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Margin 257
words on P.B.’s purpose.
There should also be definitions in the appropriate places (most
of which I have marked) of such terms as “alba,” “tenson,”
“sirventes,” etc. […]
A number of poems (see pp. 163, 55, 129) need short
introductions badly.
Omitting annotations can of course signal the cultural difference of the
foreign texts, insisting on their foreignness with all the discomfort of
incomprehension. Most of Blackburn’s foreignizing strategies,
however, were realized in his translations, and since they constituted
notable deviations from fluent discourse, they definitely looked
strange to Guthrie. Thus, Blackburn resorted to variant spellings to
mimic the absence of standardized orthography and pronunciation in
Provençal, but for Guthrie this made the text too resistant to easy
readability:
For the reader’s convenience, there should be uniformity in spelling
proper nouns. It is confusing to the uninitiate to find (often on the
same page) Peitau & Poitou, Caersi & Quercy, Talhafer & Tagliaferro
(I’d translate it “Iron-Cutter,” since it is a nickname); Ventadorn &
Ventadour: Marvoill & Mareuil: Amfos & Alfons. Using the modern
names of the towns would help the general reader.
Blackburn’s use of variant spellings were a means of archaizing the
text, signifying its historical remoteness. Guthrie preferred current
English usage (“Iron-Cutter”), even the latest cartography.
Guthrie’s criticisms went deep to the heart of Blackburn’s project.
They touched the texts that figured in the oedipal rivalry with
Pound: Guthrie’s concern with fluency led to the suggestion that
Blackburn delete his Pound-inspired version of Bertran de Born’s
war song. “Maybe I am too harsh,” wrote Guthrie, “but from the
first line to the last, it seems forced and ineffectual compared with
either the original or with E.Pound’s Sestina drawn from the same
source.” When Guthrie reached page 135 in the 187-page
manuscript, he scrawled a somewhat exasperated criticism of
Blackburn’s mixed lexicons:
P.B.
No, look, if you are going to call somebody a burgesa in one line and
make the poor inhorantes go looking it up in Levy, you can’t have