Poetry in Translation: Can Self-translators Achieve the Desired Result?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22046/LA.2023.24Keywords:
Self-Translation, Translated Texts, Poetry, BilingualismAbstract
There is no shortage of translated texts; nonetheless, self-translations are quite scarce. Ignoring definitions from other disciplines, in the field of Translation Studies, self-translation refers to original works translated by the author themself, leading to the author and translator being the same person. Given the rarity of self-translations, research on such texts is understandably even rarer. To fill in this gap, a self-translated poetry book was selected as a case study in this article. On one hand, self-translations can be analyzed like any other translated text; accordingly, the selected poems were examined using Lefevere's approaches to translating poetry. On the other hand, Grutman’s framework regarding the self-translator’s bilingualism and the power dynamics between the two languages was also applied. It was concluded that, since this self-translator was also the poet and held intellectual property rights to the material, he had the deepest understanding of his content. Consequently, any changes he made during the translation process were justified.
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