, 2000, σ. 223. Second Song τραγούδι δεύτερο Πρωτοπαπάς The Wild Old Ο γεροµουρντάρης Σοφία Σκουλικάρη 70Ε, 2000, σ. 225, Wicked Man 227, 229. The Spur Το σπηρούνι (sic) Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 95. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 95. Το κεντρί Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 231. Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 85, 87. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 85, 87. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 39.177 Ζήσιµος Εκηβόλος, Χειµώνας Λορεντζάτος 1997, σ. 1829-49. Imitated from the Μίµηση (Από ένα Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 89. Japanese γιαπωνέζικο
177 The translation in this edition only contains a few minor changes compared to the one included in M & O.
268 ποίηµα) Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 89. Μίµηση από τα Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 15. Ιαπωνικά Αρχιµανδρίτου Sweet Dancer Γλυκιά Χορεύτρια Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 89. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 89. An Acre of Grass Σαν Καταπράσινο Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 91. Χορτάρι Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 89. Ένα κοµµάτι Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 13. πράσινο γρασίδι Αρχιµανδρίτου What then? Και τι µ’ αυτό; Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 93. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 93. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 37. Και έπειτα; Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 27. Αρχιµανδρίτου A Crazed Girl Τρελό Κορίτσι Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 95. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 95. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 38. Ένα τρελό κορίτσι Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 17. Αρχιµανδρίτου
LAST POEMS (1938-1939) ΤΕΛΕΥΤΑΙΑ ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΑ Politics Πολιτική Νίκος ∆ήµου Ξένα Ποιήµατα, Αθήνα: Νεφέλη, 1982, σ. 26. ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 43. Πολιτική Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 99. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 99. Πολιτική Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος 70Ε, 2000, σ. 233. Πολιτική Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 19. Αρχιµανδρίτου The Apparitions Τα Φαντάσµατα Σπύρος Ηλιόπουλος Μ & Ο, 1983, σ. 97. Μ & Ο, 1999, σ. 97. Long-legged Fly Μακρυπόδαρο Νίκος ∆ήµου ΞΠο 1982, σ. 24-5. έντοµο Μακρύποδο έντοµο Νίκος ∆ήµου ΠοΜΙΕΤ, 1993, σ. 41-2. Μια µακροπόδα Γιώργος Ποι, τχ. 10, Φθιν.- µύγα Βαρθαλίτης Χειµ. 1997, σ. 99. Σα µύγα Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 47. µακρυπόδαρη Αρχιµανδρίτου What was Lost Ό,τι έχει χαθεί Μαρία ΠοΕΘ, 2005, σ. 35. Αρχιµανδρίτου News for the Μαντάτα για το Αντώνης ΠΜΜ, 1981, σ. 171-
269 Delphic Oracle ∆ελφικό χρησµό ∆εκαβάλλες 2. Cuchulain Ο Κουχούλαν Μάριος Βύρων ∆ια, τχ. 391 (1998), Comforted παρηγορηµένος Ραΐζης σ. 146.
MISCELLANEOUS [Untitled Song from Η φωνή ∆ηµήτρης Σταύρου ΆγγλΛ, 1944, σ. 112. the play The Land of Heart’s Desire] Invocation to Youth Επίκληση στη νιότη Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΑΑΠΕΕ, 1986, σ. [By Lawrence 149. Binyon]178 [?] Γερνάει η καρδιά Μερόπη Οικονόµου ΑΑΠΕΕ 1986, σ. 147- 48.
APPENDIX B
LIST OF TRANSLATIONS OF KAVANAGH’S POETRY
THE GREAT HUNGER (1942) Η ΜΕΓΑΛΗ ΠΕΙΝΑ The Great Hunger Η µεγάλη πείνα Άµυ Μιµς- Η Μεγάλη Πείνα, Ρούλα Αθήνα: Κακλαµανάκη Καστανιώτης, 1999.
THE COMPLETE POEMS (1984) 28 ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΑ Pygmalion Ο Πυγµαλίων Άµυ Μιµς 28 Ποιήµατα, Αθήνα: Οδός Πανός, σ. 9. On Looking Into E.V. Ερευνώντας τον κατά Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 10. Rieu’s Homer Ε. Β. Ριγιέ Όµηρο Epic Επικό Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 11. Shancoduff Σανκοντάφ Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 12. Stony Grey Soil Ω γκρίζο, γεµάτο Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 13-4. πέτρες χώµα Monaghan Hills Λόφοι του Μόναχαν Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 15 Threshing Morning Πρωινό Αλώνισµα Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 16-7. Old Men of Ireland Γερόντια της Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 18. Ιρλανδίας Memory of My Father Μνήµες απ’ τον Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 19. πατέρα My Father Played the Ο πατέρας µου Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 20-1.
