Magin_Edward-thesis

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there was no epic meter in the language. He believed that a poem was translatable only if
there was a verse form in the receptor language that was “analogous” to the form in the
original text. Regarding lyric poetry, von Willamowitz-Moellendorff (1992:33) states:
Whoever wants to try them should, in any case, look for a German form
analogous to the original in mood and style. Let him decide to what extent
he can adapt himself to the form of the original. His intention as a
translator will be a decisive factor, as will be his understanding of the text.
Based on my research for this thesis, I am of the opinion that most people would
generally side with von Willamowitz-Moellendorff, preferring the translation of poetry
into a verse form. However, I also believe that most would be generally satisfied with any
verse form, even if there was not an exact match of function in the receptor language.
2.2.4.1.2 Translation into a verse form
In the discussion above, we saw that Holmes considers a metapoem―a translation
into verse form―to be the best translation of a poem. The next question for the metapoet
is: Which verse form should be used? This same issue is addressed by Wendland (2009),
who had the following to say with regard to his work in translating Hebrew poetry into a
Bantu language:
Having determined the audience and the manner of interacting with them
via a “literary functional equivalence” (LiFE) translation (Wendland 2006:
ch. 3), the search for an appropriate target language genre begins. In this
case, our aim is to come as close as possible to an “elegiac” mode, in order
to match the original Hebrew text in terms of content, beauty of poetic
form, emotive tone, evocative imagery, rhetorical impact, and the oralaural
medium of communication. (Wendland 2009:11)
In addition to the issue of finding a suitable verse form, Wendland raises some additional
topics here. Boerger (1997, 2009) also addresses these topics in her principles for
translating poetry, which I present in § 2.2.4.3.
Holmes (1988:25-7) identifies four approaches translators use for choosing a
verse form. The first approach is to use a verse form that is relatively close to that of the
original text. In this “mimetic form” approach, the translator takes only the form of the