The Translator as Textual Critic and the Potential of Transparent Discourse

Abstract

The analysis of ‘The Vision’, H. F. Cary’s rewriting (1888) of Dante’s ‘Comedy’, focuses on the problem of the translator being confronted with different editions of a source text. Cary chooses to take on the function of textual critic: he does not adhere to a single edition but makes his choices from a number of versions by different editors. Significantly, Dante’s translator foregrounds his acts of textual criticism: he presents the reader with various (often equally plausible) alternatives in his explanatory footnotes, thereby casting serious doubts on the belief that he – or any other translator for that matter – can be absolutely ‘faithful’. Not only do Cary’s choices as a textual critic emphasize the elusive nature of textual meaning, but they also introduce a dissociative element in his translation project: by achieving readability in the text proper Cary complies with the expectation of the reading public that he will recover the original meaning; on the other hand, he takes great pains to flout such expectation in the footnotes by suggesting that the task of ‘faithfully’ representing the source text is a chimera, given its fragmented state. The implications of the analysis in relation to current debates in translation studies are considered in detail, especially in relation to Venuti’s failure to appreciate the potential inherent in transparent/fluent rewritings.

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