ANTHONY PYM ON TRANSLATING AND TRANSCENDENCE

TRANSCENDENCE The moving of a text from one speech event to another. (Not a quality of the text itself; it does not concern original utterance.) Translators are often called upon to enact transcendence. To create an aura of legitimacy and power (over time and space, and thus people). © Intercultural Studies Group

A MODEL Translations mark the borders of cultures. Transcendent messages travel:... Culture A, Tr, Culture B, Tr, Culture C, Tr, Culture D... … Culture A, Tr, Culture B…... Tr, Culture A, Tr... © Intercultural Studies Group

A CULTURAL TECHNOLOGY Stone For difficult correction And unforeseeable reception © Intercultural Studies Group

30 SPELLING MISTAKES? © Intercultural Studies Group

A TRANSCENDENT TEXT Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us, where they lie, side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their [sic] sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well. Atatürk 1934 © Intercultural Studies Group

GALLIPOLI STONES, 1978 © Intercultural Studies Group

GALLIPOLI STONES, 1978 © Intercultural Studies Group

ATATÜRK MONUMENT, CANBERRA, 1985 © Intercultural Studies Group

ATATÜRK MONUMENT, ANZAC COVE, 1985 © Intercultural Studies Group

ATATÜRK MONUMENT, WELLINGTON, 1990 © Intercultural Studies Group

BUT HE NEVER SAID IT… © Intercultural Studies Group

THE TURKISH TEXT Burada bir dost vatanın toprağındasınız. Huzur ve sükûn içinde uyuyunuz. Sizler, Mehmetçiklerle yanyana, koyun koyunasınız. Uzak diyarlardan evlâtlarını harbe gönderen analar! Gözyaşlarınızı dindiriniz. Evlâtlarınız bizim bağrımızdadır. Huzur içindedirler ve huzur içinde rahat uyuyacaklardır. Onlar, bu toprakta canlarını verdikten sonra, artık bizim evlâtlarımız olmuşlardır. Atatürk 1934 © Intercultural Studies Group

“ THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE JOHNNIES AND THE MEHMETS TO US ” Sizler: You are Mehmet-: common Turkish given name, hence metonym for “rank and file soldier” -çik-: diminutive, expressing affection -ler-: plural -le: with yanyana: side by side koyun koyunasınız: lying embracing each other (as friends, or cuddled up like children) © Intercultural Studies Group

THE MISSING ELEMENTS “Johnnies” “no difference” “to us” How do you translate “Mehmets”? (cultural correspondence + compensation + translation couplet) Are “our sons” different? (explicitation; compensation) And surely this is all “to us”? (explicitation) © Intercultural Studies Group

A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS The heart of military shrines in Australia has a monument to an enemy commander. You need a promise of conciliation, resolution. Hence the translation. © Intercultural Studies Group

A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS A Turk speaking to Turks at an old military site would talk about something else: There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us, where they lie, side by side here in this country of ours. Means: leave them there. “…. the monuments of the invaders, or the untouched traces of the heroes left here in the form of sacred stones and soil … we want no more death monuments” (Atatürk 1931) © Intercultural Studies Group

A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS © Intercultural Studies Group

TRANSCENDENCE The translators can recover the polysemy of texts. Cultures distort the message.... Tr, Culture A, Tr... And yet the text remains meaningful (iterable). How so? © Intercultural Studies Group

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO [… ] the idea erupts in my mind like a rapid illumination, whereas my speech is long and delayed and not at all like the idea, and while I speak, the thought has hidden in its secret place. The idea has left no more than a few vestiges imprinted in my memory, and these vestiges linger throughout the slowness of my words. From those vestiges we construe sounds, and we speak Latin, or Greek, or Hebrew, or any other language. But the vestiges are not Latin, nor Greek, nor Hebrew, nor of any other community. They are formed in the mind, just as a facial expression is formed in the body. (c.400; my translation) © Intercultural Studies Group

UNDERSTANDING THROUGH SUFFERING? © Intercultural Studies Group

NEGATIVE ETHICS Popper (1952: ): there is no symmetry between happiness and suffering. © Intercultural Studies Group