After Rilke - Norris, Christopher

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Résumé :
In these renderings of a wide selection from Rilke's New Poems (1907-6) a leading literary theorist and philosopher takes a fresh look at the process, possibilities, and challenges of poetic translation. While honouring Rilke's singular gifts of inventiveness, depth, acute observation, and narrative power Christopher Norris also finds plentiful room for expanding the scope of translation as an exercise in inter-cultural hermeneutics and critical-creative practice. His versions range over genres or modes from the relatively 'straight' to various kinds of self-distancing, ironic, parodic, or downright dissident treatment, thereby combining the activity of translation with those of commentary and critique. At the same time he reflects the poet's formal priorities by retaining rhyme and meter throughout, as in the original texts, but accepting the need for adjustments from poem to poem so as to accommodate the syntactic and prosodic differences between German and English. Rilke has long been a magnet for English translators of varied persuasion but this volume offers much that is timely and distinctive. Norris's renderings are notable for their tonal variety, their often witty or irreverent character, their formal dexterity, their range of intertextual reference or allusion, and their constant awareness of reception-history as a changing backdrop to the poetry that often calls for renewed approaches to the task of translation. Any suspicion of wilful tampering or perverse delight in satirically upping the ante is soon dispelled by the many instances where formal resources are deployed in such a way as to capture salient aspects of the original's meaning, mood, and more elusive nuances. Where these versions depart furthest from traditional practice is in parodying certain questionable aspects of Rilke's work, among them its sometimes rather vapid spiritualism or mysticism, its attitude toward women and sexual relations, and its blind-spots of snobbery and aristo pretension. Elsewhere the pressure or tension created by Norris's active engagement is sufficient to break with the ideal, if such it is, of strict line-for-line or stanza-for stanza proportionality and to overrun the original's length by a factor well beyond normal allowances. Those renderings most often take the form of a dialogue between poet and translator, or a running commentary that functions very much like an interlinear gloss....

Biographie:
Christopher Norris is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cardiff. In his early career he taught English Literature, then moved to Philosophy via Literary Theory, and has now moved back in the direction of creative writing. He has published widely on the topic of deconstruction and is the author of more than thirty books on aspects of philosophy, literature, the history of ideas, and music. More recently he has turned to poetry in various genres, including that of philosophical verse. The present volume is a sequel to Hedgehogs: verse-reflections after Derrida, published by utopos in 2020. Among his other collections are The Cardinal's Dog, For the Tempus-Fugitives, The Matter of Rhyme, A Partial Truth, and Socrates at Verse. He has lectured and held visiting posts at universities around the world, and his books have been translated into many languages.

Sommaire:
Christopher Norris is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cardiff. In his early career he taught English Literature, then moved to Philosophy via Literary Theory, and has now moved back in the direction of creative writing. He has published widely on the topic of deconstruction and is the author of more than thirty books on aspects of philosophy, literature, the history of ideas, and music. More recently he has turned to poetry in various genres, including that of philosophical verse. His collections to date include The Cardinal's Dog, For the Tempus-Fugitives, The Matter of Rhyme, A Partial Truth, and Socrates at Verse. He has lectured and held visiting posts at universities around the world, and his books have been translated into many languages....