Introduction
Although homophonic translation has been recognized as a translation strategy, it has not been nearly as commonly used as an adaptation or even foreignizing strategy. In translation practice it is, in fact, not an understatement to say that it has not been fully appreciated and consequently, it has been marginalized.. It is usually the case that some theories are viewed as more ‘conventional’ than others. Homophonic translation is a result of the most direct and spontaneous contact with the language, not its grammar and orthography rules established by linguists, and this makes it a curious phenomenon worthy of investigation. The purpose of this project is to present the most influential artists and thinkers whose work led to the establishment and development of homophonic translation and to explore their marginal status; homophonic translations have been inspired by spontaneous play with ‘living’ language rather than by strict conforming to established rules. This situation also requires an exploration of who constitutes the audience for the homophonic translation.
The paper will be divided into four chapters. The first one, “Adaptation/Foreignization And The Remainder” is a brief presentation of the four most commonly used translation strategies: adaptation, foreignization, literary translation, and domestication. The boundaries between these strategies are not always as clear as I sketch them; for the purpose of the present study, however, it is necessary to be familiar with the basic concepts of translation strategies, not the intricate relations between them. Following the presentation of the conventional’ translation methods is a discussion of a “homophone,” mainly, its definition as an important introduction to the concept of homophonic translation.
In the Second Chapter, “Senses and Inspirations,” I am discussing the reasons that may motivate someone to practice homophonic translation despite its marginal status. I am first exploring the relation between having partial or no sight and being sensitive to music and sounds in general. The importance of sounds in homophonic translation is one of the main factors that has immediately attracted my attention since I myself have to combine the sense of sight and the sense of hearing on an everyday basis.
Moreover, my own experience of being multilingual has led me to believe that there is a strong connection between knowing and using several foreign languages, and one’s sensitivity to language. The more languages one is exposed to, the clearer it becomes that many words and expressions are so idiosyncratic to any given language that they cannot be directly translated across the array of target languages. In homophonic translation, especially in its “challenging” form, which I will explain in the Third and the Fourth Chapters, every word is important and cannot be replaced with any other word, i.e. for the same reason of being understood by a wider audience.
The next two sections discuss Jean-Jacques Lecercle’s “Remainder Theory,” which he develops in his book The Violence of Language. The concept is important because it embraces all language games, wordplay, unusual syntax, etc, all of which are essential tools for homophonic translators.
In the Third Chapter my goal is to present the individuals who have contributed to the development of homophonic translation--as practice rather than theory--their different ways of understanding the concept and their various purposes of practicing it. The chapter begins with one of the first practitioners of homophonic translation, Jean-Pierre Brisset, who was using it to defend his para scientific linguistic and religious views, as well as his views on human origins. The next section presents Louis Wolfson, a schizophrenic and Anglophobe, who used homophonic translation as the solution to avoid his exposure to and communication in the English language. The idea of communication is discussed in the next section from a different, more philosophical perspective, that of Willard V. Quine and Gilbert Harman. For them, homophonic translation is a process that occurs anytime there is a dialogue between two or more humans; for Harman, this process occurs even between one’s thoughts and utterances.
The next section is devoted to Van Rooten, Ormonde de Kay and Gustav Hulme, the three practitioners of homophonic translation who translated nursery rhymes. The translations are extremely humorous as they incorporate elaborate and inventive footnotes that have the power to make the nursery rhyme look like an old manuscripts or poems. The two remaining sections stay within the realm of literary homophonic translation: one focuses on a poet, Louis Zukofsky, who strove to translate both the sound and the sense of the foreign text, the other discusses the work of the contemporary poets, David Melnick and Charles Bernstein, who focus on sounds and ignore the meaning of the original text.
While Zukofsky’s is a challenging translation due to the aims he was trying to accomplish, Melnick’s and Bernstein’s is a playful one. I explore these two concepts of homophonic translation in the Fourth Chapter, in which I present my own translations from Chinese into English, Polish into English, and French into English. In the final section of the chapter I discuss the question of audience who is receptive to homophonic translation and who may contribute to its bigger marginalization or development in the future.