Octavio Paz: A Prodigy of Poetic Translation

OCTAVIO PAZ AND THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION Octavio Paz: A Prodigy of Poetic Translation Sophia Dichari File Number: 47677 Lebanese University – Branch 5: Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 2 Abstract This study involves the delving into the mechanics of translation through the lens presented by the well-acclaimed Mexican essayist, poet, and diplomat: Octavio Paz. His views on the translation will be thoroughly discussed on the basis of language and how the use of language operates as a key that opens a myriad of doors of opportunities within the process of translating. His theories are showcased in both his article “Translation: Literature and Letters” (1952) and an interview conducted by Edwin Henig in “Conversations with Translators: II” (1975), depicting translation as an art that is further elevated by the dexterity of creation and originality residing within the universally human aspect of language that is especially unveiled through the beauty that encompasses poetic translation. Keywords: translation, poetry, language, creation, originality Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 3 Introduction Noam Chomsky once said that: “language is the process of free creation” (Chomsky, 1987) – thus, translation is said to be a conscious freedom where translators channel an exuberant wave of shadows and echoes into the words that they are translating in an attempt to achieve both individuality and a distinct direction in writing. This is to emphasize that translation is never a one-dimensional process because the essence of language within its mechanics is strictly multidimensional. Through translation, we are placed in worlds that may exhibit a different smell, shape, and form – however, because of the gentleness of the translator’s pen and his diligence, we feel that we’ve never set foot outside of our being; we are in fact familiarized with this brand new world and that is because the translator takes into consideration the beauty and rhyme of a culture that we know nothing about and successfully births the same punch of emotions that beings already residing within that world have felt and experienced. This is typically hard to achieve in the translation of poetry – some believe that translating poetry by the medium of literariness kills the joyful experience that initial receivers have felt while reading. Thus, the art of “shadows and echoes” was firstly presented by the Mexican poet and essayist, Octavio Paz whose stance of the notion of translation has accumulated brand new vistas in the perception of language in terms of originality, creation, and ultimately translation within the poetic structure. To begin with, we must become acquainted with the person behind the act of translation. Octavio Paz (b. 1914) of Spanish descent born in the city of Mexico is an outstanding poet and prose stylist, essayist, and diplomat. His fundamental study of the Mexican identity, “The Labyrinth of Solitude” (1950), and his journal ‘Taller’ (Workshop) contributed to the rise of a new generation of Mexican writers marked by great literary sensibility influenced by Paz’s own Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 4 body of work. Thus, he is the central pillar on which the Spanish culture firmly rests upon. His poetic structure is backed up by the belief that poetry constitutes "the secret religion of the modern age”. Without poetry, life is unfathomably dull and meaningless. To him, poetry is meaning and that is what evidently brought him down the route of translation. Edwin Honig’s “Conversations with Translators: II” (1975) features an interview with the Spanish poet. When asked about what made him branch out and leave his mark in the field of translation, Paz answered saying: “it was desire, love-and with love, the desire for participation” (Paz, 1975). His desire for reading English poetry written by the great poetic minds like that of T.S Eliot was the fuel that ignited the first spark in pursuing a deeper understanding of what it is to translate and how a perfect literary translation must be conducted. Paz emphasizes that translation is more or so a “didactic impulse and moral urge” (Paz, 1975) – meaning that the motive is that of an educational purpose but that is not always the case. In this interview, Edwin Honig, reinforces the central question that links language and poetry with the art of translation, originality, and creation. Posing Robert Frost’s infamous sentiment on the issue of poetry and translation that states that “poetry is what gets lost in translation”. It circles around the idea that translation is either “impossible or a fraud” (Paz, 1975). Octavio Paz believes that in the translation of textual material like novels and articles, “the text as text is lost” (Paz, 1975), but when it comes to poetic translation (which is his main field of enquiry), a text is not lost but simply transformed. He disregards Frost’s sentiment saying that “poetry” is what ultimately “gets transformed”. He says that the poem is not the text; on the contrary, it is the text that produces