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Thoughts on translationgbarto.com |
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I |
n approaching Hugo, it is important to
recall that we are dealing with a master. He knew all the
forms, and not only used them but invented new ones. He
was aware that rhyming couplets (AABB) break a poem into
little units, interlaced couplets (ABAB) make it march
forward and embrasures (ABBA - the As enfold the Bs)
encapsulate meaning in a larger poetic unit. His rhyme
schemes form part of the meaning because they tell the
reader how the ideas progress or inter-relate. This comes
through when one reads aloud because there is a slight
tension until the rhyme is made, a sense of expectation
then satisfaction. The verse translator is therefore, in
my view, stuck: Creating a faithful poetic rendering
requires adhering to the structure since, for example,
replacing and ABBA rhyme scheme with an AABB rhyme scheme
would turn one involved thought into two little thoughts,
and the listeners would to some degree miss the
connection since the first idea seemed to resolve too
quickly - and incompletely. Consider:
Each of these poems has the same elements, indeed the same lines, yet there is a slightly different feel to them. While the lines - my own, created for this exercise - are simplistic, there is nonetheless in the third version a slightly meditative quality the other two lack. Leaving it out - if it belongs - or putting it in - if it doesn't - can change the feel dramatically over the length of the poem. Getting back to the Fable, we note that it use an AABB rhyme scheme. So does the translation. |
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