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Reviewed by Rob Harle. This Book Is an Intellectual Tour De Force it will have a limited audience. It is be fair, though, Tsur does caution not at all suitable for general reader- restraint in the application of psy- ship—linguists, literary theorists and chological theories: “I also believe, neuroscientists will all gain valuable however, that we should not take insights from Tsur’s research. The for granted what is explained by the “average” poet embroiled in the daily application of a psychological theory business of actually writing con- and should scrutinize its implica- temporary poetry will probably not tions in the light of research on poetic gain all that much from the insights conventions” (p. 58). presented. I enjoyed chapter 7, “The Translated The book has 10 chapters, detailed Poem as an Aesthetic Object,” very below, prefaces, references, an excel- much, as it helped me understand a lent index and a companion website little more important questions I have featuring sound files to enhance pondered for some time. Translating Tsur’s discussion. poetry is a very different matter from, say, translating a technical manual. 1. Where Do Conventions Come Tsur tackles this complex problem From? p CoetI ConventIons admirably, and I would suggest that as CognItIve fossIls 2. Some Implications of D’Andrade’s all those who attempt to translate by Reuven Tsur. Oxford University Press, Assumptions poetry would benefit from a close New York, 2017. 304 pp., illus. Paper. 3. Poetic Conventions as Fossilized reading of his approach. He believes ISBN: 978-0190634698. Cognitive Devices: The Case that “poetry translation [is] an art Reviewed by Rob Harle. of Medieval and Renaissance in its own right” (p. 157). I could Poetics not agree more, especially when the doi:10.1162/LEON_r_01729 4. Frozen Formulae and Expressive translation is from a source language This book is an intellectual tour de Force: The Ballad “Edward” with little similarity to the target force—detailed, complex and ground- 5. Artistic Devices and Mystical language, such as English into Chi- breaking. In Tsur’s own words, “The Qualities in Hebrew Devotional nese—French or Italian into English whole book is about how poetic Poems with Idit-Nov is possibly a little easier but still not a conventions are shaped and con- straightforward matter. As Tsur notes, strained by the natural capacities 6. Figurative Language and “The translator seeks an elegant solu- and constraints of the human brain Sociocultural Background: tion to the problem of integrating the and cognitive system” (p. 157). Tsur’s Hebrew Poetry as a Test Case conflicting conventions into a target- “cognitive poetics” is his theoretical 7. The Translated Poem as an language poem that has aesthetic methodology for investigating and Aesthetic Object: How Conven- merit in its own right” (p. 157). analyzing this phenomenon. One of tions Constrain One Another These translation problems were the most important aspects of this in a Poem made all the more clear to me research is to show how conventional 8. More Is Up—Some of the Time recently when a scholar in Romania poetic styles are modified and created 9. Some Remarks on the Nature of translated some of my poems into by our cognitive systems and not only Trochees and Iambs and Their that language; she had to repeatedly migrate from one cultural period to Relationship to Other Meters check with me what my exact mean- another. ing was in certain lines—subtle and 10. Poetic Language and the Psycho- As the authors of the Preface state, idiosyncratic English metaphors that pathology of Everyday Life “Poetic Conventions as Cognitive I simply took for granted were not at Fossils sets a high standard for the Tsur discusses many different all clear to her! principles of scholarly learning—for- poetic forms and styles throughout As Tsur repeatedly states, this book midable yet available, humanistic in the book and also includes such is devoted to the question of how the best sense, and a fitting capstone phenomena as slips of the tongue, tip cognitive processes shape and con- to the career of an illustrious scholar” of the tongue frustrations, jokes and strain cultural and literary forms, and (p. ix). I could not agree more, accidental misquoting of text to sup- I believe he does an extraordinary although I have to question “yet port his arguments. His analysis of job in exploring this question from a available.” This text should be read these “quirky” events is mostly from a multidisciplinary approach. Although by all students, if only as an example Freudian perspective, which he tends as I mentioned above the book is not of how real in-depth research should to take as a given, although many recommended for general readership, be carried out. As I read this book it of Freud’s concepts and approaches it will surely become a core reader in occurred to me, as brilliant as it is, are highly questionable in the light the disciplines of linguistics, literary and as accessibly well written as it is, of recent neurological research. To theory and archaeology of languages. 202 Leonardo Reviews.
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