Belle-Moue/Blessed Motherhood
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DÉPARTEMENT DES LETTRES ET COMMUNICATIONS Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines Université de Sherbrooke BELLE-MOUE/BLESSED MOTHERHOOD traduction par Suzanne O'Connor Bachelière ès lettres en études anglaises (rédaction professionnelle) de l'Université de Sherbrooke MÉMOIRE PRÉSENTÉ pour l'obtention de LA M~TRISEES LETTRES (LITTÉRATURE CANADIENNECOMPARÉE) Sherbrooke Janvier ZOO0 Natianal Libraty Bilioihèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Senfices senrices bibliographiques 395 W~YhgGonSbee! 385, nis Wellington ômwa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON KlAON4 cana& Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accord6 une licence non exclusive licence aiiowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distn'bute or seîi reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfichelfilm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this ihesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Composition du jury Formal and Human Aspects of Translation Blessed Motherhood traduction de Belle-Moue (Huguette O'Neil) Par Suzanne O'Connor Ce mémoire a été évalué par un jury composé des personnes suivantes : Professeure Pamela Grant, directrice de recherche Département des lettres et communications Professeure Patricia Codbout, membre du jury Département des lettres et communications Professeur Winfried Siemerling, membre du jury Département des lettres et communications 1 wish to dedicate Blessed Motherhood to my twin children, Westley and Stephanie (as per coin toss), wiih the hope that they will aiways be inspired to strive towards their individual lifelong goals. Be ivho y014 are! Love what yoic do! Sincere thanks to Professor Parnela Grant for her professional guidance and contribution as my thesis director. Thank you to professors Patricia Godbout and Winfried Siemerling for their invaluable editorship. A speciai note of appreciation to Professor Ronald Sutherland for his genuine support and inspiration. Cette dissertation se veut une analyse approfondie des normes de traduction propres à une oeuvre littéraire dite conte véridique ou mémoires, soit le récit québécois Belle-Moue, de Huguette O'Neil. Elle consiste en une introduction générale, suivie d'un résumé biographique et d'une étude détaillée des défis qu'impose la traduction de ce genre de littérature. L'oeuvre en question raconte une période de l'histoire québécoise où religion et politique dominaient le peuple. L'auteur retrace sa vie et la vie de sa mère à rebours jusqu'au début du XXe siècle. Le lecteur y retrouve des personnages et lieux réels, et certains faits saillants qui ont marqué cette période de l'histoire du Québec. La thèse développée est que ce genre de littérature historique rédigée à partir d'ivénemeiits passés etlou présents exige du traducteur des choix a faire quant à la fidélité au texte de départ et au texte d'arrivée. Elle soutient que le traducteur d'une oeuvre littéraire a l'option de préserver Ie texte, c'est-à-dire privilégier l'oeuvre originale. ou d'adapter le texte, c'est-à-dire privilégier Ie lecteur visé. L'analyse inclut des critères énoncés par des théoriciens du domaine de la traduction. Elle soulève les difficultés et les piéges auxquels se heurte tout traducteur. Entre autres : les titres et noms propres de personnes et de lieux géographiques; les titres d'oeuvres ou de recueils jamais traduits; les expressions familières et les jeux de mots; les différents niveaux de langue et les techniques littéraires particulières; enfin, un titre fidèle au titre original et a l'oeuvre traduite. II est anticipé que Belle-Moue devenu Bfessed 1i4otherhoodplaira aux lecteurs de langue anglaise qui s'intéressent à l'histoire et aux thèmes de la vie et de la mort. INTRODUCTION "Traduire,c 'est trahir." The cornmonly known dictum. from the Italian proverb Traduttori. Traditori, carne to me in the course of writing the prologue for my translation of Belle-Moue, memoirs by Québécois author Huguene O'Neil. With this purist adage working against me. could 1 still hope ro have translated O'Neil's récit "faithfully" into an English-language tem? With guidance. and rcference works at hand, 1 carried on. 1 took panicular pleasure in reading Douglas R. Hofstadter's Le ton beau de Maror: In fraise ofthe Mirsic of Langiracpe ( 1997). His candid. human. yet knowledgeabie approach to translation suggests there is conUnued hope for translaiors. Who studying translation theory has not heard of the expression used to describe the free adaptations that were so popular in France. in past centuries: les belles infidéles.