Chapter 6. Translating rhyme and rhythm
In this chapter, Lexis and Image again top the translator’s hierarchy of prob-
lem-solving concerns. The prominence of Lexis confirms that translators see it as
important to keep source-target lexical equivalence, even with rhyme and fixed
rhythm, but also that stylistic choices are often concerned with fine distinctions of
lexical meaning. Since Image micro-sequences, by contrast, work with meaning at
the level of text world rather than surface wording, they allow translators to search
among a wider range of target-poem counterparts to find one that feels stylisti-
cally and poetically viable. This is almost certainly why Image comes to the fore in
revision drafts, when semantic and stylistic/poetic concerns merge.
Interestingly, however, Image is stronger in my Toen wij drafts and Lexis is
stronger in my Krik drafts. This perhaps shows how reactivated idioms, which
dominate Toen wij, rarely have simple lexical solutions, forcing the translator to
look at the wider text world. Finding rhyme words, however – as in Krik – often
involves considering the lexical meaning of near-synonyms. Image work only
comes in when these prove unviable, which does not happen in every case.6.4.1.4 Creative problem-solving
Chapter 6 confirms Chapter 5’s finding that translators who are willing to consider
creative solutions usually only do so if rough lexical equivalents prove inadequate,
and only consider creative transformations if creative adjustments prove inade-
quate. Creative transformations are not always considered grudgingly and reluc-
tantly, however. My wrenched from dreaming example showed how, occasionally,
they may be enthusiastically proposed as a solution to even a minor poetic prob-
lem – here, to my feeling that wrenched from drowsiness was “slightly transla-
tionese”. Even radically novel transformations can sometimes be approved,
therefore, as long as the translator feels they meet a double condition: that they
solve the problem effectively, but also remain loyal to the source’s text world or the
source poet’s perceived intent.
Because features exploiting Jakobson’s poetic are particularly challenging for
translators who wish to recreate both a source poem’s semantics and its intrinsic
form, they are also most likely to result in creative solutions. How many creative
solutions they actually result in depends on personal, linguistic and genre-based
factors. Personally, translators vary in how far they are willing to consider creative
solutions. Linguistically, a reactivated void idiom has by definition no literal equiv-
alent, and so forces translators to choose between creative and surface-semantics-
only solutions (especially if its idiomaticity is still ‘live’ rather than simply pre-
served in its etymology), whereas there may be literal solutions for rhyme and
rhythm problems. In genre terms, however, since rhyme and fixed rhythm usually
occur more often across a poem, preserving rhyme and rhythm may well give
more creative transformations in the poem as a whole.