Résumés
Abstract
This paper is about the inflation of loss talk in a certain discourse on translation and how translation is often presented as a disaster or even an emblem of what is always missing. My guiding questions will be: Why has the notion of loss become such a dominant concept when talking about translation? Where does this rhetoric of loss—in translators’ reflections, in translation reviews as well as in scholarly material of theoreticians—come from? What are some of the assumptions that underlie this loss discourse on translation products? Can we go beyond a descriptive perspective of the phenomenon and try to come up with a few explanations for this loss talk on translation? I shall furthermore explore the concept of loss-aversion from economics and decision theory (Kahneman, 2011), and argue that loss-aversion may help us to better understand how the notion of loss, and more generally the gain-loss equation, operate in the field of translation. Finally looking at translation discourse through the losing-glass, I will briefly discuss a few “unlosables” from the field of biblical Hebrew translation.
Keywords:
- loss,
- translation,
- loss-aversion,
- unlosable,
- biblical Hebrew translation
Résumé
Cet article traite de la notion de perte dans un certain discours sur la traduction et de la tendance à présenter la traduction comme un échec, voire comme l’emblème de ce qui fait constamment défaut. L’article s’articule autour des questions suivantes : pourquoi la notion de perte est-elle devenue si dominante dans le discours sur la traduction? D’où vient cette rhétorique de la perte que l’on trouve dans les réflexions des traducteurs, les revues de traduction et les ouvrages des théoriciens? Quelles sont certaines des hypothèses qui la sous-tendent? Est-il possible d’aller au-delà d’une perspective descriptive du phénomène et de trouver des explications à ce discours sur la perte en traduction? J’explorerai en outre le concept d’aversion aux pertes issu du domaine de l’économie et de la théorie de la décision (Kahneman, 2011), et soutiendrai que l’aversion aux pertes peut nous aider à mieux comprendre comment fonctionne la notion de perte, et plus généralement l’équation gain-perte, dans le domaine de la traduction. Enfin, en examinant le discours de la traduction sous l’angle de la notion de perte, je discuterai brièvement de quelques « imperdables » du champ de la traduction de l’hébreu biblique.
Mots-clés :
- perte,
- traduction,
- aversion aux pertes,
- imperdable,
- traduction de l’hébreu biblique
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Allen, Esther and Susan Bernofsky, eds. (2013). In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What it Means. New York, Columbia University Press.
- Alter, Robert (1996). Genesis: Translation and Commentary. New York, Norton.
- Alter, Robert (2008). “Lost in Translation: The Challenge of Translating the Bible.” The Villanova University Lectures. September 15th, Villanova Room, Connelly Center. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL7ccZtVsqo].
- Alter, Robert (2018). The Hebrew Bible. A Translation with Commentary. New York, Norton, 3 vol.
- Alter, Robert (2019). The Art of Biblical Translation. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
- Armitstead, Claire (2018). “Lost in (Mis)translation? English take on Korean Novel has critics up in arms.” The Guardian, January 15. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jan/15/lost-in-mistranslation-english-take-on-korean-novel-has-critics-up-in-arms].
- Babel, Isaac (2018). The Essential Fictions. Trans. and ed. by Val Vinokur. Illinois, Northwestern University Press.
- Bellos, David (2011). Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything. New York, Faber and Faber.
- Berman, Antoine (2000 [1985]). “Translation and the Trials of the Foreign.” Trans. Lawrence Venuti. In L. Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York, Routledge, pp. 284-297.
- Bishop, Elisabeth (2008). Poems, Prose, and Letters. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Brooks, Cleanth and Robert Penn Warren, with Robert Frost, John Crowe Ransom, Robert Lowell and Theodore Roethke (1961). Conversations on the Craft of Poetry. [A transcript of the tape recording made to accompany Understanding Poetry, Third Edition]. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
- Burke, Peter (2007). “Lost (and Found) in Translation: A Cultural History of Translators and Translating in Early Modern Europe.” European Review, 15,1, pp. 83-94.
