Diplomsko delo

Problems in Translating African American Poetry after 1950

Kristina Kočan

African American Poetry after 1950

musical aspect

linguistic aspect cultural aspect

Linguistic Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950The use of grammatical errors

For Walter Washington Za Walterja Washingtona We blk blues singers

we blken the chords

with shots of blue …

we blk blues singers

we are you pleadin

I gave you all my love

please don’t abuse it

we are you cryin I tried my best

but it wasn’t worth it

we are you wishin

the rain smell would

drive away the sweary mad dreams of

last night

we are you watchin

… (Tom Dent)

Mi črni pevci bluesa

črnimo akorde

s šusi žalosti ...

mi črni pevci bluesa

mi smo tvoja prošnja

dal sem ti vso svojo ljubezen

prosim ne izdaj je

mi smo tvoj jok

potrudil sem se po najboljših močeh

a ni bilo vredno

mi smo tvoja želja

vonj po dežju bo

pregnal zaklete nore sanje

včerajšnje noči

mi smo tvoja budnost

... (Tom Dent)

Linguistic Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Unusual typography

L L L L

O n ) G Ong) ON G L oNg

E e

place that PLACE

TH' One g'd

L place

L uN OnE

Un

ouNOUN ______

g /

_____________

/

_______ /

1

_________/ moving

poem by Russell Atkins

Unusual typography

“Most of all we have to read the absence that cannot be heard, the

absence of a closing period, the missing punctuation that poetically

carries out the prophecy written in the poem” (Nielsen).

The problems with translating the terminology for African Americans

“Since the 1800s blacks in America have moved through myriad names

and identifiers such as colored, mixed, black, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon,

nigger, Negro, people of color, Afro-American and African-American,

including a host of pejorative slurs. These changes in identity have

happened within a person’s lifetime” (Robinson).

The problems with translating the terminology for African Americans

A Dance for Militant Dilettantes Ples za bojevite diletante

Dont nobody want no nice nigger no more

these honkies man that put out

these books & things

they want an angry splib

a furious nigrah

they don't want no bourgeois woogie

they want them a militant nigger

in a fiji haircut

... (Al Young)

Naj nihče več ne želi nobenega prijaznega črnuha

tile belčki ki izdajajo

te knjige & stvari

hočejo jeznega črnuha

srditega črnuharja

nočejo nobenega meščanskega črnčka

hočejo borbenega črnuha

s fiji frizuro

... (Al Young)

The problems with translating the terminology for African Americans…

Afrikan People all over the world, the future is oursWe will create on our feet not our kneesIt is a future of Great works, and FreedomBut we can not crawl through life drunk &unconscious we cannot dance through lifeor read the NYTimes through life, or wear vests    all our life give our lives to parties, & work with noreason but life in a prison of white dominationBe conscious. Black People           Negroes               Colored People                AfroAmericans       Be                                           CONSCIOUS…All over the world AfrikansSweat Beautiful AfrikansNew ark Afrikans (Niggers too)Harlem Afrikans (or Spooks)Ghana Afrikans (bloods)San Francisco Afrikans (brothers)Afrikan Afrikans (ndugu)West Indian Afrikans (Hey man)South American Afrikans (Hermano!)Francophone Afrikans (Monsieur)Anglophone Afrikans (Mister Man)Anywhere AfrikansAfrikans Afrikans AfrikansPeople

... (Afrikan Revolution by Amiri Baraka)

Musical Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Jazz elements

“In part, the act of visualizing jazz accounts for the range of poets engaged

in the music’s elusive accessibility: young black writers steeped in the

tradition of black music, using poetry in part to achieve a political voice; …

women lamenting over the men who have done them wrong, poets trying

to break apart the language to imitate sound; friends of jazz musicians

eager to keep their spirit alive on the page, …” (Feinstein & Komunyakaa).

Musical Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Jazz elements

Brother John Brat John

...

Bird, buttermilk, bird –

smack, booze and bitches

I am Bird

baddest nightdreamer

on sax in the ornithology-world

I can fly – higher, high, higher –

I'm a black man;

I am, I'm a black man –

... (Michael S. Harper)

...

