Translating “Mathematics”
The translation of spoken word
Maaike de Glopper 3963101
1-11-2015
Supervisor and First Reader: Dr. Onno Kosters, Second Reader: Lette Vos
A Latin transcription of the word person is “being of sound”.
As human beings, we communicate with each other and the
greater universe through sound vibrations. It is thus the
essence of our collective being.
- Saul Williams
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
2
Abstract
3
Introduction
4
Chapter 1: What is Spoken Word?
5
Chapter 2: Problems in Translation
7
Chapter 3: Analysis
10
Translation
18
Notes to Translation
20
Conclusion
23
List of Works Cited
25
Annex: “Mathematics”
27
2
ABSTRACT
The aim of this thesis is to explore the translation problems that arise when translating spoken
word. It will explore translation problems and strategies by presenting the reader with a
translation of the poem “Mathematics” by Hollie McNish.
First, a general definition of spoken word will be given after which the problems that
arise when translating poetry and spoken word will be elaborated upon. This elaboration is
followed by an in-depth analysis of both the source text, “Mathematics”, and the target text.
Following the analysis is a translation strategy, after which the reader will be presented with
an annotated translation.
In conclusion, the exploration of the translation and theoretical background shows that
the translation of spoken words does not differ much from the translation of poetry. The
translator is faced with an extra dimension, the ‘performability’ of the piece, that he or she
needs to keep in mind at all stages during translating.
3
INTRODUCTION
Spoken word in its most basic form is one of the oldest art forms; an oral tradition that has
been around for centuries. The invention of the printing press caused the oral tradition to
slowly die out until spoken word and subsequently Slam Poetry first made its appearance in
the 1980s. Spoken word combines poetry with performance. According to Marc Smith “the
general public looked at poetry readings with disdain” (About 119) and this needed to change.
Smith is the self-professed inventor of Slam Poetry and states that Slam “brings passion back
into an art form that was becoming too much of an elite intellectual exercise” (120). The
history of spoken word shows that despite its seemingly sudden appearance in the 1980s,
there exists a more gradual development that started a few decades earlier with the 1960s Beat
Generation.
This thesis will explore the difficulties presented by translating spoken word from
English into Dutch and whether the translation problems vary from those encountered when
translating written poetry.
First, the general difficulties that come with translation will be explored. Next we
zoom in on the translation of poetry. Gottfried Ben stated as recently as 1951 that “man can
define the poem as untranslatable” (510)1. Great literary figures such as the American poet
Robert Frost argued “that poetry is what is lost in translation” (Robinson ix). Eventually, we
zoom in even further and explore the task of translating spoken word from English into
Dutch.
We will look at the problems presented by spoken word by making a translation of the
poem “Mathematics” by Hollie McNish. Various translation decisions will be elaborated upon
in footnotes.
1
Translation by author, original: “Man kann das Gedicht als das Unübersetzbare definieren.”
4
CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS SPOKEN WORD?
Spoken word is a type of performance art that is centuries old, but has only recently made its
comeback. According to Marc Smith, it “carries the oral tradition forward, encouraging
today’s poets and performance artists to address the modern human condition by bringing to
life (and the spotlight) personal, political, social, and spiritual concerns” (Take the Mic 18).
But how did spoken word make its comeback? In the 1950s and 1960s “the beatniks and
hippies rekindled interest in spoken-word poetry” by organizing big poetry readings (Smith,
20). One of the most memorable poetry readings is the reading of Howl by Allen Ginsberg. It
was one of the first readings to attract a massive audience, partially due to its provocative
nature. Billy Collins notes that “although not a direct link in terms of style, certainly the Beat
readings were a seedling in the importance of reading poetry aloud” (12). Spoken word
includes all kinds of styles and people from all facets of life, as opposed to the Beats who
were more of an elite group. Spoken word really began “in the world of the American ghettos,
where marginalized, ethnic groups were looking for ways to express their sociocritical
protests” consequently “a multicultural literary movement formed with orality as its
distinctive feature” (Westermayr, 12)2. This literary movement became better known as
spoken word and over the years developed into what we now know as hip hop.
