poem Translation, English homework help

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Ryor1993

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This assignment, consisting of an original translation of a poem by Catullus 32 and an essay discussing your translation.(500 WORDS)

Meaning translate the poem line by line. YOU ONLY HAVE TO TRANSLATE Catullus 32.

  1. Here are some questions you may consider:’ 1) What was your basic interpretation of the poem?
    2) Did you include a title?
    3) Did you follow any formal constraints?
    4) How did you handle repeated words, made-up words (neologisms), allusions, and words that refer to things we don’t quite have in today’s time? 5) Did you try to stay faithful to the original or put your own spin on it?6) What did you like/dislike about the examples?
  2. 7) What do you like/dislike about your version?

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Translating Catullus 32 & 51 Considerations in translation Source and Target: ● ● ● ● ● Text and Ideology Text and Poetics The Cultural Status of the Text and the Passage of Time Translation Strategies The Weight of Interpretation of Writers and their Texts (The Question of Style) From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. Translation Tactics: The Illocutionary Level ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Cultural Allusion Literary Allusion: Word and Thing Grammar Scenes and Frames Evasive Tactics Neologism Jargon Rhyme Word and Thing Compensation (Alliteration, Allusion, Explication, Off-Rhyme) Gaius Valerius Catullus (84-54 BC) ● From a wealthy family in Verona ● Lived in Rome ● A friend of Cicero ● Lover of Clodia Metelli, a leading figure in the new movement in poetry (many thought to be the “Lesbia” of his poems ● Lost his brother in 57 or 56 BC Sappho 31 (phanetai moi) Catullus 51 He seems to me equal to gods that man whoever he is who opposite you sits and listens close to your sweet speaking Godlike the man who sits at her side, who watches and catches that laughter and lovely laughing — oh it puts the heart in my chest on wings for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking is left in me which (softly) tears me to tatters: nothing is left of me, each time I see her, no: tongue breaks and thin fire is racing under skin and in eyes no sight and drumming fills ears . . . tongue numbed; arms, legs melting, on fire; drum drumming in ears; headlights gone black. and cold sweat holds me and shaking grips me all, greener than grass I am and dead — or almost I seem to me. Coda Her ease is your sloth, Catullus you itch & roll in her ease: But all is to be dared, for even a person of poverty. . . former kings and cities lost in the valley of her arm. Trans. Anne Carson Trans. Peter Whigham Scholarly Considerations Gender dynamics: Catullus changes to heteronormative love triangle; markers for a masculine speaker: “misero” line 5, Catullus’ own name in 4th stanza Historical significance of Sappho 31 for its description of the physical effects of love Lesbia’s identity: Clodia, Catullus’ lover; reference to Sappho; deviation from text; places Sappho as beloved as a way of unseating her as speaker Hypothesis: This is about both translation itself, and Roman relationship to Greek antiquity and its literature AND about love; Translation as competition or “agressive and tender” (Steiner); Tradition of deviation in Roman translation; “signature” Final Stanza: Jettisons “greener than grass”; is it a translation of the poverty fragment?; is it another poem?; notion of “otium” mentioned 3 times Catullus 32 1 Amabo, mea dulcis Ipsitilla Please, my sweet Ipsitilla 7 Sed domi maneas, paresque nobis But at home you would stay, you would prepare also for us 2 Meae delicia, mei lepores, My delights, my charms 8 Novem continuas futuiones Nine continuous fuckification 3 Iube ad te veniam meridiatum Command to you I should come at noon 9 Verum, si quid agis, statim iubeto Well then, if anything you will do, at once order me 4 Et si iusseris, illud adiuvato And if you command, it would be of help 10 Nam pransus iaceo et satur supinus For stuffed I lie and satiated on my back 5 Nequis liminis obseret tabellam Nobody of the threshold if would close the door panel 11 Pertundo tunicamque palliumque I thrust through “tunic” and “pallium” too 6 Neu tibi lubeat foras abire Nor to you it might be pleasing outside to walk off From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. Some preliminary issues with the text Lexical/situational: Occasion/genre: 1. Addressed to “Ipsitilla”--a pun or joke: Ipse==herself Illa=female third person, “that one” No one has tried to translate it. It’s often been written as “My very own mistress” or “Mistrissima” This poem is a parody of the “billet-doux” poem, or a love letter. 2. The speaker has eaten breakfast, maybe even in bed. He’s planning the day, and aiming for a visit from “Ipsitilla,” a Roman prostitute, and he wants a quick answer. . . Pallium is a tunic or poncho that Romans used as both clothing and blanket From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. The notion that she’s a prostitute and this may be parodic, rather than a traditional love poem, is found in: ● ● ● “warning against schedule conflicts in lines 5 and 6” “direct tone and specific request made in line 8” “obscene description of the ardent lover in lines 10 and 11” Text and: Ideology--omissions for cultural acceptability: Translation from 1913, “revised in 1950,” “used by generations. . . as the ‘faithful’ translation:” I entreat you, my sweet Ipsitilla, my darling, my charmer, bid me come and rest at noonday with you. And if you bid me, grant me this kindness too, that no one may bar the panel of your threshold, nor you yourself have a fancy to go away, but stay at home. . . But if you will at all, then bid me come at once. . . [from Loeb Classical Library] From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. Poetics: Catullus was at the forefront of a movement of “younger poets . . . subscribing to a new poetics, one that took its bearing from the mostly lyrical, short and epigrammatic, elegant, witty, and ‘daringly’ erotic Greek poetry. . . than from the mostly epic, often . . . plodding, serious, moralistic, and patriotic poetry produced by their immediate Roman predecessors” This type of poem, the billet-doux, would not have been considered acceptable poetic material by the old guard. He was challenging, both in form and content, what was “worthy