Poetry Translating as Expert Action Processes, priorities and networks

 Poetry Translating as Expert Action

Over Drafts 1 to 3, Lexis and Grammar/Discourse work decreases as basic equiva-

lence problems become solved (Figure 41). Conversely, Image work increases, be-

coming of equal importance to Lexis in Drafts 2 and 3, as wider text-world mean-

ing is used as a criterion for checking and fine-tuning.

The transcripts reveal, however, that Image and Lexis work together in all

three drafts. Firstly, Image often guides Lexis searches – as with Geoff ’s strovuur

above, where the underlying “fire in the fireplace” Image (TU279) almost certainly

influenced his ultimate solution fire.

Secondly, Image is often used to assess lexical solutions. In Geoff ’s Draft 1, for

instance, dictionary searches (Lexis) for the Line-1 handen-hart-streken idiom

had generated the alternatives when we had a heart and when we took heart. Later

in Draft 1, he criticized these in Image terms (“I’m missing the essence of the im-

age, the hands on the heart”), prompting a further dictionary (Lexis) search. This

gave a ‘re-imaging’ change of underlying Image into when our heart was in our

mouth, which Geoff explicitly justified in Image terms: “it might fit with these

images of flesh”.

Thirdly, Image strategies may offer solutions to Lexis problems. In Draft 2,

Geoff now felt the heart was in our mouth Image was comical: “more Benny Hill

than Gerrit Kouwenaar”. He therefore again re-imaged Line 1 into when we took

the plunge, remembering the source poet’s explanation why he had chosen an idi-

om with the figurative meaning leniency – in Kouwenaar’s words:

Such a step is a bit scary and it costs loads of cash and so we’d finally done it and

then we lay there in that [...] empty house. [...] yes, there is actually a sort of con-

sent about that right from the start, you know.^20

Similar reasons prompted Geoff ’s final change of Line 1 into when we threw cau-

tion to the winds (Draft 3).

Less often, translators re-imaged for non-lexical reasons – Line length

(Rhythm), for instance, as in Hugo’s Draft 2:

TU194 when we had a heart:

[...]

TU196 I’m actually going to put in

another phrase

TU197 to make it longer, when we

decided: when we decided

TU198 to show mercy #

20. “Zo’n stap is een beetje griezelig en het kost een heleboel centen en dat hebben we dan
    uiteindelijk gedaan en toen lagen we daar in dat [...] lege huis. [...] ja, dat heeft dan inderdaad
    iets inwilligs van het allereerste begin, hè.”

Rhythm Dr2/#2

Image Dr2/#6