In the early 1900s poetry readings were no longer a common occurrence and when
they did happen they often took place in small bookstores or libraries and attracted few
people. John Giorno was one of the first to combine poetry with performance in the early
1960s. He “created “environment” poetry, where the setting of the poetry reading becomes
just as important as the reading” (Eleveld, 63). Poetry readings started to attract more people,
but became really popular when Marc Smith and the rest of the Chicago Poetry Ensemble
introduced a phenomenon called Slam Poetry. Slam Poetry was a kind of competition
2
Translation by author, original: “In der Welt der amerikanischen Ghettos, in denen die marginalisierten
ethnischen Gruppen nack Ausdrucksformen für sozialkritischen Protest suchten”, “formierte sich eine
multikulturelle literarische Bewegung mit Mündlichkeit als spezifieschem Merkmal”
5
between the different poets performing and a jury would be picked randomly from the
audience. It brought back excitement to the readings and ignited a competitiveness that drove
poets to create more ingenious poetry. Smith states that he “was driven by the belief that if
poetry were to be performed artfully and with passion it would attract audiences from all
sectors of life” (Take the Mic 22). Slam Poetry grew to be bigger than anyone ever expected
with festivals attracting thousands of people every year. One of the things that makes slam so
popular is the fact that is realizes that “the audience matters” (McDaniel, 63). During the
1990s, Slam Poetry made its way to Europe, becoming popular in countries like the UK,
Germany, and the Netherlands.
However, a distinction needs to be made between spoken word and Slam Poetry.
Although spoken word is performed during poetry slams, they are not the same thing. The
purpose of a poetry slam is challenging poets to be creative and often pushes them to think on
their feet. Poetry slam is a competition, whereas there is no jury at a spoken word
performance. A big part of poetry slam is performance art; groups like the Chicago Poetry
Ensemble would perform entire shows that were combinations of poetry, sound installations,
dance, theatre, and so on. Spoken word is, in a sense, a more basic form of performance
poetry. Even though it still relies on performance, it does not rely on performance art per se.
Spoken word is about the poet and his or her poetry; there might be music, but usually it is
nothing more than the poet reading on a stage. This sounds like the excitement of the poetry
slam has once again been lost and this particular poetry movement regressed back to the days
of a poet presenting their poetry in “a lifeless monotone that droned on and one (Smith, 118),
but this is not true. Whereas poetry slam gets its excitement from its competitive and
boisterous nature, spoken word is exciting because it makes poetry come to life with nothing
more than a poet, a stage, and maybe some music.
6
CHAPTER 2: TRANSLATION PROBLEMS IN POETRY AND SPOKEN WORD
Writing about and documenting the problems encountered during translating dates back to as
early as Cicero, who distinguished two different translation methods: the ut interpres method
and the ut orator method. The former is the literal method, whereas the latter is the free
method (Van Leuven-Zwart 23). Cicero’s distinction carries on throughout the centuries and it
is not until the 19th century that translation scholars start contributing their own methods and
theories about translation.
The problems that arise when translating prose have been discussed at length, but this
thesis is more interested in the problems that occur when translating poetry. Because spoken
word is first and foremost a poetic endeavour, it is important to understand the various
obstacles a translator might encounter and what strategies he or she may use when translating
a poem.
According to Bronzwaer, poetry activates a function of language that nullifies the
ambiguous or conventional nature of words; poetry becomes something in and of itself and
does not necessarily shape the world around it. The poetic function of language strives to
make these unconventional language-signs into icons (370). At their best, icons are unique,
and thus practically impossible to translate. Does this mean that poetry is untranslatable?
James S. Holmes states in his essay “Forms of Verse Translation and the Translation
of Verse Form” that the translation of a poem is not really a translation at all but rather a
creation of a so-called metapoem. This metapoem stands between two extremes: the critical
essay in the language of the poem, and a poem inspired by the poem (24). It allows room for
creativity and useful solutions without giving up on the idea that translation of poetry is
possible. The metapoem provides the space to explore shifts in style and semantics without
alienating the audience from the original poem. The translation of “Mathematics” for this
thesis could also be called a metapoem. In fact, any translation of poetry could and should be
7
called a metapoem. According to Holmes, the translator cannot achieve a perfect copy or
translation of a poem in one language from another language, and thus the metapoem
functions as a compromise; it is a form of poetry that stands between a literal translation and
an entirely new poem based on the original. The concept of the metapoem gives the translator
the freedom to adapt the poem in the target language without losing its status as a translation.
Diederik Grit discusses the translation of realia, or culturally determined elements of a
text. Because spoken word historically has a political background and is used as a platform to
express social, political and cultural issues, it is often laced with cultural elements. Grit states
that the translation strategy of these elements relies on three factors: text type, goal of the text,
and the target audience. Based on the facts presented by these three factors, the translator can
choose from various translation strategies. Grit presents us with 8 different strategies and
notes that these strategies can be combined wherever necessary: the use of enforcement, a
loan translation, approximation, description or definition in target language, core translation,
adaption, or omission (190-193). These various strategies could prove useful when translating
spoken word.
So, what then is the difference between spoken word and poetry? Billy Collins states
that “spoken word encompasses many movements, yet they all share a common credo –
namely, that their poetry is designed to be performed in front of an audience” (xii). Spoken
word is written to be heard instead of read. This adds an extra dimension that the translator
needs to keep into account every step of the way. This extra dimension reminds of the
‘performability’ that has been an issue in the translating of theatre and drama for a long time.
