Universitatea Dunrea de Jos - Galai

Facultatea de Litere
MA Traducere i interpretariat, An II

Translating Metaphor and Symbols

in Bacovias Poetry

Topics
Defining

metaphors and symbols.

Translating poetry.
Translating metaphors.
Bacovias poetry.
Translating Bacovian symbolism.

 Innovation

in poetry does not entirely consist of

new metaphors but of extensions and special
cases of conventional metaphors.

Some

people agree that metaphor is the

dreamwork of language (Johnson, 1981: 200),
where images are combined in special, odd, or
startling ways.

Role - explain and decode emotions, feelings,

relationships, other elements that could not be
expressed in an ordinary language;
- illustrate or refer to something in a
compressed but effective way.
Sustained

metaphor - consistently runs

throughout the entire poem.

Translating Poetry
The

translators task - translating a poem

into another language feeling that this is
how the poet himself/herself would have
written it.

Accepted

loss.

Translating Metaphor and Symbols

Purpose:

cognitive and aesthetic.

Translating

strategies.

Bacovias Poetry
Experimental,

at the beginning of its journey

through literature.
Controversial are there or are there not
metaphors in Bacovias poems?

Symbolic metaphors

 The

fundamental metaphor of falling

Colours

snow rain water the

enormous tomb man is inhabiting

Cavoul
Sleep - dormeau adnc
sicriele de plumb;
dormea ntors amorul
meu de plumb
i-i atrnau aripile de
plumb

the tomb/the crypt/the

burial
lead coffins sleep; my
lead love slept
Lead wings hung down
fall death burden
the burden of life
Despair

Plumb/Lead

gol istoric/ the emptiness of history

time that passes by us and leaves a sea of
nothingness (Lacustr/Lake Cottages)
Ninge gri/ the snow falls grey
pessimism, anguish, death (Gri/Grey)
i frunzele cad ca un sinistru
semn/Leaves fall portending evil (n
grdin/In the garden)

 Amurg

de toamn

violet...
Strbunii trec n
plcuri violete

Violet

autumn
evening.
Elders pass in violet
groups.

Amurg violet/ Violet

Evening

Carbonizate flori, noian de

negru...
Sicrie negre, arse, de metal.
Vestminte funerare de mangal,
Negru profund, noian de negru...

Charred flowers, black mass.

Metal coffins burnt black,
burnt funeral garments,
deep black, mass of black.

Vibrau scntei de vis... noian de

negru;
Carbonizat, amorul fumega Parfum de pene arse, i ploua...
Negru, numai noian de negru...

Phantasmic sparks beam from

a mass of black,
my love fossilized, leaving
a scent of burnt feathers in the
rain.
Leaving black, only a mass of
black.
Negru/Black

E pace de plumb, e
vnt, i pe vnt
Grbite, trec frunze
liberate.

The calm is heavy as

leaves
freed by the wind pass
by.

Note de toamn/Notes
from autumn

E-n zori, e frig de

toamn,
i ct cu ochii vezi
Se-ncolcete fumul
i-i pcl prin livezi.

At dawn in autumn's
cold
the smoke from
chimneys curls,
and orchards hang in
mist
as far as eyes can see.
Alean/Longing

Peste parcul prsit

Cad regrete,
i un negru
croncnit...

Regrets
and the black sound of
a raven
fall on the deserted
park.

Oh, amurguri/Lament
for sunsets

Conclusion
Artistic

loss in the excerpts as in any other

case of poetry the translators choice

Recurrent

translation strategy:
reproducing the same image

Difficult

time consuming not impossible