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Accompanying a drunk man from “coupin’ gless for gless” to silence – An es-say in translating Hugh MacDiarmid
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Accompanying a drunk man from “coupin’ gless for gless” to silence – An essay in translating Hugh MacDiarmid
Coolabah, Vol.30, pp.146-157
2021
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Abstract
This essay explores possibilities for translating the Scots language poetry of 20th cenury poet, Hugh MacDiarmid. Mirroring MacDiarmid’s propensity to draw on and recontextualise other sources of poetry and to create new poetic language, the essay illustrates options of translation as (i) repurposing the ideas of the poem, and (ii) reworking events associated with the poem. Two examples are contextualised in an overview of MacDiarmid’s prolific and intellectual Scots and English language poetry. MacDiarmid drew on both languages to create what he called synthetic Scots and synthetic English. This allowed him to explore Scottish cultural, social and political identity, in part to promote Scottish independence and autonomy, and in part to stimulate a new Scottish intellectual and literary tradition. His work typified what is known as Caledonian antisyzygy. Antisyzygy allows for borrowing, appropriation, reworking and decontextualisation of language, ideas and other writers’ work. The essay describes my own appropriation of one poem, On a Raised Beach, to inform a discussion of future education (translation as repurposing). It closes on a contemporary retelling of the construction of the book-length poem, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (translation as reworking).
Details
- Title
- Accompanying a drunk man from “coupin’ gless for gless” to silence – An essay in translating Hugh MacDiarmid
- Creators
- Bill Boyd (Author) - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- Coolabah, Vol.30, pp.146-157
- Publisher
- Universitat de Barcelona
- Identifiers
- 991012941700502368
- Copyright
- The journal adheres to the BOAI definition of Open Access in that users have the right to read, download articles, and save them for future reading. Any quotation from articles in Coolabah must carry the required reference to the journal, in accordance with our Creative Commons: cc-by
- Academic Unit
- Office of the Vice Chancellor; Emeritus Faculty
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article