Susan Bassnett states that “attempts to define the ‘performability’ inherent in a text never go
further than generalized discussion about the need for fluent speech rhythms in the target text”
(102). Like the translation of theatre, there is not much academic research into the translation
of performance poetry. This is a shame, because performance poetry encounters similar
8
difficulties to theatre when it comes to translation. Bassnett notes that “the principal problems
facing the translator involve close engagement with the text on page and the need to find
solutions for a series of problems that are primarily linguistic ones” (111).
Burton Raffel has looked at the translation of oral or oral-connected poetry and states
that the “two highest priorities (…) must be genre and structure, with the latter incorporating
both formal external structures and such internal structuring devices as (…) stress-alliteration
prosody, and (…) balanced eight-syllable lines” (156). Unlike Bassnett, Raffel notes that it is
structure, rather than linguistic problems, that is more important. This is interesting since oral
poetry and theatre are, when it comes to the performance dimension, really not that different.
In both cases the translator needs to keep into account the elusive ‘performability’ that
Bassnett speaks of. Bassnett and Raffel seem to avoid the abstract concept of ‘performability’
in favour of pointing out concrete problems that arise when translating oral poetry, whether it
be theatre or a poem.
It is then in this sense that spoken word differs greatly from written poetry. The
translator needs to keep in mind during all stages of translation, from the analysis to the final
editing of the translation, that the text needs to be performed and not read. Because there
seems to be no general consensus on what ‘performability’ exactly entails, each translator is
forced to assign his or her own meaning to this particular concept. This means that the
interpretation of oral poetry and the strategies used to translate oral poetry can differ greatly
from translator to translator.
9
CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS
The mock assignment for this particular translation is that it has been commissioned by
Typhoon, a well-known Dutch spoken word poet. On the 6th of April the Stadsschouwburg in
Amsterdam is hosting a show called “SPOKEN: Dichter bij de Dichter – Black Ice Edition”.
Given the current immigration crisis in Europe, Typhoon has decided to criticize the
prejudices against immigrants that exist throughout the country. Instead of reciting one of his
own works, he has decided to perform the poem “Mathematics” by Hollie McNish. In order
for the poem to work Typhoon wishes it to be culturally relevant and topical for his audience.
This means that both pragmatic and cultural-specific translation problems will be the biggest
challenge for this particular text. To come up with a proper translation strategy, both sourceand target text need to be analysed. Christiane Nord developed a theory to aid the process of
analysis revolving around the following question:
Who writes with what goal to whom by means of what medium where when why a
text with what function? About what does it (not) say something in what order, using
what non-verbal elements, what kind of words what kind of sentences and what kind
of tone with what effect? (146)
The analysis will help point out specific translation problems that can be divided into four
different categories. 1. Pragmatic translation problems: the source text relies on preliminary
knowledge of the source audience, knowledge that is not (necessarily) shared by the target
audience, 2. Culture-specific translation problems: the source text incorporates cultural
references specific to the source culture and therefore not shared by the target culture, 3.
Language-pair specific translation problems: problems that are the result of structural
differences between the source- and target language, 4. Text-specific translation problems:
10
problems specific to an individual text and whose solutions cannot be used for other texts
(Nord 147).
The analysis will answer the (relevant parts of) the question devised by Nord and
illustrate the different sets of translation problems it discovers by using examples from the
source text. The answers and examples will also be divided into the four categories to ensure a
complete overview of the problems that will present themselves. Following this analysis will
be a translation strategy that attempts to cope with the previously discussed translation
problems and provides a way to solve them.
According to Nord, the translator should always analyse the target text before
analysing the source text. For the purpose of this thesis, the analysis of the source text
precedes the analysis of the target text to make sure the reader has a significant grasp of the
text intended for translation before discussing the translation relevant analysis and translation
strategies.
Source text
The text was written by UK-based poet Hollie McNish. She posted a video of her reciting the
poem “Mathematics” on YouTube on the 2nd of February 2013. The poem is also included in
her collection Cherry Pie, published in 2015. It is one of her better known poems and she
regularly incorporates it in her performances on festivals. The medium used is Spoken Word
and the poem is available in both verbal form (on YouTube and her cd Versus) and written
form (in her collection Cherry Pie). This analysis is based on the written form.
The poem consists of 56 lines and its rhymes are seemingly random. The structure of
the content reminds of a sonnet, in the sense that it juxtaposes two opinions against each
other. The poem exposes the prejudices against immigrants in the UK. It encourages people to
think about and discuss the way we view immigrants and deal with immigration. This much is
11
obvious when we look at the way the third person “he” is portrayed. The speaker cites the
statements he makes, many of which do not seem to be based on any real facts, and containing
crass language, such as “those goddamn pakistanis and their goddamn corner shops” (l.2).
