TY - JOUR
TI - Between Baroque and Modernism. Some Tendencies in the Swedish Translations of Szymborska’s Poetry
AU - Bak, Krzysztof
TI - Between Baroque and Modernism. Some Tendencies in the Swedish Translations of Szymborska’s Poetry
AB - The article investigates some main tendencies in the translations of Wisława Szymborska’s poetry into Swedish. According to scholars of Polish literature, the poetical work of Szymborska can be placed within two literary traditions: on the one hand modernism, on the other hand premodern literature with a heavy accent on baroque aesthetics. The leading thesis of this article is that Swedish translators strengthen the modernistic character of the poems while weakening their baroque features. The line of argument comprises four stages. In the first stage, the history of Swedish translations of Szymborska’s poetry is summarized. In the second stage, it is demonstrated that Swedish translators successfully reproduce the majority of Szymborska’s modernistic devices (metaphor, free verse, depersonalization, polyphony, colloquialism etc.). In the third stage, it is analogously shown that Szymborska’s baroque devices (conceit, pun, play with rhetorical figures and intertextual artefacts etc.) tend to abate or simply disappear in Swedish translations. In the fourth stage finally, the translatory practice of substituting Szymborska’s baroque components is examined. Whether the translators try to find literal equivalents to her conceits or turn them into colloquial Swedish idiom, the article argues, the result of both strategies is an intensification of the poems’ modernistic style.
VL - 2018
IS - 3 (2018)
PY - 2023
SP - 75
EP - 84
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/filologiskt-smorgasbord/article/mellan-barock-och-modernism-nagra-tendenser-i-svenska-szymborskaoversattningar
KW - translation studies
KW - Swedish modernism
KW - baroque style
KW - conceit
KW - Wisława Szymborska
KW - poetry