Translating Mircea Eliade's “Ivan” from Romanian to English
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Translating Mircea Eliade’s “Ivan” from Romanian to English: A Triangular Approach Using the French Translation by Alexandra Guyot A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation Studies Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies University of Alberta © Alexandra Guyot, 2018 Abstract This thesis proposes an English translation of the Romanian short story “Ivan” by Mircea Eliade. Eliade is a renowned scholar and author, best known for his work A History of Religious Ideas (1978-1985). Part of his literary repertoire is the short story “Ivan” (1968), one of the fewif not the onlyshort stories by Mircea Eliade that have been translated into French, but not into English. The initial purpose of the French translation by Alain Paruit (1981) was to act as a relay translation for the defence committee. However, during the process of translation and commentary, the French version started acting like a first translation for my English retranslation. Mainly using Antoine Berman’s “Esquisse d’une méthode” (1995) as a theoretical framework, the commentary draws parallels between the process of translating “Ivan” into English and retranslation. As advised by Berman, the commentary presents the literary work and the people involved: it includes biographies for the author and the two translators, with focus on their literary horizons. The commentary focuses on three major translation categories, as identified during the process of translation, namely, the translation of proper names, the translation of the mots clefswords that Eliade favoured in his Romanian original, and an analysis of the characters of the short story, which illustrates the importance of proper representation of the protagonists as directed by the original story’s themes. ii Acknowledgements A wholehearted “Thank You” to my defense committee: Anne Malena, Lynn Penrod and Micah True. Special thanks to my family and friends: hooray! We survived my academic adventure! Very special thanks to Adrien Guyot and Anne Malena: This thesis is yours just as much as it is mine. I may have laid the words on the page but, without you, there would be nothing. iii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... iii Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 : Mircea Eliade, the Author ........................................................................ 9 Biography .............................................................................................................. 9 Literary Style ....................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 2: “Ivan”, the Short Story ............................................................................ 17 Themes ................................................................................................................ 18 Protagonists at First Glance................................................................................ 25 Chapter 3: English Translation of “Ivan” ................................................................. 29 Chapter 4: English Translation Commentary .......................................................... 74 Antoine Berman’s Esquisse d’une méthode ....................................................... 74 À la recherche des traducteurs .............................................................................. 74 Les horizons des traducteurs ................................................................................. 77 English Translation Relevant Categories ........................................................... 81 Proper Names ........................................................................................................ 82 Mots Clefs .............................................................................................................. 87 Character Profiles ................................................................................................. 107 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 138 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 146 Appendix A: “Ivan” (Romanian) ............................................................................ 152 Appendix B: “Ivan” (French) ................................................................................... 171 iv List of Tables Table 4.1: “Eviden-” ………………………………………………………………….......................88 Table 4.2: “Curios” ……………………………………………………………………………………....95 Table 4.3: “Adevărat”…………………………………………………………………………………..104 Table 4.4: Romanian Second Person Singular Pronominal Forms…………………...110 v Introduction As the title illustrates, in the present work, I will be presenting an English translation of the Romanian short story “Ivan”, whose French translation I used as a reference point. Mircea Eliade’s popularity as a writer earned him translations in several languages, leaving a limited amount of works untranslated. “Ivan” is one of the few—if not the only—short story yet to be translated in English. However, above all, it is the French translation of this story that made the project possible, since the French translation of “Ivan” by Alain Paruit could act as relay translation for my defense committee, who are not Romanian speakers. Yet, during the process, I discovered that the French translation could also act as an anchor, thus connecting me to retranslation practice and theory. In spite of being pushed into exile, Eliade was fond of Romanian culture and literature. Much of his literary production is set in Romania or handles topics related to the Romanian people. The short story “Ivan” was first published in 1968 and republished in 1977 as part of the collection of short stories În curte la Dionis (In Dyonisus' Court). It opens with three Romanian soldiers finding a wounded man, whom they nickname “Ivan” due to his Soviet uniform. They are between cornfields in Ukraine, in the summertime, during World War II. Since the beginning, the atmosphere is tense; two of the Romanian soldiers, addressed as Zamfira and Iliescu1, are fairly devoted Christians and they insist on carrying the dying Russian soldier to the nearest village. They are convinced that bringing “Ivan” along with them to a village is the perfect opportunity to receive the blessing of a dying man, which would bring them luck in their escape from Ukraine. The third man, cadet second lieutenant Constantin Darie, who appears to be the story’s protagonist, is opposed to it, yet he does not pull rank to stop them. This difference in mentality shapes the story. The Romanians, determined to have the Russian soldier bless them in his final moments, are at a loss when it comes to communicating with him. To get their point 1 The names used in the story are surnames currently in use in Romania. 1 across, they use a variety of strategies, from simple words (“Christ”) and gestures (making the sign of the cross), to complex philosophical ramblings in Romanian and other languages. As expected, Ivan dies soon after he is found and it remains unclear whether he gave them his blessing. The religiously inclined Zamfira and Iliescu, again, insist on following the religious custom of burying the body. Thus, they begin the risky task of digging a grave in enemy territory. As Darie is on the verge of falling asleep, he notices that Zamfira and Iliescu are digging a hole that was considerably larger than what can be expected for a single-person grave. At this point in the narrative, time and space constraints start to disappear: for the rest of the short story, the setting and the participants change back and forth in a distracting series of clashing episodes. The action is interrupted by Darie’s conversations with seemingly different interlocutors—who turn out to be figments of his imagination—in which he shares his perspective on the initial encounter with Ivan. Troubled, he analyzes various aspects but focuses on the unpolished philosophical claims that he proposed to the dying Russian soldier. While the shift between the main story and the conversations are first introduced in new paragraphs with the help of an asterisk, the distinct sequences begin to collide and fuse, impeding the reader from differentiating between narrative levels2, and between dream and reality. Even though Darie never becomes the auto-diegetic narrator, his fever infects the third- person omniscient narration. As new episodes unfold, Darie discovers clues that lead him to finally discern the present reality. Thus, although unclear for a large part of the story, the opening sequence turns out to be real. The events in Iaşi3 in the wintertime and those in Piatra Craiului4 during a warm season are dream settings that Darie put together from memory. The participants in these episodes are inspired from reality, yet they are largely productions of Darie's imagination as well. In his last return from dream to reality in the Ukrainian cornfield accompanied by Zamfira and Iliescu, Darie is gravely injured. Having lost a lot of blood, he is barely able to walk or even just to remain conscious. The story 2 Narrative