The function of the poem is inspiring discussion, but its main goal seems to be refuting the
statements made by the third person. We can see this in lines as: “those goddamn chinese and
their goddamn china shops/ i tell him they’re from vietnam but he doesn’t give a toss” (l. 5-6)
and “there was no goddamn shop before those pakistanis came and planned” (l. 22) – note that
when it’s the speaker’s turn to talk it is a “goddamn shop” and they’re not “goddamn
pakistanis” but just “pakistanis”. Not only does the speaker try to refute the statements by
presenting facts: “i show him architects’ plans” (l. 20), the way “he” is represented indicates
that he is not too bothered by truth or facts, his ignorance is visible throughout the poem.
When asked how he knows that what he says is fact, he answers: “because it’s true” (l. 13)
and “it says it in the news” (l. 14). It is clear that a proper argument is not important, he rather
“dreams a scene of british workers’ jobs” and ignores the fact that immigrants also “spend”,
“lend” and “set up work” (l. 32-35). The way “he” is represented is indicative of the tone of
the rest of the poem.
The speaker sounds, at times, exasperated. That seems to be the overall tone of
“Mathematics”; exasperation and frustration, because why do people not get it? The speaker
is “sick of crappy mathematics” (l. 23) and “desperately want[s] to scream” (l. 30). The
previously mentioned opinions are described as “goddamn heated talk” (l. 39). This
frustration seems to stem from the fact that the statements made have little to no foundation. It
is again an attempt to point out ignorance.
The poem takes on the shape of an argumentative essay. First various statements are
made, then the speaker elaborates on these statements to subsequently try and refute them.
This creates a powerful message; by first showcasing what is being said by a large part of the
12
population and subsequently refusing to believe in these opinions and to then point out the
various things that are the advantages of immigration, as opposed to the popular opinion that
immigration brings nothing but disadvantages, McNish manages not only to persuade the
reader to think about immigration policy but to also make a case for immigration rather than
against.
It is interesting that McNish discusses prejudice amongst the population of Britain but
does not mention the actual immigration policies or the stances on immigration in politics.
This is remarkable because the political environment dictates the majority of opinions
amongst a population and the other way around; it is the population that keeps political debate
going. She does, however, mention the idea of immigrants coming and “[taking] away our
daily wage” (l. 31), an idea that seems to prevail today as well.
Non-verbal elements are sparse, although the publication in Cherry Pie is accompanied
by illustrations. The poem is surrounded by varying illustrations depicting people from
different nationalities. Another non-verbal element is the italicization of particular lines in the
poem. It is vital that the italicization is present in the translation as well, because they function
as quotations and directive clues for the performer. In lines 13 and 14, “i ask him how he
knows that fact – he says – because it’s true/ i ask him how he know it’s fact – he says – it
says it in the news” the statements made by “he” are italicized. In fact, all of the things said by
“he” are italicized, perhaps to separate his opinions from those of the speaker. The
italicization helps distinguish the speaker and the third person on paper, for example the line
“i ask him what was there before that damn japan man’s shop?” (l. 7) is a combination of the
speaker and a reference to what was said by “he” in previous lines, but it also aids the
performer in directing where exactly in the poem to put emphasis. This is especially useful
with a line such as “a british business stood here first – he claims – before the bloody irish
came” (l. 11). The Roman type of “he claims” as opposed to the italicization of the rest of the
13
line provides the extra emphasis needed to point out that what is being said is an opinion and
not necessarily a fact. This, then, is a text-specific translation problem that is easy to solve.
The italicization is useful for both performer and (possible) reader and thus needs to be
present in the translation as well.
Finally, we arrive at the most important part of the question, “what kind of words and
what kind of sentences” are being used? It is particularly helpful to look at the words and
sentences for this translation because it needs to be culturally appropriate for the target
audience. Since “Mathematics” was written for a British audience, and is about a British
audience, many cultural references are not shared by the Dutch target audience. In short, this
means that various terms, names, and mentioned nationalities are instantly recognizable for a
British audience, but the same is not true for a Dutch audience. Because Typhoon needs the
translation to be easy to understand for his audience - there is less time to think about cultural
references when listening to a poem instead of reading it – the many cultural references need
to be replaced with more appropriate ones for the target audience. Phrases such as “a british
business” and “british people” (l. 11-12) need to change.
Target text
It is important to note that Europe is currently dealing with an immigration crisis and so this
poem carries a big political message. It is supposed to make the audience reflect on the way
countries, specifically their own country, deals with immigrants, immigration, and
immigration policies. The translation will have to take on a critical tone, similar to the source
text, to reach the desired effect.
Because the translation will be delivered in written form, rather than in verbal form,
the translator needs to be aware of any directive clues that might be present in the source text.