178 Meropi Oikonomou has included in the anthology she edited two translated poems, which she falsely attributes to Yeats: “Επίκληση στη νιότη” (“Invocation to Youth”, written by Lawrence Binyon) and “Γερνάει η καρδιά”, the original version of which I have not been able to locate.
270 Melodeon έπαιζε το ακορντεόν In Memory of my Στη µνήµη της Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 22. Mother µητέρας µου Who Killed James Ποιος εσκότωσε τον Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 23-4. Joyce? Τζαίηµς Τζόυς; Joyce’s Ulysses Ο Οδυσσέας του Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 25. Τζόυς Lines Written on a Στίχοι που έγραψα Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 26. Seat on the Grand καθισµένος πλάι στο Canal, Dublin µεγάλο κανάλι του ∆ουβλίνου Canal Bank Walk Μονοπάτι στου Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 27. καναλιού την όχθη What to Offer? Τι θα µας προσφέρει; Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 28. Moment on the Canal Στιγµιότυπο στο Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 29. κανάλι From Failure Up Από τη αποτυχία, Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 30. ορθώσου Ironic Beggar Είρων επαίτης Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 31. Freedom Ελευθερία Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 32. Narcissus and the Ο Νάρκισος και οι Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 32. Women γυναίκες Wet Evening in April Νοτισµένο ∆ειλινό Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 32. του Απρίλη Sanctity Αγιοσύνη Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 32. Pegasus Ο Πήγασος Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 33-4. Innocence Αθωότητα Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 35. Come Dance with Ελάτε να χορέψετε Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 36. Kitty Stobling µε την Κίττυ Στόµπλιγκ On Raglan Road Στην οδό Ράγκλαν Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 37-8. If Ever You Go to Αν κάποτε πας στο Άµυ Μιµς 28Π, σ. 39. Dublin Town ∆ουβλίνο (αποσπάσµατα)
APPENDIX C
LIST OF TRANSLATIONS OF HEANEY’S POETRY
DEATH OF A NATURALIST (1966) ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ ΕΝΟΣ ΦΥΣΙΟΓΝΩΣΤΗ Digging Σκάβοντας Κατερίνα Τα ποιήµατα του Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ βάλτου, Αθήνα:
271 Καστανιώτης, 1996, σ. 21. The Barn Ο αχυρώνας Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 23. Follower Αυτός που Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 26. ακολουθεί The Diviner Ο ραβδοσκόπος Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 25. Docker Λιµενεργάτης Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 28. Poem Ποίηµα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 29. Honeymoon Flight Γαµήλια πτήση Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 30. Personal Helicon Προσωπικός Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 31. Ελικώνας
DOOR INTO THE DARK (1969) ΜΙΑ ΠΟΡΤΑ ΑΝΟΙΓΕΙ ΣΤΟ ΣΚΟΤΑ∆Ι The Forge Ο πεταλωτής Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 35. The Peninsula Η χερσόνησος Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 36. The Wife’s tale Μιλάει µια Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 39. παντρεµένη Girls Bathing, Κορίτσια στα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 37. Galway 1965 κύµατα, Γκαλγουαίη, 1965 Mother Η µητέρα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 41. Elegy for a Still- Ελεγεία για ένα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 43. Born Child παιδί που γεννήθηκε νεκρό
WINTERING OUT (1972) ΞΕΧΕΙΜΩΝΙΑΖΟΝΤΑΣ Anahorish Anahorish Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 49. Oracle Ο χρησµός Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 50. The Other Side Η άλλη µεριά Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 51. Wedding Day Η µέρα του γάµου Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 55. Summer Home Θερινή κατοικία Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 61. Good Night Καληνύχτα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 59. Maighdean Mara Μαιγκντήν Μάρα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 56. Limbo Άδης Στρατής Χαβιαράς- Τα Αλφάβητα, Μανόλης Σαββίδης Αθήνα: Ιστός, 2000, σ. 13. First Calf Πρώτο µοσχάρι Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 60.