of literature. . . by filtering that experience through a new genre, considered frivolous and obscene” The Cultural Status of the Text and the Passage of Time Translators need to understand the position of the source text in the source literature and the source culture; without such knowledge they cannot cast around for the relevant analogies in the target literature and culture. ● ● Element of “reverence” for past figures (thus omission of poems or parts of poems Element of radical “newness” and of this genre (“Alexandrian epigram”) at the time See the Raphael and McLeish translation (15 in the packet) From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. Raphael & McLeish Replacing epigram with “military directive” Bringing back some of the more obscene material, as it is now the 1970s and culture has changed Translation Strategies Rhyme Used mostly before 1950 Rhyme can mark “classical” or “older” status of the text Post 1970, dominant poetics “admits of both rhyme and free verse” Diction can be contemporary or archaic, mixed with rhyme or non-rhyme for various effects From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. “Translations do not just translate words; they also translate a universe of discourse, a poetics, and an ideology. In other words, translators tend to reach decisions on the translatability of a given work on a level that is much more encompassing, more ‘global,’ than that of illocutionary language use.” Catullus’ lyrics fit with our culture’s idea of poetry in a way Roman patriotic epics do not. However, some epic writers, like Homer and Vergil, have been brought forward into today’s culture. The Weight of Traditional Interpretations of Writers and their Texts “Catullus is memorable for more than his sound or his love lyrics, but these are what he is best known for. . . Translators have to decide whether to make their translation conform to the author’s preexisting image or to translate him or her in such a way that they expose the image as reductionist and reveal a new X or Y” See the Zukofskys’ homophonic translation From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. Translation Tactics: The Illocutionary Level “Translators first develop a strategy for translating a whole text; on that basis of that strategy they develop tactical solutions for problems in various chunks of that text.” Cultural Allusion: Literary Allusion: The “que” at the end of “Tunicamque” and “palliumque” is an allusion to the epic poets Catullus rebelled against “Perdtundo” means “to pierce through” but is also an allusion to “Dea Pertunda” a goddess involved in the piercing of virginity Word and Thing: Scenes and Frames: “Tabellam”--line 5; “means ‘panel’ of a door that supposedly consists of at least two panels” What images and schemas do you bring into the poem? See Aiken’s (6) “whim to ride.” From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. Tunic is really a “unisex undergarment” Translation Tactics: The Illocutionary Level (cont.) Evasive Tactics: Neologism: See Aiken again. (Alliteration, Making vague what was explicit) “fututiones”--Line 8; combines something similar to a verb like the “f” word with high diction ending similar to “tion” in English, with a plural marker See Lamb (1) (“slightly archaic diction”) “It can not be repeated enough, however, that these tactical decisions on the level of language have not been prompted by the translators’ sudden lack of knowledge of Latin. Rather, they are based on strategic decisions made on a hierarchically higher level.” From André Lefevere’s Translating Literature, MLA, New York, 1992. “lepores”--Line 2; combines “lepor” meaning “charm or wit” instead of “amores,” meaning “my loves,” emphasizing her charm, rather than love Jargon: “pransus”--Line 10; means “stuffed” but has a cultural connotation of a soldier “given a hearty meal before battle” (Wright “ready for the fray”) Translation Tactics: The Illocutionary Level (cont. 2) Rhyme: Off-rhyme: Original does not rhyme See Myers and Ormsby See Lamb (1) Word and Thing: Compensation: “Whigham has the speaker ‘lolling on / the sofa here’” to update the particulars; “its very incongruity forces readers to hark back to the human universal underlying the culturally determined situation Alliteration: Gould’s “continuous conjoinings” to compensate for lost neologism Allusion: Lamb and Aiken both add a “carpe diem” / “Gather ye rosebuds” type of allusion Explication: For lack of cultural context, some have overtly referred to Ipsitilla as a “tart” or other overt reference to her line of work. NOTE: Be open to deviations from “word for word” as the “word for word” does not make for a poem or a logical communication in English--it’s just not possible. Make it a poem in English, first and foremost. Assignment For your next essay assignment: Today: Choose one of the two poems, Catullus 32 or 51, and create your own “translation.” I recommend reading the word for word and all the sample translations, and note what you like and don’t like, then envision the poem you’d like to make. --Write 500 words on the choices you made: It can be funny, serious, like a song, a comic, a piece of prose; It can be metrical (perhaps iambic?), free verse, or syllabic (focusing on syllable count per line). Be ready to share with the class at 12:00 --Polish your translation 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. what was your basic interpretation of the poem? did you include a title? did you follow any formal constraints? how did you handle repeated words, madeup words (neologisms), allusions, and words that refer to things we don’t quite have in today’s time? did you try to stay faithful to the original or put your own spin on it? what did you like/dislike about the examples? what do you like/dislike about your version?
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Surname 1
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course Details
Date
Dear Ipsithilla
To my love, Ipsithilla,
The one who carries my charm and my delight,
Can I have you today’s afternoon?
Just do me that favor,
Allow no one unlock the door,
And don't leave for the town too.
Remain at home, being ready
For nine uninterrupted sex sessions
But first, let me know if you are engaged
Since I have already taken dinner and I am relaxing here
With enough strength
Ready to do away with my tunic and overcoat
Translation
It looks more of a short note addressed to a prostitute...


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