Translating poetry: Analysis of Croatian and German translations of Edgar Allan Poe's Selected Poems Dimšić, Mia Master's thesis / Diplomski rad 2017 Degree Grantor / Ustanova koja je dodijelila akademski / stručni stupanj: Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences / Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Filozofski fakultet Permanent link / Trajna poveznica:https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:142:207282 Rights / Prava:In copyright / Zaštićeno autorskim pravom. Download date / Datum preuzimanja:2023-03-06 Repository / Repozitorij: FFOS-repository - Repository of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Osijek Dimšić 1 Sveučilište J.J. Strossmayera u Osijeku Filozofski fakultet Osijek Dvopredmetni sveučilišni diplomski studij engleskog jezika i književnosti - prevoditeljski smjer i njemačkog jezika i književnosti – prevoditeljski smjer Mia Dimšić The Analysis of Rhyming Patterns in Edgar Allan Poe's Poem The Raven and Its German and Croatian Translations Diplomski rad Mentor: doc. dr. sc. Goran Schmidt Osijek, 2017. Dimšić 2 Sveučilište J.J. Strossmayera u Osijeku Filozofski fakultet Osijek Dvopredmetni sveučilišni diplomski studij engleskog jezika i književnosti - prevoditeljski smjer i njemačkog jezika i književnosti – prevoditeljski smjer Mia Dimšić Analiza rime u pjesmi Gavran Edgara Allana Poea i njezinih prijevoda na njemački i hrvatski Diplomski rad Znanstveno područje: humanističke znanosti Znanstveno polje: filologija Znanstvena grana: anglistika Mentor: doc. dr. sc. Goran Schmidt Osijek, 2017. Dimšić 3 J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Double Major MA Study Programme in English Language and Literature – English Translation and Interpreting Studies and in German Language and Literature – German Translation and Interpreting Studies Mia Dimšić The Analysis of Rhyming Patterns in Edgar Allan Poe's Poem The Raven and Its German and Croatian Translations Master’s Thesis Supervisor: Doc. dr. sc. Goran Schmidt Osijek, 2017 Dimšić 4 J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Double Major MA Study Programme in English Language and Literature – English Translation and Interpreting Studies and in German Language and Literature – German Translation and Interpreting Studies Mia Dimšić The Analysis of Rhyming Patterns in Edgar Allan Poe's Poem The Raven and Its German and Croatian Translations Master’s Thesis Scientific area: Humanities Scientific field: Philology Scientific branch: English Studies Supervisor: Doc. Dr. Sc. Goran Schmidt Osijek, 2017 Dimšić 5 Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyse rhyme patterns in Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven and its selected German and Croatian translations. Its theoretical part deals with poetry translation in general, elaborates on various rhyme types and their translatability in different languages, explains the difference between analytic and synthetic languages and focuses on features of Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry in general. Its practical part analyses 18 separate stanzas of the original poem’s The Raven, together with their respective German and Croatian versions, and the aim of the analysis is to determine which rhyme patterns are chosen in these three languages and why. Key words: poetry translation, rhyme, synthetic languages, analytic languages, Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Dimšić 6 Table of contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................8 2. Defining poetry translation.....................................................................................................9 3. Rhyme ..................................................................................................................................14 3.1. Defining rhyme and its function ............................................................................14 3.2. Types of rhyme ......................................................................................................15 3.3. Rhyme in translation .............................................................................................17 4. Analytic vs synthetic languages ...........................................................................................20 5. Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe ...................................................................................................22 6. Analysis of The Raven and its German and Croatian translations........................................25 6.1. 1st Stanza................................................................................................................25 6.2. 2nd Stanza................................................................................................................28 6.3. 3rd Stanza................................................................................................................30 6.4. 4th Stanza................................................................................................................32 6.5. 5th Stanza................................................................................................................34 6.6. 6th Stanza................................................................................................................35 6.7. 7th Stanza................................................................................................................37 6.8. 8th Stanza................................................................................................................39 6.9. 9th Stanza................................................................................................................41 6.10. 10th Stanza............................................................................................................42 6.11. 11th Stanza............................................................................................................44 6.12. 