the poem. In a regular prose translation, he concludes that, within the domain of writing, symbols are “things that produce meanings”. However, meanings are not things – if Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 5 anything, they are fluid entities that can neither be seen nor touched but only felt. In poetry, you cannot separate the symbol from the meaning. It is then an essential part of poetic translation: “poetry is the marriage of the sensual or physical half of language with its ideal or mental half” (Paz, 1975). Paz commences on saying that the art that is translation is put into work when dealing with poetry, which is another form of art. Contrary to beliefs, he negates that poetic translation is rendered impossible. According to him, the text is lost, however, a well-read translator will be able to reproduce a similar effect through different medium of poetic substance. Paz emphasizes on the word “similar” and not “identical” because he believes that translation is the “art of analogy and the art of finding correspondences” and not the art of delivering exactly the same literary meaning. Literary meanings, to Paz, deflate the poetic effect that the original poet aimed to achieve. After all, poetry is an extension of plurality – if you cannot find a single meaning in the original poem, do not expect a straight forward word for word translation: “only mathematics and logic can be translated in a literal sense”, but the language of poetry is an art reflecting a multiplicity of meanings. Moreover, literary translations do not make for interesting literary effects. Paz’s point of view on poetic translation “is [that it is] the art of producing” where a different text produces a poem similar to the original. The creative process behind a translation lies in the translator’s ability to bring something new and original to the translation itself: “each version is an original and distinct poem” (Paz, 1952). Like in the manner of composing a poem, the poet is focused on the two aspects of invention and repetition: “when you write a poem you are inventing something, but you are also repeating something very old” (Paz, 1975). Paz believes that a certain balance should be achieved within these two methods claiming that too much invention is disastrous and makes the poem too complex, while too much imitations makes for a boring and stale piece of literature. That is the same case with translation Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 6 and creation: “translation is only one degree of this balance between repetition and invention, tradition and creation” (Paz, 1975). Translation is important to poetry as poetry is of importance to the field of translation, Paz mentions that “between the language of the universe and the universe of language, there is a bridge, a link” (Paz, 1975) and the ties that bind the language of the universe and the universe of language is non-other but poetry. True, poetry is expressed in language, but it is essential to understand that poetry transcends the realm of language – it is a creation process that goes in the opposite direction. Thus, “translation and creation” are twin process within such art. In the words of Charles Baudelaire, the French poet: “the poet is the translator; he is the universal translators and the translator of the universe”. Octavio Paz compares the process of creation and originality in translation to the French biologist, Francois Jacob’s theory on the structural organization of the cell found in his book “Logique du vivant” or “The Logic of Life” (1970). The main concept of this theory involves how the whole genetic program of cells responds to the act of “duplication”; however, in order to duplicate, they must “die”. So, the realm of everything that encompasses life is death – “duplication and death” (Paz, 1975). Octavio exclaims: “The universe speaks and it says: die-and duplicate!” (Paz, 1975). Unlike, cellular molecules, man; or in this case ‘the translator’ has an ego, a soul. He is unique and strives to preserve his uniqueness for eternity – “he does not want self-duplication but preservation, or, if you like, self-perpetuation” (Paz, 1975). So, in this way it is not duplication, but “transformation”. A good translator is then , according to Paz, is one who recognizes that the process of translation is not a mere act of duplication, but a rapid transformation of the content in a way that it would still say the same thing, but at the same time say it differently. So, the creative process of a translation must express an essence of originality rather than mere duplicating and imitating what is already there. Imitation is the sister of translation, however, we Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 7 must not mistake one for the other. Furthermore, Paz elucidates that “we were only the instruments of another author. This author was language itself-the language which was also changing as we wrote, changing with the tongue of each poet” (Paz, 1975); implying that a same text can produce a different variety of translations throughout the years. To elaborate on this point, he gives an example of Shakespeare’s