Gripla - 01.01.2002, Síða 109

ROBERT COOK
ON TRANSLATING SAGAS'
1. Introduction
In 1961 the Saga-Book published Ian Maxwell’s “On Translation -1” and a
follow-up article by George Johnston called “On Translation — II.” Johnston
later published another article on the subject.1 2 There have of course been other
studies of saga translation,3 but none which deals quite so squarely and
straightforwardly with the practical issues of fídelity and diction that I wish to
continue discussing here.
We have all heard some of the clichés dealing with “the queer world of
verbal transmigration,”4 like the Italian word-play “traduttore (translator) -
traditore (traitor),” which stigmatizes the translator as inevitably a betrayer
of the original text, or the witty though antifeminist remark that “une traduc-
tion est comme une femme: si elle est fidéle, elle n’st pas belle — et si elle
est belle, elle n’est pas fidéle.” The issue underlying both these clichés is
fidelity, a matter on which I concur with Maxwell and Johnston in preferring
“a literal rendering, as close an adherence as possible both to the words and
1 A first version of this paper was presented at the December, 1996 meeting of the Modem
Language Association in Washington, DC. It was expanded into a talk given at a Njáls saga
symposium in Hvolsvöllur, August 25-26,2001, sponsored by the Sigurður Nordal Institute and
The Saga Centre in Hvolsvöllur. I am grateful to Úlfar Bragason for inviting me to take part, and
to Fritz Heinemann and Andrew Wawn for perceptive comments on this version. I would like to
dedicate this article to the memory of Hermann Pálsson, traducteur extraordinaire.
2 Saga-Book 15, Part 4 (1961), 383-93 (Maxwell) and 394-402 (Johnston); Johnston,
“Translating the Sagas into English." BONIS 1972 (Copenhagen: The Royal Library, 1973):
7-16.
3 For example, “Randolph Quirk, Dasent, Morris, and Problems of Translation,” Saga-Book 14,
Parts 1-2 (1953-55): 64-77; J. N. Swannell, “William Morris as an Interpreter of Old Norse,”
Saga-Book 15, Part 4 (1961); 365-82; Keneva Kunz, Retellers ofTales: An Evaluation ofEng-
lisli Translations of Laxdæla saga. Studia Islandica 51 (Reykjavík: Bókmenntafræðistofnun
Háskóla íslands, 1994).
4 Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Russian Literature (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1981): 315.