Bird, pinjenec, ptič –

tlesk, pijača in psice

jaz sem Bird

najhujši nočni sanjač

na saksu v ornitološkem svetu

lahko letim – višje, visoko, višje –

jaz sem črn moški;

jaz sem, sem črn moški –

... (Michael S. Harper)

Musical Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Blues elements

All night my bed was rocky, all night nobody by my side;

My bed was cold and rocky, all night no good man by my side.

The radiator sputtered, the furnace gave a groan and died.

... (Naomi Long Madgett)

Moja postelja vso noč bila je majava, vso noč sama sem ležala;

Moja postelja bila je mrzla in majava, vso noč brez dobrega moškega ležala.

V radiatorju je pokalo, peč je zastokala in zaspala.

... (Naomi Long Madgett)

Monday morning Blues

Blues ponedeljkovega jutra

Musical Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Blues elements

Blues Blues

...

like when he took me to his

home away from home place

and i died the long sought after

death he'd planned for me.

Yeah, bessie he put in the bacon

and it overflowed the pot.

and two days later

when i was talking

i started to grin.

as everyone knows

i am still grinning. (Sonia Sanchez)

...

kot takrat ko me je peljal k sebi

domov stran od domačega kraja

in sem umrla dolgo iskano

smrt ki jo je načrtoval zame.

Ja, bessie, dal je not klobasico

in je zavrelo preko lonca.

in dva dni kasneje

ko sem govorila

sem se začela režati.

kot vsi vedo

se še vedno režim. (Sonia Sanchez)

Cultural Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950

“Literary translation is the most important form of intercultural

mediation of fiction, ever since the term literature exists in the

present meaning of the word” (Grosman, my translation).

Cultural Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Style and Fashion

Beautiful Black Men Čudoviti črni moški

i wanta say just gotta say something

bout those beautiful beautiful beautiful outasight

black men

with they afros

...

dashiki suits with shirts that match

... (Nikki Giovanni)

želela sem reči samo moram nekaj reči

o tistih čudovitih čudovitih čudovitih

črnih moških

z njihovimi afro frizurami

...

dashiki oblekah s srajcami ki se ujemajo

... (Nikki Giovanni)

Cultural Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Food items

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee

I always like summer

best

you can eat fresh corn

from daddy's garden

and okra

and greens

and cabbage

and lots of

barbeque

and buttermilk

and homemade ice-cream

at the church picnic

... (Nikki Giovanni)

Vedno imam poletja

najraje

lahko ješ svežo koruzo

z očkovega vrta

in okro

in listje špinače

in zelje

in ogromno z

žara

in pinjenec

in domači sladoled

na cerkvenem pikniku

... (Nikki Giovanni)

Cultural Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Food items

Magnolia Street Magnolijina ulica

…

music for siesta and dreaming

and funerals

& sun-happiness Saturday nights

& your clumsy heavy winding

stairsteps

& the circular room that looked

like a lighthouse

& gumbo

... (Tom Dent)

…

glasba za siesto in sanjarjenje

in pogrebe

& sončno-srečne sobotne noči

& vaše nerodne naporne vijugaste

stopnice

& okrogla soba ki je izgledala

kakor svetilnik

& gumbo

... (Tom Dent)

“Surprisingly, there are times when the best way of dealing with seemingly opaque items in the

source culture is not to translate them at all” (Landers 79).

Cultural Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950Gospel

Dear John, Dear Coltrane Dragi John, dragi Coltrane

Why you so black?

cause I am

why you so funky?

cause I am

why you so black?

cause I am

why you so sweet?

cause I am

why you so black?

cause I am

... (Michael S. Harper)

Zakaj ti tako črn?

zato ker sem

zakaj ti tako funky?

zato ker sem

zakaj ti tako črn?

zato ker sem

zakaj ti tako sladek?

zato ker sem

zakaj ti tako črn?

zato ker sem

... (Michael S. Harper)

Cultural Aspects of African American Poetry after 1950

“On the micro level translators can use all the linguistic and

hermeneutic techniques they have learned, but the finality of their

endeavor is the text a part of the culture, not the much vaunted

struggle with the word the sentence, the line. For this reason

potential translators need to learn about the conditions or

constraints – ideological, poetological, sociocultural, linguistic –

under which texts come into being...” (Lefevere).