works and the different attitudes it presents with respect to translation: “when you're reading Shakespeare you're doing a translation-translating him into the American sensibility in the twentieth century, for example” (Paz, 1975). Because Paz was an aspiring poet himself, he mainly focused on the translation of poetry. His article “Translation: Literature and Letters” (1952), forms the discussion of poetry and poetic translation unraveling in a more theoretical light exhibiting the universal human activity that lies within the art of translation. Paz believes that translation is an innate characteristic developed in humans since birth. He elaborates by depicting an exchange between a child and his mother – “the child who asks his mother the meaning of a word is really asking her to translate the unfamiliar into the simple words he already knows” (Paz, 1952). Based on that notion, we ask ourselves whether translation within the same language is any different than the translation between two diverse tongues. The answer to that question is yes – language is in fact far from universal, Paz says. There is a “plurality of languages” (Paz, 1952) where each tongue creates an aura of confusion and otherness. This is where the field of translation steps in; unlike languages, translation is universal and works as a bridge across cultural incongruities. Paz's own view on this matter is the same as he argues that: "All people can communicate with and understand each other. And they can do so because in any language men always say the same thing." (Paz, 1952). Thus, each language is a view of the world and each civilization lives within that microcosm of worlds. However, with language comes the inexorable curse of misunderstandings. This occurred Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 8 with the rise of modernity and the downfall of human connection, Paz believed that each nation was imprisoned within its own language, societal constructs, and cross ideologies. Because of this, the idea of translation seemed to be far-fetches, however, instead, “there has been a contradictory and complementary trend to translate even more” (Paz, 1952). He establishes that each translation is unique and should be independent from its source text. Moreover, Paz elaborates that no text can be a hundred percent authentic, because language itself is already a translation. He makes a comparison between the notion of “literally” and “literary” translation – impeaching literal translation deeming it to be “a glossary” and not an actual translation. The process of translating a text into another language is strictly based on literary translation, because translation itself is a literary activity that creates a completely novel body of work without the change of meaning. This rings true to poetic translation which received a lot of backlash within the translating field. Paz believes that the translation of poetry is in fact possible arguing that “the of best poems in every Western language are translations” (Paz, 1952) – if anything, he finds it offensive that linguists, like George Mounin, deem poetry to be untranslatable: “perhaps their opinion comes from their inordinate attachment ·to verbal matter, or perhaps they have become ensnared in the trap of subjectivity” (Paz, 1952). Also, contrary to Structuralist beliefs, Paz establishes that translation is indeed a literary science arguing that if “literature is a specialized function of language, translation is a specialized function of literature” (Paz, 1952). Thus, Octavio Paz exhibits a sensible and practical approach to translation that is still relevant to this day. As a conclusion, language is what makes the world habitable. The Spanish poet, diplomat, and eventually translator: Octavio Paz through his work establishes the key concepts of creation and originality within the art of translation and language. The practice of translation, Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 9 according to Paz, starts with love – you must love the text, acquire the necessary techniques that will aid you in the act of translating, and most importantly feel inspired by the text that you are translating. Observe every curve and twist of a word and reflect upon the ideas that inspire you to pursue this literary piece. It’s important to know that inspiration does not come from the stars, but from the inside – working. Working on understanding what gifts each line and every culture has to offer you – only then will you be able to process the interdependence between creation and imitation and birth a new original translation from a new original text. Octavio Paz and the Process of Translation 10 References Honig, E. (1976). Conversations with Translators, II: Octavio Paz and Richard Wilbur. MLN, 91(5), 1073-1083. doi:10.2307/2907116 Paz, O. (1952). Translation: Literature and Letters (1170360294 877705606 I. D. Corral, Trans.). Translation: Literature and Letters, 1-12. doi:https://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/paz_literature_and_letters.pdf (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2021, from https://poets.org/poet/octavio-paz