Abstract
Breyten Breytenbach’s bilingual collection of poems, Oorblyfsel/ Voice Over (2009), consisting of twelve poems published with the Afrikaans version on the left page and the corresponding English version on the right, shows some notable differences between the two versions of each poem. This article examines the unusual translation strategy of “re-tracing” (Odendaal 2011) that Breytenbach used to produce this collection of poems. Three concepts from literary theory, the ‘contact zone’ (Pratt 1987, 1992), the ‘in-between’ (Bhabha 1993) and the ‘remainder’ (Lecercle 1990), are discussed as tools which can be used to understand this strategy. In light of these three concepts, the two versions of the twelfth poem, simply named 12 , are analysed in order to illustrate and understand the effect of Breytenbach’s strategy on the interpretation process that this collection of poems invites the bilingual reader to take part in. Keywords: translation, Breyten Breytenbach, re-tracing, stereoscopic reading, contact zone, in-between, remainder
Highlights
Oorblyfsel/ Voice Over (Breytenbach 2009), a bilingual collection of twelve poems published with the Afrikaans version on the left page and the English version on the right, was written as a eulogy to Breyten Breytenbach’s deceased friend, the famous Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish
The key aspects determining the nature of translation in Oorblyfsel/ Voice Over, the bilingual layout and the strategy of re-tracing which results in stereoscopic reading, are aspects which are not found in most other translation products
Even though previous applications of these concepts to translation products and the translation process have been criticised, and often for valid reasons, this article considers these critiques in the hope of showing ways in which these concepts can be valuable if they are applied in a specific way, as in the case of this specific translation phenomenon
Summary
Oorblyfsel/ Voice Over (Breytenbach 2009), a bilingual collection of twelve poems published with the Afrikaans version on the left page and the English version on the right, was written as a eulogy to Breyten Breytenbach’s deceased friend, the famous Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. In the same way that he does not use the word “translations” to refer to his reworkings of Darwish’s work, he does not use the word “translation” to refer to the relationship between his own Afrikaans and English “versions” or “efforts” This hesitance does not mean, that translation does not stand central to both of these relationships. 110 Kirsten and equates it to his journey of “moving between” Darwish’s verses His hesitance rather points to the unusual nature of the relationship between Darwish and Breytenbach, their work and the languages and utterances at play here. Even though the Afrikaans and English versions are in most cases lexically equivalent to each other, Breytenbach’s strategy does result in several cases where there are conspicuous differences between the versions in the two languages These differences include aspects such as the number of lines, spacing and differences in the meaning of some corresponding words. The bilingual layout as well as the translation strategy of re-tracing enables – invites – the bilingual reader to read the two versions stereoscopically, going from one version to the other and considering the two together in the process of interpreting what is being offered
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