The text is, after all, a piece to be performed, and it is vital not to oversee any clues that might
14
give insight into how the piece needs to be performed, where to put emphasis and where to
pause. These non-verbal elements are essential for the performer.
The biggest obstacle for the translator will be the cultural references. Because the
poem needs to be culturally relevant for a Dutch audience, many of the references need to be
replaced. The different nationalities of the immigrants mentioned in the poem – “pakistanis”,
“chinese”, “irish”, “turkish”, “somali”, and “caribbeans” (l. 2-18) – are not (always) relevant
for a Dutch audience. The relationship between the various countries these immigrants come
from and the UK also greatly differ from the relationship between them and the Netherlands.
For instance, Ireland and the UK have a vast and complicated history, whereas Ireland and the
Netherlands have very little shared history. It is then important to translate these nationalities
into more suitable ones, perhaps use Surinam instead of Pakistan, Indonesia instead of
Somalia, and so forth.
Most culture-specific translation problems can also be filed under pragmatic
translation problems and the other way around. A typical pragmatic problem is the term
“corner shop” used in line 2. It is assumed that the listener understands what a corner shop is
– “a small, general shop serving a small neighbourhood and typically situated on a street
corner” – but a Dutch audience does not necessarily have this specific type of knowledge
because the phenomenon is quite rare. A “hoek-winkel” does not exist and the presence of
corner shops in the Netherlands is limited. It is not just the phrase itself that poses a
translation problem, it is also the fact that it is linked to “pakistanis”. This link presumes that
the audience knows, or assumes, that the people opening or running corner shops are always
from Pakistani descent. This particular problem needs a solution for both the phrase “corner
shop”, the nationality “pakistanis”, and the link between the two.
The textual aspect of this analysis is also particularly useful when we want to divide the
different translation problems up in Nord’s four categories. Apart from the italicization
15
mentioned before there are few text-specific problems. Language-pair specific problems are
virtually non-existent save for a few terms and phrases such as “bloody” (l. 12), “he knows
the plot” (l. 17), and “i geek out” (l. 26). It is when we look at pragmatic- and culture-specific
translation problems that we encounter the most obstacles.
Translation strategies
If the analysis of the source text and the target text are compared, it is obvious that the main
obstacle for this particular translation will be cultural references and making the translation
culturally relevant for the target audience. This can be done by replacing cultural-specific
names, terms, and expressions in the source text with cultural-specific names, terms, and
expressions that are relevant for the target audience in the translation. By replacing these
cultural references we naturalize the poem. James S. Holmes came up with the idea of
naturalization vs. exoticization. According to Holmes, the translator has to make various
decisions when it comes to producing a translation. To naturalize the poem means that
elements of the poem are replaced to make it more appropriate for the new context, the new
intertext, and the new situation in the target text. To exoticize the poem means that the
translator decides to preserve the original linguistic context, literary intertext, or the
sociocultural situation, even if they are alien to the target audience. Holmes presents us with a
y-axis and a x-axis, the horizontal axis, represents exoticizing vs naturalizing, whereas the
vertical axis represents historicizing vs modernizing (De Brug 185). In the case of
“Mathematics” historicizing and/or modernizing is not an issue, because it is quite a recent
poem. If this translation had to be placed on the horizontal axis, the translator should lean
towards naturalization.
The first part of the translation strategy is then to naturalize the poem, make it
culturally relevant for the target audience. The translator can do this using the three strategies
16
of Andrew Chestermann. He divides translation strategies up into three different categories:
syntactic strategies, semantic strategies, and pragmatic strategies. Each of these strategies has
ten subcategories providing solutions for specific problems (153). For the translation of
“Mathematics” the translator may use subcategory G2 and G10, part of the syntactic
strategies. G2 is a strategy that uses loanwords and G10 is a strategy that uses the change of a
figure of speech; this includes parallels, repetition, alliteration, and metre. The translator can
also use subcategory S6, part of the semantic strategies. S6 is a strategy that employs a change
of distribution. This means that the translation uses either more lexical units or less lexical
units than the semantic component in the source text. Another subcategory that is useful for
this particular translation is PR1, part of the pragmatic strategies. PR1 is cultural filtering and
is comprised of naturalization and exoticization. The translator needs to make a decision to
either preserve cultural elements from the source text in the target text, or to replace them
with cultural or functional equivalents. It is, in this sense, thus very similar to Holmes’
naturalization strategy.
Another important aspect of this particular translation is that it is a spoken word piece
and thus as much about performance as it is about text. In this sense, it might be wise to
adhere to an “organic form” as Holmes puts it. This means that semantics, or rather the
content of the poem, is more important than the verse form (96). This does not necessarily
mean that the structure of the source text will be ignored completely, but the translation will
be based on content, rather than the form of the source text.
