A Theoretical and Practical Approach to Literary Translation: The Case of Poetry.

Abstract

This paper gives a brief and general account of theories of translation, addressing frequent problems such as the differences between the systems of signifiers and signifieds of two languages or the difficulty in reproducing the authorial style of a poem. The theories developed by Nabokov (“absolute fidelity to the original”) and Bonnefoy (“enriching the language”) will be discussed. As a practical example, translations of the American poet Thomas Merton into Spanish will be presented, together with a comparative analysis of some of the versions by the Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal, paying attention to usual errors in the practice of translation.