NORTH (1975) ΒΟΡΡΑΣ Antaeus Ανταίος Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 69. Funeral Rites Νεκρώσιµη Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 71. ακολουθία North Βορράς Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 76. Viking Dublin: Trial Το ∆ουβλίνο των Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 78. Pieces Βίκινγκς: δοκιµές
272 Bog Queen Βασίλισσα του Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 84. βάλτου The Grauballe Man Ο άνθωπος του Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 87. Γκρώµπαλλε Punishment Τιµωρία Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 90. Kinship Συγγένειες Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 92. Hercules and Ηρακλής και Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 104. Antaeus Ανταίος Whatever You Say Ό,τι κι αν πεις, µην Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. AB, σ. 17. Say Nothing i πεις τίποτε, 1 Σαββίδης Whatever You Say Ό,τι κι αν πεις, µην Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. AB, σ. 19. Say Nothing iii πεις τίποτε, 3 Σαββίδης Singing School 1. Το υπουργείο του Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 106. The Ministry of τρόµου Fear Singing School 6. Εκτεθειµένος Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 109. Exposure
FIELD WORK (1979) ΕΠΙ ΤΟΠΟΥ ΣΠΟΥ∆Η Oysters Στρείδια Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 121. Triptych Τρίπτυχο Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 123. 1 After a killing Ι Μετά από ένα µακελειό 2 Sibyl ΙΙ Σίβυλλα 3 At the Water’s ΙΙΙ Στου νερού την Edge άκρη Casualty Θύµα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 128. Glanmore Sonnets Τα σονέτα του Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. AB, σ. 21. II Γκλάµορ β’ Σαββίδης The Otter Η ενυδρίδα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 134. A Dream of Όνειρο ζήλειας Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 136. Jealousy
STATION ISLAND (1984) ΤΟ ΝΗΣΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣΚΥΝΗΣΗΣ The Underground Ο υπόγειος Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 25. Σαββίδης (From Shelf Life) Με ηµεροµηνία Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 113. λήξεως (Απόσπασµα) Stone from Delphi 5. Μια πέτρα από τους ∆ελφούς Changes Αλλαγές Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 114. Station Island (XI) Το νησί της Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 116. προσκήνησης (Απόσπασµα)
273 THE HAW LANTERN (1987) ΤΟ ΣΠΑΛΑΘΡΟΦΑΝΑΡΟ Alphabets Αλφάβητα (I) Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 29. Σαββίδης From the Frontier of Από τα σύνορα της Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 139. Writing γραφής The Haw Lantern Το Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 141. σπαλαθροφάναρο The Stone Grinder Ο λιθοτρίφτης Γιώργος Π. ΑΒ, σ. 41. Σαββίδης A Daylight Art Τέχνη στο φως της Κ. Αγγελάκη- Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 142. µέρας From the Republic Από τη δηµοκρατία Κ. Αγγελάκη- Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 144. of Conscience της συνείδησης The Stone Verdict Η πέτρινη Κ. Αγγελάκη- Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 147. ετυµηγορία Clearances 3 Ξέφωτα γ’ Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 33. Σαββίδης Clearances 5 Ξέφωτα ε’ Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 37. Σαββίδης
SEEING THINGS (1991) ΒΛΕΠΟΝΤΑΣ ΠΕΡΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΑ ΠΡΑΓΜΑΤΑ Man and Boy Άντρας και αγόρι Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 152. Seeing Things Βλέποντας πέρα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 154. από τα πράγµατα An August Night Μια αυγουστιάτικη Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 161. νύχτα Wheels within Ρόδα είναι και Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 163. wheels γυρίζει From Squarings Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 166. Lightenings Αστραποβολήµατα (Ι, ΧΙΙ) Αναστάσεις ζ’ Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 45. Σαββίδης Settings (ΧV, Σκηνικά (ΧV, XIX, Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 168. XIX, XXI, XXII) XXI, XXII) Crossings (XXVI) ∆ιανύσµατα (XXVI) Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 172. Squarings (XLVI, Εξισώσεις (XLVI, Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 173. XLVIII) XLVIII) The Journey Back Το ταξίδι της Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 151. επιστροφής The Ash Plant Η φλαµουριά Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 158. 1.1.87 1.1.87 Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 160. The Schoolbag Η σχολική τσάντα Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 162. The Pitchfork Tο δίκρανο Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 11.