- Cavanagh, Clare (2013). “The Art of Losing: Polish Poetry and Translation.” In E. Allen and S. Bernofsky, eds. In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What it Means. New York, Columbia University Press, pp. 234-244.
- Celan, Paul (2001). Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan. Trans. and ed. by John Felstiner, New York, Norton.
- Cutter, Martha J. (2005). Lost and Found in Translation: Contemporary Ethnic American Writing and the Politics of Language Diversity. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press.
- Diderot, Denis (1830, 1992) Paradoxe sur le Comédien. Paris, A. Colin.
- Duran, Angelica, Islam Issa and Jonathan R. Olson, eds. (2017). Milton in Translation. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
- Eco, Umberto. 2001. Experiences in Translation. Trans. Alistair McEwan. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
- Gellerstam, Martin (1996). “Translations as a Source for Cross-linguistic Studies.” In K. Aijmer and B. Altenberg, eds. Languages in Contrast: Papers from a Symposium on Text-based Cross-linguistic Studies, Lund 4–5 March 1994. Lund, Lund University Press, pp. 53-62.
- Green, Jeffrey M. (2001). Thinking Through Translation. Athens [GA], The University of Georgia Press.
- Hoffman, Eva. (1989). Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language. New York, Penguin Books.
- Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1997). Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language. New York, Basic Books.
- Kahneman, Daniel (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Kang, Han (2015). The Vegetarian. Trans. Deborah Smith. London and New York, Hogarth.
- Long, Lynne (2007). “Revealing Commentary through Comparative Textual Analysis: The Realm of Bible Translations.” Palimpseste, 20, pp. 35-57.
- Maier, Carol and Françoise Massardier-Kenney (2010). Literature in Translation: Teaching Issues and Reading Practices. Kent, Kent State University Press.
- Meschonnic, Henri (2002). Au commencement. Traduction de La Genèse. Paris, Desclée de Brouwer.
- Meschonnic, Henri (2011). Ethics and the Politics of Translating. Transl. and ed. by Pier-Pascale Boulanger. Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
- Millan-Varela, Carmen (1997). “Linguistic Evidences of a Conflict in the Galician Ulysses.” In K. Simms, ed. Translating Sensitive Texts: Linguistic Aspects. Amsterdam, Rodopi.
- Murakami, Haruki (2013). “As Translator, As Novelist: The Translator’s Afterword.” In E. Allen and S. Bernofsky, eds. In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What it Means. New York, Columbia University Press, pp. 169-182.
- Nouss, Alexis (2011). “A Life in Translation.” In Henri Meschonnic. Ethics and Politics of Translating. Trans. and ed. by Pier-Pascale Boulanger, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, pp. 1-9.
- Ortega y Gasset, José (2000 [1937]). “The Misery and the Splendor of Translation.” Trans. Elizabeth Gamble Miller. In L. Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York, Routledge, pp. 49-63.
- Peterson, Eugene H. (1993). The Message. The Bible in Contemporary Language. [https://messagebible.com/read-the-message/].
- Polizzotti, Mark (2018). Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto. Cambridge [MA], MIT Press.
- Pym, Anthony (2000). Exploring Translation Theories. London and New York, Routledge.
- Sanders, Ella Frances (2014). Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World. New York, Ten Speed Press.
- Seidman, Naomi (2010). “Translation.” In R. Hendel, ed. Reading Genesis: Ten Methods. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 157-175.
- Solnit, Rebecca (2005). A Field Guide to Getting Lost. New York, Penguin Books.
- Steiner, George (2000 [1975]). “The Hermeneutic Motion.” In L. Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York, Routledge, pp. 186-191.
- Toury, Gideon (2012). Descriptive Translation Studies – and Beyond. Revised ed. Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
- Venuti, Lawrence, ed. (2000). The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York, Routledge.
- Weissbort, Daniel and Astradur Eysteinsson, eds. (2006). Translation—Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford, Oxford University Press.