The poet's version; or, An ethics of translation

Abstract

The poet's version, a second-order creation that mixes translation and adaptation, emerged in the twentieth century distinct from early modern notions of imitation. It can be illuminated by a hermeneutic model that construes second-order works as an interpretive inscription through the application of formal and thematic interpretants which vary the form, meaning and effect of the source material, constrained by the receiving medium and culture. If second-order creation is by definition variation, an interpretive act that submits the source material to degrees of loss and gain, then the poet's version cannot be evaluated simply on the basis of a comparison to its source text. Attention must rather be given to the impact of the version on the receiving culture, a relation that can be construed as properly ethical. The ethics of a version hinges on whether it points to a lack or plenitude in the translating language and culture, challenging or confirming institutionalized knowledge.