Inez Okulska

The author proposes a new critical model for translation analysis. The method is based on translation tropics, an idea presented by Douglas Robinson in The Translator’s Turn, which appears here in a much expanded and modified form. Five tropes (irony, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole and metalepsis) describe five types of translator and the respective affective motivations that inform decision-making in translation: the translator’s affect towards the Other of the source text and culture. One trope in particular (metonymy) is examined in more detail. The analytical part, which presents practical results achieved with this theoretical tool, is based on the alphabetical translations of Charles Bernstein’s poetry by Peter Waterhouse and his VERSATORIUM group.

The author proposes a new critical model of translation analysis: the method is based on translation tropics – an idea by Douglas Robinson presented in his book Translator’s Turn – but it has been vastly modified and extended. Five tropes (irony, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole and metalepsis) describe five types of translators and their affective motivations for translational decision making: translator’s affects toward the Other of the source text and culture. The article offers deeper insight into one of the tropes, i.e. metonymy. The analytical part presenting a practical gain from this theoretical tool is based on alphabetical translations of Charles Bernstein’s work made by Peter Waterhouse and his VERSATORIUM group. 

Polish Ashbery Back in America?

John Ashbery’s poetry was introduced to Polish readers for the fi rst time in 1986, in the now legendary “blue” issue of the world literature review “Literatura na Świecie”. Although the American poet spoke vicariously through the voice of Piotr Sommer’s translatory ventriloquism, and later also via other translators’ voices, it is Andrzej Sosnowski who is typically perceived as the ambassador of Ashbery in Poland. He has been popularizing Ashbery’s poetry by translations and criticism, and – what is more important – also by publishing his own poetry, which has grown through Ashberian verse. Still, easy parallels should be avoided, especially if one considers translations of Sosnowski’s poetry into English. A discussion of a rendition by Rod Mengham, an American poet who translates in cooperation with the author, raises interesting questions of the limits and hermeneutics of translation and mediation of authorial intention, form and language. Can this poetry, so deeply rooted in the American tradition, resist translation into English? This article attempts to answer some of the questions by studying the processes and (im)possibilities of translation of Sosnowski’s poetry.