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

Pardo, Santiago Quiroz

doi:10.1590/1517-106X/203337356

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Artigos • Alea 20 (03) • Sep-Dec 2018 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1517-106X/203337356 copy

The poem as a whole: translating Chris Mccully’s Icarus and Houses ¹ This article is based on my MA dissertation, titled “A creative act: Translating from Chris McCully’s Selected Poems”, completed at the University of Essex. I would like to thank my supervisor, Lexa Olivera Smith, for her helpful comments and guidance. I also wish to thank Chris McCully, for giving me permission to use his poetry for my dissertation and for the valuable insight he provided during our interviews. Thanks to Carcanet Press for allowing me to use the poems.

O poema como um todo: traduzindo Icarus e Houses de Chris Mccully

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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.

Keywords:
poetic translation; equivalence effect; intertextuality; Chris McCully

Icarus	Ícaro
He was mad with it:	Deliraba con la idea:
the intricacies of construction,	los ínfimos detalles de la construcción,
the wax that sealed each joint	con la cera que sellaba cada eje
to a workable point;	hasta hacerlo funcionar,
the local clarities of angles,	con la claridad exacta de los ángulos,
feathers; whatever could explain	las plumas; aquello, lo que fuera,
the assemblage and harness it	que pudiera explicar el ensamblaje y enlazarlo
to the dynamics of the sky.	a las dinámicas del cielo.


He was mad with it,	Deliraba con la idea,
and as the air glazed	y cuando el aire acariciaba suavemente
without effort under the beating wings,	los contornos y el ritmo de las alas,
as the olive groves and the blue zoo	cuando los campos de olivo
of the sea receded merely	y el zoológico del mar se redujeron
to hillsides and ocean,	a meras colinas y al océano,
a disarticulated view,	una visión desarticulada,
he had succeeded.	sintió su triunfo entre los aires.


He was mad with it -	Deliraba con la idea,
the whole beautiful engineering.	la belleza pura de la ingeniería.
But turning westwards, higher,	Pero al virar hacia el oeste, más arriba,
becoming pressure, becoming weight,	al devenir presión y peso,
he had forgotten the sun.	se había olvidado del sol.
And strange that when there was	Qué extraño, cuando percibió
that endless sense of falling,	la infinita sensación de la caída,
he was glad of it.	la recibió con agrado.

Houses	Casas
They seem solid: render and Accrington brick;	Apariencia sólida, ladrillo revestido, buen color,
Good lines; set angles on a suburb slope	Ángulos firmes, suburbio, y nadie alcanza
Where no one hears (the walls are two feet thick)	A oír tras las paredes (medio metro de grosor)
The neighbours loudly drinking down their hope.	Los vecinos que pasan con un trago su esperanza.
But scaffolding’s erected everywhere	Pero el andamiaje aún se erige en todas partes
And yesterday these houses’ roofs were gone;	Y ayer los techos de estas casas se habían ido;
The day before, the stonework layer by layer	Un día antes, cada capa de piedra del baluarte
Vanished into dance-hall whistling and the sun.	Se evaporó entre obreros, martillos y silbidos.


Foundations turned to foot-prints, which grew back	Los cimientos volvieron a ser huellas; del camino,
To moor and coppiced hazel; road bled a spring	Alivio de caballos, sangraba un manantial;
Where horses drank; and through the Zodiac	El hilo zodiacal revertía su destino
The past unravelled on its stick of string	Y el árbol de avellano crecía en el erial.
Until what made the paid-for future there	Y al final aquel futuro cierto se deshizo
Were merely geese and winter, sleet and air.	Dejando solo gansos, el invierno y el granizo.

Programa de Pos-Graduação em Letras Neolatinas, Faculdade de Letras -UFRJ Av. Horácio Macedo, 2151, Cidade Universitária, CEP 21941-97 - Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil , - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
E-mail: alea.ufrj@gmail.com

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[1] Santiago Quiroz Pardo is a 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. E-mail: santiagoqu@gmail.com