Magin_Edward-thesis

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Pound also produced poems that are not considered translations. For example, regarding
Pound’s translations of Chinese poetry, Gu (2008:47) writes:
…it has received a low evaluation from scholars of literary Sinology. Of
course, Sinologists do not deny the high literary quality of Pound’s
translation, but they have dismissed it as translation per se because they
regard it as a free, untrammeled re-creation or re-writing. (author’s italics)
Gu (2008:47) also writes that “professional translators of Chinese poetry…deplored his
[Pound’s] lack of scholarship and disregard for fidelity.”
While it is useful to think in all these terms―paraphrase, metapoem, creative
poem, imitation―translations may often consist of more than one category. According to
Holmes (1988:10-11), the metapoet “inevitably falls into the fallacy of paraphrase,
shifting emphases and distorting meanings.” Quoting Frost (1955:16), he goes on to say
that the poem is “a verbal object whose value is inseparable from the particular words
used.”
2.2.4.2 Holmes’ “retention versus modernization” model
A second model Holmes discusses (1988:35-44) delineates the choices that
confront the metapoet when translating a poem from another time period. Determinations
must not be made just on the linguistic level but also on the literary and socio-cultural
levels. For his discussion, Holmes uses translations of a 15 th century French rondel―an
older verse form no longer in common use 19 ―by Charles d’Orléans. Holmes points out
the fact that “the central image of the poem, young men riding on horseback to impress
the girls, has lost its compelling force: their counterparts today ride motor-bikes or drive
cars” (Holmes 1988:37). Concerning this image, the translator is faced with a decision
between whether to “historicize” the poem, retaining the image, or “modernize” it, re-
19 Turco (2000:241) describes the rondel as a thirteen line poem form that is “divided into two quatrains
and a quintet.” The rhyme scheme is described as Abba abAB abbA, where the capital letter indicates a
refrain (Turco 2000:129).