The poem as a whole: translating Chris Mccully’s Icarus and Houses

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/1517-106X/203337356

Abstract

This article presents translations from English into Spanish for Icarus and Houses, two poems from Chris McCully’s Selected Poems (2011), along with a critical commentary. I discuss the controversial topic of poetic translation and some of the most relevant theoretical issues related to it, including the dichotomy of originality and equivalence, the usefulness of framing the endeavour within the principle of equivalence effect, the importance of treating the poem as an organic whole, and the benefit of considering different forms of intertextuality during the translation process. Using Robert Bly’s Eight stages of Translation (1982) as a methodological guideline, I discuss some of the decisions that led to the final Spanish version of the poems. I conclude that translation, even beyond poetry, should be framed as a creative act rather than a passive rendering of what has already been said.

Author Biography

Santiago Quiroz Pardo, University of Essex

Translator, literary researcher, and educator, currently independent. He recently graduated as a Master in Translation and Literature from the University of Essex (UK). He holds a BA in Literary Studies and a BA in Modern Languages from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia). He has published poetry in Colchester-based Botch magazine and he has presented papers about Latin American literature and the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

References

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MATHEWS, Jackson. Third Thoughts On Translating Poetry. In: BROWER, Reuben A. On Translation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959, p. 67-77.

MCCULLY, Chris. Selected Poems. Manchester: Carcanet Press, 2011. Available at < http://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781847770189 >. Accessed 28 August 2017.

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Published

2018-12-29

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 3 (2018)

Section

Artigos

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