Poetry Translating as Expert Action Processes, priorities and networks

Chapter 3. Poetry translation webs 

Direct translator

Browne

version of

Vešović

versions of

Skenderija

Absinthe

version of Dizdar

Bookpress

Skenderija

website

Balkan

Visions

Why e

Dwarf Had

To Be Shot

Spirit of

Bosnia 3/2

Spirit of

Bosnia 2/3

Like a

Fragile Index

of the World

Figure 11. Wayles Browne, career map

Again, one translator’s networks join with those of others. Why The Dwarf Had To

Be Shot, for example, also includes co-translations involving Browne and US poet

Aaron Tate, plus some of my own translations. Moreover, Issue 2/3 of the web

journal Spirit of Bosnia features Dizdar poems by various translators (2007); the

poem translated by Browne, Dark Blue River (Modra rijeka), had already been

published in other translators’ English renderings.

3.3.4 Projects and reviewers

We now turn from second-order fields to second-order interest networks: here,

the networks linking teams with target readers. This section tracks how one set of

readers – published English-language reviewers – reacted to the survey’s transla-

tions. After an overview of review types, it analyzes which projects get reviewed,

the ideological messages which reviewers receive, and reviewers’ perceptions of

poetry translating itself.

3.3.4.1 Paper and web reviews

Paper reviews almost always consisted of articles in literary and academic journals

and in newspapers. Web reviews, like translations, had a wide variety of formats.