274 (Απόσπασµα)
THE SPIRIT LEVEL (1996) ΤΟ ΑΛΦΑ∆Ι The Rain Stick Η διχάλα Μανόλης Σαββίδης Το Αλφάδι, Αθήνα: Ερµής , 1999, σ. 11. A Brigid’s Girdle Μια Ζώνη Στρατής Χαβιαράς ΤοΑλφ, σ. 12. Μπριγκίτας Mint ∆υόσµος Σ. Χαβιαράς ΤοΑλφ, σ. 14. A Sofa in the Ένας Καναπές στη Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 15. Forties ∆εκαετία του Σαράντα ΑΒ, σ. 49. Keeping Going Συνεχίζοντας Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 18. Two Lorries ∆υό Φορτηγά Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 22. Damson ∆αµασκηνί Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 25. Weighing In Η Βαρύτητα Σ. Χαβιαράς ΤοΑλφ, σ. 27. St Kevin and the Ο Άγιος Κέβιν και Θεοδόσης Νικολάου ΤοΑλφ, σ. 30. Blackbird το Μαυροπούλι Ο Άγιος Κέβιν και Κ. Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 10. το Μαυροπούλι (Απόσπασµα) The Flight Path Η τροχιά Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 32. An Invocation Μια Επίκληση Σ. Χαβιαράς ΤοΑλφ, σ. 38. Mycenae Lookout Η Βίγλα των Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 40. Μυκηνών 1 The Watchman’s 1 Ο Πόλεµος του War Φύλακα ΑΒ, σ. 53.
Σκοπιά στις Ευαγγελία Ποίηση, τχ 14, Μυκήνες Ανδριτσάνου- Φθινόπωρο- 1 Ο πόλεµος του Γιάννης Ζέρβας Χειµώνας 1999, σ. φύλακα 41. 2 Cassandra 2 Κασσάνδρα Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 41. ΑΒ, σ. 56. 2 Κασσάνδρα Ε. Ανδριτσάνου- Γ. Ποι, τχ 14, σ. 42. Ζέρβας 3 His Dawn Vision 3 Το Αυγερινό Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 44 του όραµα ΑΒ, σ. 59 3 Το όραµα του Ε. Ανδριτσάνου- Γ. Ποι, τχ 14, σ. 44 την αυγή Ζέρβας 4 The Nights 4 Οι νύχτες Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 45 ΑΒ, σ. 60
275 4 Οι νύχτες Ε. Ανδριτσάνου- Γ. Ποι, τχ 14, σ. 45 Ζέρβας 5 His Reverie of 5 Η Υδάτινη Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 48 Water Ονειροπόλησή του ΑΒ, σ. 63 5 Η ονειροπόλησή Ε. Ανδριτσάνου- Γ. Ποι, τχ 14, σ. 46 του µε το νερό Ζέρβας The Gravel Walks Τα Χαλικόστρωτα Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 50 The Thimble Η ∆αχτυλήθρα Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 52 ΑΒ, σ. 65 The Butter-Print Η Στάµπα Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 54 ‘Poet’s Chair’ «Έδρα του Σ. Χαβιαράς ΤοΑλφ, σ. 55 Ποιητού» The Swing Η Κούνια Σώτη ΤοΑλφ, σ. 58 Τριανταφύλλου The Poplar Η Λεύκα Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 61 Η Λεύκα Κ. Αγγελάκη- Ρουκ ΠΒ, σ. 12 Two Stick Drawings ∆υό Σχέδια µε τη Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 62 Βέργα A Call Ένα τηλεφώνηµα Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 64 The Errand Το Θέληµα Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 65 ΑΒ, σ. 71 A Dog Was Crying Ένα σκυλί έκλαιγε Σ. Τριανταφύλλου ΤοΑλφ, σ. 66 Tonight in Wicklow απόψε και στο Also Γουΐκλοου M. Μ. Σ. Χαβιαράς ΤοΑλφ, σ. 68 An Architect Εις Αρχιτέκτων Σ. Χαβιαράς ΤοΑλφ, σ. 69 The Sharping Stone Το ακόνι Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 71 The Strand Η Αµµουδιά Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 74 At the Wellhead Στο Φιλιατρό Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 75 Postscript Υστερόγραφο Μ. Σαββίδης ΤοΑλφ, σ. 77 ΑΒ, σ. 81
ELECTRIC LIGHT (2001) Sonnets from Hellas Σονέτα από την Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 74 1. Into Arcadia Ελλάδα Σαββίδης Μέσα στην Αρκαδία 2. Conkers Κάστανα Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 75 Σαββίδης 4. The Augean Οι σταύλοι του Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ.76 Stables Αυγεία Σαββίδης 6. Desfina ∆εσφίνα Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 78 Σαββίδης The Fragment Το απόσπασµα Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 9 Σαββίδης
276
A Hyperborean Υπερβόρειος Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ.77 Σαββίδης Mycenae Μυκήνες Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 79 Σαββίδης Bassae Βάσσες Σ. Χαβιαράς- Μ. ΑΒ, σ. 80 Σαββίδης
277 APPENDIX D
To Alfadi Cover
278 BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY MATERIAL
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