17
TRANSLATION
of “Mathematics”
WISKUNDE
hij zegt
die verdomde surinamers (1) met hun verdomde toko’s
bouwen toko’s in elke stad - pakken onze banen af(2)
hij zegt
die verdomde chinezen met hun verdomde wok-to-go’s
ik zeg hem: (3) ze komen uit vietnam, maar wat maakt hem dat uit?
ik vraag hem: wat was er dan voor dat verdomde sushi restaurant?
hij kijkt me aan en droomt van een wereld vol nederlandse banen
van full-time werkgelegenheid voordat die verdomde boten kwamen
waar iedereen gewoon elke dag full-time aan het werk kon
een hollands bedrijf stond hier eerst – claimt hij – voordat de marokkanen(4) kwamen
nederlanders verliezen nu hun baan en die verdomde turken hebben dat gedaan
ik vraag hem: hoe weet je dat – hij zegt – omdat het waar is
ik vraag hem: hoe ben je daar zo zeker van – hij zegt – zo staat het in de krant
elke molukker(5) die hier komt steelt een baan van ons
het sommetje één voor één – van ons naar hun – het klopt gewoon
hij eet z’n cake drinkt z’n bier zegt dat hij het wel weer ziet
die verdomde indo’s(6) kwamen hier en braaf volk heeft nu geen werk
ik vraag hem wat er was voor die verdomde döner-zaak
laat hem tekeningen zien
lege kavels en afgezet land
er was verdomme geen winkel voordat de surinamers kwamen
man – ik heb genoeg van shitty(7) wiskunde
want ik houd van een goede som
drie jaar studeerde ik economie
en van rekenen word ik enthousiast
en dan hoor ik deze lege claims
zo van elke nieuwe die hier komt
steelt van ons salaris
en ik wil wanhopig schreeuwen
je wiskunde – zit vast in de brugklas(8)
want immigranten kopen ook
en immigranten lenen ook
en immigranten zorgen ook
voor werk en banen
en al die spread sheets en trends
werken met nummers – niet met mensen
en deze fucking(9) discussie
negeert de handel die met de polen kwam
negeert banen die zijn ontstaan
klusjesmannen en nog veel meer
negeert mannen met aandelen
accountants bouwvakkers ga maar door
en ik weet dat het fijn is iemand
de schuld te geven van ons gebrek aan werk
maar immigratie is niet simpel
18
ondanks de sommen in ons brein
een voor een
hem voor jou
alsof hij naar huis gaat en jij plots werk hebt
want soms maakt een die komt twee meer
en soms haalt een er nog drie bij
en soms is twee keer twee veel meer dan vier
en meestal brengen immigranten meer dan minnen
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NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION
(1) The decision to replace “pakistanis” with “surinamers” was not a difficult one. Since the
assignment is to make the poem culturally relevant, it is not much of a question whether
“pakistanis” needs to be replaced. The number immigrants in the Netherlands from Pakistan
or Pakistani descent is minimal. The real question then is what does “pakistanis” need to be
replaced with? Pakistan shares a similar kind of relationship with the UK as Suriname does
with The Netherlands. Both were part of either kingdom, the only difference being that
Suriname has recently gained its (complete) independence whereas Pakistan is still part of the
Commonwealth of Nations.
(2) Even though much of the poem is in rhyme (shops/jobs/shops/toss/shop/jobs,
came/day/came/blame), the translation will be in blank verse. The task of rhyming in this case
does not outweigh the benefit of using blank verse. Since the translation is one that needs to
be performed and also has to underline a specific political message, it will have a so-called
“organic form”. James S. Holmes introduced this term in his paper “Forms of Verse
Translation and the Translation of Verse Form” and describes it as follows: “the translator
starts from the semantic material, allowing it to take on its own unique poetic shape as the
translation develops” (96). This means that the original rhyming lines take a backseat to the
actual semantic content. Of course, rhythm and meter are still very important, they dictate the
way the poem will be recited, but it does mean that the use of blank verse is a very viable and
logical option.
(3) The source text does not include a colon between “him” and “they’re”. I decided to add
one, not because of stylistic reasons, but to indicate a pause. The line “ik zeg hem ze komen
uit Vietnam” does have a natural pause in between “hem” and “ze”, but to make the sentence
work the performer needs to wait for just a little bit longer. If we listen to McNish reciting the
poem, we’ll hear that she waits for just a little bit longer than a natural pause to indicate the
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speaker is now saying something directly. The colon can be seen as a performance direction,
rather than a stylistic expression.
(4) To replace ‘irish’ with ‘marokkanen’ has nothing to do with the histories and relationships
between the respective countries, but rather with the amount of immigrants from either irish
or moroccon descent. In the UK, approximately 10% of immigrants is of Irish descent. In the
Netherlands, approximately 11% of immigrants is of Moroccon descent.
