Chapter 3. Poetry translation webs
(Jones 2009: 309), which may or may not be the same geographic place, gives each
player a simple or multiple geographic positionality respectively. Likewise, a team
has a simple or distributed positionality, in one or several locations, as the sum of
its players’ positionalities.
The publisher’s work location crucially influences which readers a project
reaches – especially with paper text complexes. Figure 7 shows that most projects in
the survey were published from North America. The USA dominated (33) – prob-
ably because of its large and web-wise population. Canada also figured strongly
(11), largely because two frequently-translated poets, Goran Simić and Saša Skend-
erija, lived there: especially Simić, who was sole poet in nine projects. Just four
projects were published from Bosnia. Only five projects, two ‘Other ex-Yugo[slav]’
and three ‘Other Euro[pean]’, were published from countries without English or
BCS as a first or main language. This echoes the 1996–2006 survey, which found
most translation publishers to be ‘Anglo’ (using English as their main language).
Figure 7, however, does not necessarily mean that projects were dominated by
Anglo players, nor that their motives were Anglo-country-oriented. This is be-
cause project networks were typically distributed across a transnational space.
Scar on the Stone’s players, for example, were based in Ireland^8 , Scotland, England,
USA and Bosnia, as shown by the shaded areas in Figure 6.
Moreover, some actors have multiple positionalities within this space. Firstly,
their places of birth and action may differ. Figure 6’s 1st-co-translator, for example,
was born in Bosnia but worked on Scar on the Stone in England. Many Bosnian05101520253035Australia India Canada USA UK Bosnia Other
ex-YugoOther EuroPlace of publicationNumber of projectsFigure 7. Place of publication (translation projects)
- Irish Republic plus Northern Ireland.