On Benjamin On Translation In Translation: Strategies in Philosophical Translation
Résumé
This article considers the question of what a good philosophical translation is, examining it from a functionalist perspective, focused on readability. Drawing on Roman Jakobson's conception of verbal communication (1960), I describe two strategies discernible in what is, arguably, the finest English translation to date of Walter Benjamin's essay on translation, viz. Steven Rendall's "The Translator's Task" (2012). I discern the two strategies in the Rendall translation in comparison with the other canonical English translation, by Harry Zohn (1968), triangulating the two, when needed, with Maurice de Gandillac's French translation (2000). The first strategy concerns the crafting of chains of anaphoric reference, and may be understood with reference to Jakobson's cognitive function. The second strategy is that of harnessing repetition, associated with the poetic function, to construct discernible patterns around ambiguous or obscure terms, towards facilitating their interpretation. Both strategies become necessary due to the incommensurability of languages (Jakobson [1959]2000, 129).
Domaines
Linguistique
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