(5) Both Somalia and the Moluccans were colonies of the UK and the Netherlands. Replacing
‘somalis’ with ‘molukkers’ has to do with the histories of the countries. In both cases, after
the colonies were declared independent, a large group of the population decided to emigrate to
the countries that colonized them.
(6) Indonesia as well as the Caribbean were colonies of the Netherlands and the UK.
(7) The choice to translate ‘crappy’ with ‘shitty’ is perhaps not a particularly obvious one. To
preserve the rhythm of this particular line ‘crappy’ needed to be translated with an adverb
with a similar syllabic structure. At first, it seemed logical to not translate ‘crappy’ at all and
leave the original word in the translation, but it is not a word that is not commonly used in the
Dutch language. The word ‘shit’ however is very commonly used and the transition from
‘shit’ to ‘shitty’ is easy to make. Despite the fact that the audience would have grasped the
meaning of ‘crappy’, the word ‘shitty’ seems more natural – even though it is foreign –
among the words of the Dutch language.
(8) ‘primary’ is the equivalent of ‘basisschool’ in Dutch and so the translation ‘brugklas’
seems odd, but ‘wiskunde’ is a subject that is taught at secondary school and not primary
school. Translating ‘primary’ with ‘brugklas’ seems logical, because the ‘brugklas’ is the first
year of secondary school and children are taught the beginner’s level of mathematics.
(9) ‘deze fucking discussie’ is the translation of ‘all this goddamn heated talk’. This particular
decision – the word ‘fuck’ is not even mentioned in the source text – was made because this is
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one of the several lines in the poem that seems to ooze exasperation and frustration. A
translation such as ‘deze verdomde discussie’ did not seem to convey the sense of aggravation
that seems to be the undertone of the entire poem. However, a harsher word like ‘fucking’
seems to convey this message better.
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CONCLUSION
The different strategies that can be employed for written poetry are also very useful when
translating spoken word. “Mathematics” is a particularly challenging poem because McNish
makes use of so many cultural references. Like many spoken word works it carries a political
message and thus sociocultural elements have to be made clear in the target text. If this were a
written piece, the translation could have made use of explanatory footnotes and the translator
could have preserved the cultural elements of the source text. In fact, this is something that I
would have preferred, because it is difficult to estimate how much the target audience knows
about the source culture, which in turn makes it difficult to decide what cultural elements can
be preserved and what elements need an culturally appropriate equivalent in the target text.
However, because footnotes cannot be used for a text that needs to be heard rather than read,
this was not an option.
The overall strategy that was used for the translation was the idea of naturalization by
Holmes and his concept of the organic form. McNish deploys a rhyming scheme that is
difficult to replicate in the translation and at times is seemingly random. If the first 30 lines
were written down in a rhyming scheme, they would look like this: A B B A B B B B C C C
C D E F G B B H H H I J I K L C. Because the rhyming scheme does not seem to have a
particular structure, it is logical to make use of an organic form.
Other strategies, such as Chestermann’s categories and Nord’s question and categories
pertaining to the analysis of both source- and target text were also particularly helpful for this
translation. Nord provides the translator with the opportunity to take a closer look at the text
in a structured and organized fashion, and Chestermann equips the translator with a useful
overview of the various translation strategies that can be used.
The translation of spoken word does not seem to differ much from the translation of
written poetry. The translator encounters similar translation problems in both cases and has to
23
use similar strategies. However, spoken word does pose one extra constraint; the translation
needs to be simple enough, for lack of a better word, to perform. It is easier and more viable
to include, for instance, complex alliteration or parallels in written poetry than it is in spoken
word poetry. Besides, most spoken word poems, like “Mathematics”, do not seem to adhere to
any particular rhyming scheme and it is thus difficult to preserve rhyme in a translation.
According to Holmes, a translation should adhere to two things: a criteria of minimum
similarity, and a poetic criterion; can it be constituted as a poem in the target language? I
think my translation of “Mathematics” adheres to both these criterion, if perhaps somewhat
freely. The translation makes use of blank verse and attempts to maintain the iambic meter
that is present in the source text. The criteria of minimum similarity is perhaps somewhat
harder to defend, because so many cultural elements of the source text have been replaced by
equivalents in the target text. However, this translation needed to prioritize meaning and
function rather than provide the commissioner with a word-for-word translation. In this sense,
the translation is similar to the source text and meets the criteria of minimum similarity.
Unfortunately, not much academic research has been done into the translating of
spoken word. This thesis has attempted to link the translation problems that arise in spoken
word with the translation problems that occur in theatre and oral poetry, but this does not do
the genre justice. The performance of a play is, although similar, not the same as the
performance of a spoken word piece. Further research should be done into the concept of
‘performability’ when it comes to spoken word, as well as a more general approach to the
translation of oral poetry.
