TRANSLATION AND MEANING: A CULTURAL- COGNITIVE ...

known as Lenore, Ellen), bears an allusion to classical culture and values
which are developed at large in the poem. It is first of all the name of Helen
of Troy, whose abduction brought about the Trojan War and who has
become a symbol of beauty itself. Then, the common noun helen in Greek
means “a torch or firebrand” and it seems Poe was fully aware of this
meaning (for further explanation see Pemberton, 1970:6-7) and emphasized
it in the last stanza, by introducing the image of the woman holding an agate
lamp in her hand. Other allusions in the poem to classical culture include the
noun “hyacinth”, which is of Greek origin and refers to both a precious
stone and a flowering plant; the proper noun “Naiad”, which designates, in
Greek mythology, the nymphs living in bodies of water; the proper noun
“Psyche”, referring to Apuleius’s story of Cupid and Psyche (Psyche is a
mortal whose beauty surpasses the beauty of the goddess Venus and is
therefore left on a mountain to be claimed by a serpent. Yet, Cupid falls in
love with her and takes her to his palace to be his wife not allowing her to
see him. Following her jealous sisters’ advice, Psyche lights a lamp one
night, when her husband is asleep, and seeing his beauty, gazes at him.
Although first rebuked by Cupid who felt mistrusted, they will be finally
reunited for eternity because she was made a goddess) and meaning “soul”
in Greek, which symbolizes the key to seeing the divine as well as the one
who joins two worlds, the real and the ideal (in Platonic terms). Direct
reference to classical culture is made with the help of the proper nouns
“Greece” and “Rome”, which symbolize the two poles of classical thinking
and art. Another geographical term, “Nicean”, lacks any symbolical
connotation and may have been chosen by Poe for its musicality, whereas
the last line of the poem alludes to the world of the divine: “Holy Land”.
The last stanza describes an image which reminds the educated reader of
Psyche’s discovery of Cupid’s beauty: “Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche /
How statue-like I see thee stand / The agate lamp within thy hand.”. All
these allusions do not present any difficulty for the translator, because they
are universally accepted and they exist in all European cultures.
The poem is made up of three stanzas, each presenting a different
aspect of Helen’s beauty. In the first stanza, Helen’s beauty is seen as a ship
transporting the wanderer home, with an allusion to Homer’s Ulysses. In the
second stanza, it is Helen’s face, hair and “Naiad airs” that give him back
Greece and Rome, the cultures that have the right understanding of what is
valuable and important, according to Poe. In the third stanza, Helen is
identified with Psyche, who illuminates him revealing both beauty and
divinity.
In point of stylistical devices, mention should be made of similes
(“thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicean barks of yore”, “How statue-like I