“Translation as Mutation”: Ciaran Carson’s In the Light of

Authors

  • Elisabeth Delattre Centre for Irish Studies, University of Lille3

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24162/EI2019-8790

Keywords:

Language, Music, Rimbaud, Translating, Verse

Abstract

This article deals with the way Ciaran Carson has managed to translate, or rather “mutate”, some of Arthur Rimbaud’s prose poems Illuminations into an entirely different work, a verse collection in alexandrines, while keeping close to the original spirit. This article will follow three movements, first the form and structure, then the matter of translation proper, and finally the overall tone of the collection which relies on the music of the language itself.

Author Biography

Elisabeth Delattre, Centre for Irish Studies, University of Lille3

Elisabeth Delattre is the author of a PhD thesis on the work of the novelist J.G.Farrell and of articles on Farrell, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Nuala O’Faolain and Ciaran Carson published in peer-reviewed journals such as Etudes Irlandaises, Estudios Irlandeses or Irish Studies Review. She is a research associate with the Centre for Irish Studies, the CECILLE Centre of the University of Lille3 (http://cecille.recherche.univ-lille3/auteur/delattre-e).

References

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Carson, Ciaran. A Pocket Guide to Irish Traditional Music. Belfast: Appletree Press, 1986.

———. First Language. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1987.

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———. The Alexandrine Plan. Versions of Sonnets by Baudelaire, Mallarmé and Rimbaud. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1998.

———. The Twelfth of Never. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 1998.

———. The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, a new translation. London: Granta, 2002.

———. The Midnight Court. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 2005.

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———. Collected Poems. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 2008.

———. In the Light of. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 2012.

———. From Elsewhere. Loughcrew: Gallery Press, 2014.

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Delattre, Elisabeth. “Traduction et recréation dans The Alexandrine Plan de Ciaran Carson”. Sources n° 15, revue d’études anglophones. Orléans: Paradigme, 2003. 152-165.

Denman, Peter. “Language and the Prosodic Line in Carson’s Poetry”. Ciaran Carson: Critical Essays. Ed. Elmer Kennedy-Andrews. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2009. 28-44.

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Michaud, Jon. “The Exchange: Ciaran Carson”. The New Yorker. 18 May 2009. 6 November 2013. www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-exchange-ciaran-carson.

O’Malley, J.P. “Interview with Ciaran Carson on translating Rimbaud”. The Spectator. 2 November 2012. 6 November 2013. https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/books/2012/11/interview-ciaran-carson-on-translating-Rimbaud

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Tyler, Meg (moderator). 2013. “A Reading and Conversation with Ciaran Carson”. 8 May 2013. 7 November 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOtJe7jdgdcs

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Published

2019-03-17

How to Cite

Elisabeth Delattre. (2019). “Translation as Mutation”: Ciaran Carson’s In the Light of. Estudios Irlandeses, 14(1), 41–50. https://doi.org/10.24162/EI2019-8790