Chapter 3. Poetry translation webs
Paper still appears to have primary status, however. Firstly, paper text complex-
es typically contained about 50–200 pages, which allows for a lot of poems. Most
web publications were shorter, ranging from two-poem blog entries to the lower
end of the paper size range, though one exception was an impressively long issue of
the journal Muse Apprentice Guild (logged as Delić et al. 2003). Secondly, most web
translations had initially appeared in paper form. With web journals, the re-issue
seemed sanctioned by the poet, and perhaps by the translator. But with blogs and
postings on non-literary websites, full bibliographic data was often not given, which
raises the question of whether permission was always requested. Thirdly, web pub-
lications are notoriously impermanent and are rarely archived by libraries.
Duraković’s anthology Balkan Literatures: Bosnia (2000), for instance, went off-line
after the 2006 survey, and Muse Apprentice Guild disappeared after 2008.
Even with dual-media projects (paper plus web), paper was usually the pri-
mary transmission means – as with a print chapbook also published on-line
(Skenderija 2006b). In one project, however, a collection of audio-recorded 1930s
bardic epics plus transcripts and translations (Bajgorić and Foley 2004), paper and
web complemented each other – the former more permanent, the latter more
widely available and allowing audiences to hear the recordings.3.3.2 Poetry translation teams
To produce such publications, translators worked in first-order teams. Below, case
studies illustrate player roles, interactions and power, and the team’s geographic
positionality. I then explore how players’ positionality reflects issues of identity
and ideology.3.3.2.1 Network patterns
The 1996–2006 survey found three archetypal network patterns for translation
teams: ‘multi-poet’, ‘single-living-poet’ and ‘single-dead-poet’ (Jones 2009:
311–319). The present survey added a fourth: ‘informal web publishing’. Each is
described below.
Multi-poet projects involve the most players, because teams include several po-
ets, often several translators, and an editor. Figure 6 maps the network structure of
a multi-poet project featuring only Bosnian poets: the Scar on the Stone anthology
(Agee 1998b: 14), in which I participated as a poem reviewer and direct translator.
In the map (after Abdallah 2005, Jones 2009), human actors are shown by
ovals, and non-human actors (here, texts) by rectangles. Italic b. plus country
shows human actors’ birthplace. Shaded backgrounds show where human actors
are working and texts are produced. Arrows show ‘recruitment’ links – for in-
stance, the editor approaching the publisher at Arrow 1, or poem reviewers’ re-
ports at Arrow 4 helping the editor decide which poets to include.