Poetry Translating as Expert Action
published Dutch poetry in English translation, and Fleur has published her own
English poetry. One of Chapter 4’s translators, Bruce, also attended the workshop- though, as he had already translated Toen wij, he could not participate in this
study. He and Chapter 4’s Carl, however, were used as text helpers by two transla-
tors during the present study.
Working separately in my presence, and after a brief try-out to familiarize
themselves with thinking aloud, Fleur, Geoff, Hugo and Irene translated Toen wij
into English over three drafts each. Some drafts took place in translators’ homes
before or after the workshop, and some during the workshop. The translators had
no time limit, and could use what resources and equipment they wished. Logistics
of data-gathering meant that drawer time between drafts varied between over-
night and a month. Such a range is typical of real-life translating, and translating
time per draft was unrelated to drawer time since the last draft.
Besides audio think-aloud recordings, I took handwritten notes of all actions,
and regular photos of emerging versions. In brief one-to-one interviews just be-
fore or after Draft 1, I asked translators how many drafts they would normally have
devoted to such a poem, and with what drawer time between – plus whether they
would have used source-language advisors or target-draft readers, and if so, how.
Just before or just after each translator’s Draft 1, Kouwenaar himself attended
a session, where answers to translators’ questions about Toen wij were recorded.
Here he said that Toen wij was based on:
a memory of the first day when we – and that’s actually a good twenty years ago- when we had bought the house in the south [France]. It was still very primitive
then. We went there in the autumn to sign a contract and all that, and we got a
key, and it was empty, and we’d also brought a few mattresses, and that was all we
had, and I found a box that we made into a table, and so there we were, my wife
and I, and it was a bit chilly, it was autumn, lovely weather that day and I found a
load of wood, and I lit a big log fire and we were lying there in an open space on a
mattress [...] well, that evening was what it was about. That first coming into that
possession we suddenly had, a dream come true.^1
- when we had bought the house in the south [France]. It was still very primitive
- “een herinnering aan de eerste dag toen wij – en dat is inderdaad een dikke twintig jaar
geleden – toen wij het huis hadden gekocht in het zuiden. Het was er toen nog heel primitief.
Wij gingen er in het najaar een contract tekenen enzovoort enzovoort, en we kregen een sleutel,
en het was leeg, en we hadden ook een paar matrassen meegenomen, en dat was alles wat wij
hadden, en ik vond een kistje waar wij een tafeltje van maakten en eh nou, mijn vrouw en ik die
waren daar, en het was een beetje kil, het was najaar, op die dag prachtig weer en ik vond een
hele hoop hout, en ik maakte een groot houtvuur en we lagen daar op een open plaats op een
matras [...] nou over die avond ging het eigenlijk. Dat eerste binnenkomen in dat bezit dat wij
dan plotseling hadden, een waargemaakte droom.”