Poetry Translating as Expert Action
schemata will first contain linguistic knowledge – for example, my knowing that
pas means ‘dog’ and that -aj, -as and -i are masculine sentence-subject endings al-
lowed me to understand Line 7’s surface semantics. These will usually generate
new signals, calling up schemata such as:- Genre knowledge: knowing the socially-agreed rules of textual systems – re-
cent BCS poetry, say. - World knowledge: knowing the real world which the text refers to – medieval
Bosnian history, for example. - Author knowledge: though the ‘implied poet’ apparently speaking in the poem
may or may not resemble the ‘real poet’ who wrote the poem, knowing the
poet’s background and biography may also help interpretation (Matterson and
Jones 2000: 102–103; cf. Stockwell: 42–43). Thus, while translating, I felt that
Dizdar intended his construction of medieval Bosnians as persecuted but
righteous heretics to have more recent echoes because of his World War II
experience. Then he was a member of the Communist resistance in Bosnia,
witnessing oppression and massacre not only by the Nazi occupiers, but also
by ethnonationalist groups siding with the Nazis or fighting both Nazis and
Communists.
Readers then build a detailed ‘microstructure’ of the unit’s relevant features
(Stockwell: 123) – semantics and sound for Line 7, say. These features are then
stored in long-term memory, freeing up enough working memory to tackle the
next unit. Gradually, units combine to form ‘macrostructures’ of textual knowl-
edge in long-term memory. Central here is ‘text-world’ knowledge (a schema of
the world within the text – Stockwell: ibid., 136ff ) – for instance, an unknown
victim taunting his or her persecutors that s/he is beyond their reach. These form
further, ever more powerful knowledge schemata to help interpret incoming text.
This may make even subtle signals relatively easy to interpret. Thus, by page 17
of E’s book, where the extract appears, readers will have macrostructural knowl-
edge that the book aims to defend a cosmopolitanist model of Bosnian society.
Hence moje žilište sažeći (‘burn my home down’) in Line 2 would probably activate
an aggressor-and-victim schema, even for readers with no knowledge of Kameni
spavač. Readers may need extensive world knowledge to interpret other signals,
however: only someone who has read Kameni spavač, for instance, will interpret
the extract’s ja (‘I’) and ti (‘you’) as referring to a heretic and heretic-hunter.
Some signals, however, cannot be reduced to one interpretation. An example
for me was the mudar badac sa istoka (‘wise watchman from the East’) in Line 11.
Even though I knew that badac was a medieval Serbian court guard, its poetic
meaning was ambiguous. Was he another medieval heretic-hunter? Was Dizdar
alluding to massacres by Serbian royalist troops in World War II? Or did the