12th Stanza............................................................................................................46 6.13. 13th Stanza............................................................................................................47 Dimšić 7 6.14. 14th Stanza............................................................................................................49 6.15. 15th Stanza............................................................................................................51 6.16. 16th Stanza............................................................................................................52 6.17. 17th Stanza............................................................................................................54 6.18. 18th Stanza............................................................................................................55 7. Conclusion............................................................................................................................57 References.................................................................................................................................60 Dimšić 8 1. Introduction Translation of poetry has always been a special topic of discussion among numerous translators, linguists and poetry lovers in general. Many find it untranslatable and deny its practical application, whereas others simply call it different names to fully grasp its distinction from every other literary genre. However, everyone agrees that it is a topic worth reflecting on and that its potential translators have a hard task ahead of them. The factor that makes poetry translation even more complicated is rhyme; it is the most frequent device for establishing the poem’s rhythm, yet at the same time the most complex one. This paper will shed light on poetry translation in general, on questions such as what makes this type of translation so complicated and how does one prepare him/herself for such translation challenges demanding more than solely linguistic knowledge. Furthermore, it will analyse the concept of rhyme, name its most frequent and most important types and try to determine the ways in which it gets translated, showing that it functions differently in different languages according to their features and classification. This paper also defines the the distinction between the analytic and synthetic languages and sheds light on why belonging to one or the other group may largely influence rhyming patterns of a certain language. Finally, this paper will use the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, more precisely his poem The Raven to exemplify these statements by analysing its 18 stanzas with its selected German and Croatian translations. The aim of the analysis is to take a closer look at what each target language consists of and to which extent its features determine the type of rhyme used. In The Raven, the rhyme and rhythmic elements of the poem are paid attention to in great detail, and we will see that its stanzas develop both internal and external rhyme scheme with great precision, leaving the translator with numerous choices on how to adapt these elements to the target language and make them sound natural to the target readership. Dimšić 9 2. Defining poetry translation Among various kinds of translations, literary translation is often described as the most complicated and demanding one. It covers a very wide spectrum of subtypes in terms of different literary forms and their sometimes very diverse traits, but this paper will shed light exclusively on poetry translation, the kind that is even more unique and complicated than the rest due to its unusual form. There are many ways to define a concept as vague as that of poetry and it is not an easy task, since this form combines ‘unilateral’ and clear language norms with artistic traits that may be very subjective, fluid and vague, and, for that reason, its definitions vary. In his Biographia Literaria, Samuel Taylor Coleridge defines it as “that species of composition which is opposed to works of science, by proposing for its immediate object pleasure, not truth” (poetryfoundation.org), and his contemporary William Wordsworth states it is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (bartleby.com). However, none of those definitions tackles the purely linguistic aspect of poetry which often is the primary guideline to translators trying to transfer the poem from one language to another. Translation itself could be described as a tripartite process involving three participants, listed in the article Translating Poetry. Contemporary Theories and Hypotheses by Ovidiu Matiu as: transmitter (the original author), the translator (who receives the message of the transmitter, decodes, re-encodes it into another language different from that of the original message, and transmits it to an audience that uses language that is not identical to that of the original message), and the receiver. (Matiu 2008:130). If we apply this context to poetry translation, the translator receives an even greater role. He not only needs to adequately supply the target readership with semantic equivalents and convey the original author’s message, but also needs to respect the aesthetic function which may be the most important aspect of poetry and the one that makes it stand out among other literary subtypes. According to Hariyanto’s Problems in Translating Poetry, “the aesthetic function should emphasize the beauty of the words (diction), figurative language, metaphors, etc, while the expressive functions shall put forwards the writer's thought (or process of thought), emotion, etc” (Hariyanto, introduction). In this sense, the poetry translator is “an active demiourgos who creates, who uses the preexistent matter to create new forms, new ways of expression. He/she is supposed to possess an empathetic ability, to be able to live both in the time of the original, understanding the culture of that time, and in his/her present” (Matiu 2008: 129).