ïhe German writer. Thomas Mann. commented: "Lorsqu 'elles sont belles. elles ne sont pas fidèles :et lorsqu 'elles sonrfidèles, elles ne sont pas belles. " Hofstadter translated it by "When they are beautiful they're never dutiful; and when they are dutiful. they're never beautihl" (Hofstadter 394), and added: Actually. 1 believe this rernark goes back much furcher than Mann (though to whom to attnbute it 1 don't know). and was originaliy prefaced by these words: Les traductions sont comme des maitresses ('Translations are like mistresses'). The plural pronoun elles is thus doing double du., with both an animate and inanimate referent-very cute. but stupid and insulting to both referents at the same tirne. (Hofstadter 394) Hofstadter takes the issue a step fürther with his remarks on umsIators dirninishing translation as a whole: 1 get tired of hearing this type of thing, frankly. 1s this false modesty, ar is it some kind of misplaced reverence for the original text? .. .hm off to the &estof translators, who. whether lesser rnortals or not. work every bit as hard and give every bit as much of their soui as does rhe musical virtuose. ro render the full power and poetry of their esteerned author. (Hofstadter 395) My thoughts exactly. The 'art of translation.' as linguistic scholars now increasingly refer to it, is defined as rendering a text from a source language to a mget Imguage. Theorists in the field, such as Vinay and Darbelnet. differentiate between approaches to tmsiation on the basis of the type of text to be translated. Translations range from the pragmatic to the literary translation. each governed by a particular set of noms. At one end of the spectrum. the translation of a generd text involves a relativeiy straightt'urward passage for the purpose of informing, with the translation bcing as clear and accurate in its transmission of the message as the originai. nie technicd or scieniific text is also pragmatic. requiring at lest some knowledge of the discipline. and adherence to the teminology and conventions of the field. Such matter-of-fact forms of transiation are by far the tvpe most cornmoniy undertaken by professionai translators todsiy; in Canada and Québec, this is in part due to the introduction of language charters in recent yem. In her essay entitled "The Language of Cdtural Difference: Figures of Alterity in Canadian Translation," Sherry Simon states: "Various language Iaws have created the necessity for translation. .." (Simon 174). "Necessity being the mother of invention." professional rranslators, in ment years. have proliferated. Translations of this type allow for little creative licence. Professional translators typically take on such works for the sake of remuneration. The art of translating the titerary text is at the opposite end of the specuum. Once solely the domain of scholars. it remains for man? translators rhe most poetic, challenging and gratifiing fom of translation. culminating in the undeniable hope that the translated literxy work will result in an acicknowledged. and possibly lucrative. labour of love. Even the Iiterary translator cannot alwliys sunlive on love alone. Linguists rnaintain that in order to translate a liteiary text. the translator must be more than simply bilingual. aIthough a command of both languages and an understanding of the two cultures concerned are undeniable prerequisites. The source lruiguage (SL) narrative is naturally steeped in a panicular culture. history. tradition. belief. and. at tirnes. spirituality or religion. ail expressed in the SL's panicdar set of paradigms. A translator cannot render the tone. mood. viewpoint and essence of the SL text without a profound understanding of the underlying nature of the original work. From there. ideally, the translator mut find a balance between preservation of the SL essence - pnvileging the SL in order to provide insight into the nature of the originai language and culture - and adaptation to the TL spirit - privileging the TL readership and its expectations. Sherry Simon. referring to two classic rurn-of-ihe-century translations - William Hume Blake's translation of Louis Hémon's Maria Chapdelaine and Charles G. D. Roberts' transiation of Philippe Aubert de Gaspé's Les Anciens Canadiens - says of the two translations: ". ..both devote much care and considerable writerly skills to twning their books into inspiring works of prose that confonn superbly to the noms of the receiving culture" (164). Although both translators wanted very much to express theit liking and reverence for French Canada. they opted for opposite approaches in doing so. Blake chose to privilege the SL in his translation of Maria Chapdelaine. Simon States: "In Blake's translation. much more than in Roberts', we are in a worid cleariy marked as different" (163). He maintained names. poetw, song and such in French. thus retaining the French flavour of the original work. Roberts. on the other hand. in translating Les .dnciens Canadiens.