24
LIST OF WORKS CITED
Bassnett, Susan. "Translating for the theatre: the case against performability." TTR:
traduction, terminologie, rédaction 4.1 (1991): 99-111.
Benn, Gottfried. “Probleme der Lyrik.” Gesammelte Werke. Wiesbaden: Limes Verlag, 1959.
Print.
Bronzwaer, W. “De Onvertaalbaarheid van het Poëtisch Icoon.” Naaijkens, Koster, Bloemen,
and Meijer 369-378.
Chestermann, Andrew. “Vertaalstrategieën: een classificatie.” Naaijkens, Koster, Bloemen,
and Meijer 153-172.
Collins, Billy. “Poems on the Page, Poems in the Air.” Mark Eleveld 3-5.
Eleveld, Mark, and Marc Smith. The Spoken Word Revolution (slam, hip-hop & the poetry of
a new generation). Naperville: Sourcebooks Mediafusion, 2003. Print.
Glazner, Gary. Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry. New York: Manic
D. Press, Inc., 2012. Print.
Grit, Diederik. “De Vertaling van Realia.” Naaijkens, Koster, Bloemen, and Meijer 189-196.
Holmes, James S. “Forms of Verse Translation and the Translation of Verse Form.”
Translated! Papers on Literary Translation and Translation Studies. Ed. Raymond
van den Broeck. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. Print.
Holmes, James S. “De brug bij Bommel herbouwen.” Naaijkens, Koster, Bloemen, and
Meijer 183-188.
McNish, Hollie. “Mathematics.” Cherry Pie. Portishead: Burning Eye Books, 2015. Print.
Naaijkens, Ton, Cees Koster, Henri Bloemen, and Caroline Meijer, eds. Denken Over
Vertalen. Nijmegen: Uitgeverij Vantilt, 2010. Print.
Nord, Christiane. “Tekstanalyse en de moeilijkheidsgraad van een vertaling.” Naaijkens,
Koster, Bloemen, and Meijer 145-152.
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Raffel, Burton. The Art of Translating Poetry. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1988. Print.
Robinson, Peter. Poetry & Translation: The Art of the Impossible. Liverpool: Liverpool
University Press, 2010. Print.
Smith, Marc, and Joe Kraynak. Take the Mic: The Art of Performance Poetry, Slam, and the
Spoken Word. Naperville: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2009. Print.
Smith, Marc, and Mark Eleveld, eds. The Spoken Word Revolution. Illinois: Sourcebooks,
Inc., 2006. Print.
Smith, Marc. “About Slam Poetry.” Mark Eleveld 116-120.
Van Leuven-Zwart, Kitty. Vertaalwetenschap: ontwikkelingen en perspectieven. Muiderberg:
Dick Couthino, 1992. Print.
Westermayr, Stefanie. Poetry Slam in Deutschland: Theorie und Praxis einer multimedialen
Kunstform. Marburg: Tectum, 2004. Print.
26
ANNEX: “MATHEMATICS”
he says
those goddamn pakistanis and their goddamn corner shops
built a shop on every corner – took our british workers jobs
he says
those goddamn chinese and their goddamn china shops
i tell him they’re from vietnam but he doesn’t give a toss
i ask him what was there before that damn japan man’s shop?
he stares at me and dreams a scene of british workers’ jobs
of full-time full-employment before the goddamn boats all came
where everybody went to work for full-time full-hours every day
a british business stood there first – he claims – before the bloody irish came
now british people lost their jobs and bloody Turkish there to blame
i ask him how he knows that fact – he says – because it’s true
i ask him how he knows it’s fact – he says – it says it in the news
every time a somali comes here they take a job from us
the mathematics one for one – from us to them – it just adds up
he bites his cake he sips his brew he says again he knows the plot
the goddamn caribbeans came and now good folk here don’t have jobs
i ask him what was there before the goddamn persian curtain shop
i show him architects’ plans
empty plots and closed off land
there was no goddamn shop before those pakistanis came and planned
man – i am sick of crappy mathematics
because i love a bit of sums
i spent three years into economics
and i geek out over calculus
and when i meet these paper claims
that one of every new that came
takes away our daily wage
i desperately want to scream
your maths is stuck-in primary
because some who come here also spend
and some who come here also lend
and some who come here also tend
to set up work which employs them
and all those balance sheets and trends
they work with numbers – not with men
and all this goddamn heated talk
ignores the trade the polish brought
ignores the men they give work to
not plumbing jobs but further too
ignores the guys they buy stock from
accountants builders on and on
and i know it’s nice to have someone
to blame our lack of jobs upon
but immigration’s not that plain
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despite the sums inside our brains
as one for one
as him for you
as if he goes home they’ll employ you
because sometimes one that comes makes two
and sometimes two times two is much much more than four
and most times immigrants bring more than minuses
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