Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Károly Szokolay: The problems of translating poetry

KÁROLY SZOKOLAY THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATING POETRY Abstract: Translating poetry from one language into others has always been a complicated task for translators because of several reasons. One of them is the different characters of the different languages from a poetic point of view, another is the different possibilities of expressing the same feelings, ideas, music in different languages. I have tried to collect the views of poets in various countries with different languages concerning the translation of poetry. At the same time I would like to demonstrate the high quality of poetry translation by the greatest Hungarian poets. Most translators, poets, linguist and theorists of literary translation agree in stating that poetry cannot be translated perfectly or even adequately from one language into another. This does not mean that they are against verse translation. Let me quote some authors to illustrate this. Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle (USA) say that "No translation of a poem is the same as the original, but half of the sense of a great poem is better than none at all."

1 David Daiches (Great Britain) says, "I do not believe that most poetry can be adequately translated. But I believe that we should keep on trying, as the attempt, however imperfect, keeps us aware of the living reality of other literatures and of the insights achieved by writers who operate in an unknown language."

2 Edwin Morgan, the well-known Scottish poet and translator of Hungarian poetry is more pessimistic about the successful translation of poetry. He acknowledges that "poetry is the most difficult kind of utterance to translate" and adds at the same time that "not everyone would go as far as the American poet Robert Frost who said that poetry is what gets lost in translation."

3 Sceptically, other specialists give different explanations. Merwin Jones (Great Britain) says, for example, that his disbelief may be based upon an old prejudice. But as a novelist he does believe that prose can be translated.

4 Michael Hamburger (Great Britain), however, does not make a distinction between translating poetry on the one hand and prose and drama on the other. He says, „I believe that some poetry is at least as translatable as any kind of literature, such as novels and plays."

5 Jascha Kessler (USA) believes in adequate translations of poetry, but only on condition it is done by poets. He stands by his own experience as a 129