Abstract
Milan explores the many shades of meaning behind the concept and value of simplicity, and examines the politics, or indeed the poetics of simplicity within the framework of translation history. This twofold investigation first builds upon a broad range of literary, translation, and sociocultural studies, with special attention to classic simplicity, and then draws on a survey of nineteenth-century translation in Ireland. In the nineteenth century, the concept of simplicity was not only bound with ideas of plainness, soberness, clarity, chastity, and purity but also with romantic notions of naturalness and authenticity, or again with democratic ideals of access and equality. Accordingly, this chapter takes into account the interplay of the various historical, moral, religious, and sociocultural forces that shaped translations and the meaning of simplicity.
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Notes
- 1.
These surveys were initially and principally carried out as part of my doctoral research on nineteenth-century translation under the supervision of Prof. Michael Cronin (DCU). Owing to the sheer number of items (to date, 4,000 books, and numerous periodicals), my surveys of nineteenth-century translation in Ireland, and corresponding bio-bibliographical work, are still ongoing.
- 2.
Kluckhohn believes that ‘In some measure, the universe of value discourse of one individual or of one culture is probably never fully translatable into that of another’ ([1951] 1962: 409).
- 3.
The performative and relational value of language and translation, and by extension, the view of translation as an event, inevitably comes to mind here. See in particular Robinson (2003).
- 4.
For various reasons, literacy in nineteenth-century Ireland was mostly acquired in English rather than in Irish. Accordingly, print culture was overwhelmingly an English-language culture. On the question, see Ó Ciosáin (1997).
- 5.
- 6.
On the growth of the conventual movement in nineteenth-century Ireland, see for example Clear (1987). It is worth noting, particularly for contextual insights, that Sister Austin Carroll migrated to North America and published some of her translations from there.
- 7.
Anon (1875) Life of the Ven. Father Perboyre, Priest of the Congregation of the Mission, translated by A Sister of Mercy, Dublin: McGlashan and Gill.
- 8.
Irish Monthly, 3 (1875): 177.
- 9.
In his dedication to Rev. John MacHale, Boylan refers to his translation as his ‘first public effort in the cause of religion’ (1825), iii.
- 10.
This has also been an important motif amongst the Quakers (Society of Friends).
- 11.
Significantly, William Dowe (1815–1891) exalts Béranger above Hugo in the ranking of French poets, yet, the latter became one of the most renowned French literary figures of the nineteenth century, whereas the former fell into oblivion.
- 12.
The Celt, 14 (1857), 211.
- 13.
J. O’Daly, footnote to the poem titled here ‘Tiocfaidh an Bás ar cuaird chugad’ in G. Sigerson (1860) The Poets and Poetry of Munster: A Selection of Irish songs by the Poets of the Last Century, with Metrical Translations, Dublin: John O’Daly.
- 14.
Mary Anne Sadlier, née Madden (1820–1903); she emigrated from Ireland to America in 1844 and is mostly known as an author of Catholic and patriotic novels.
- 15.
Based on the definition provided in the Oxford English Dictionary [Online], Oxford: Oxford University Press, available at: http://www.oed.com [accessed on 15 June 2015].
- 16.
These are only some of the important contextual and historical dimensions that should be taken into account for a greater understanding of translation patterns in nineteenth-century Ireland.
- 17.
One of Sadlier’s works includes a translation of the ‘Letters Apostolic’ written in 1854 by Pope Pius IX on the ‘Dogmatic Definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God’.
- 18.
Although an investigation of gender and chastity could not be reasonably conducted within the scope of this chapter, it would nevertheless make a positive addition to the present study.
- 19.
For instance, Gentry (1989: 4) refers to Polybius’s descriptions of the Gauls in his Histories.
- 20.
See also Dyson (2005: 90ff).
- 21.
Kierkegaard also comes to mind here, particularly his idea that ‘purity of the heart is to will one thing’, and the need ‘to let go of the things-of-this-world’; see Come (1995: 193–194).
- 22.
The motif of downshifting versus materialism is in fact one of the modern uses of the phrase ‘politics of simplicity’.
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Milan, M. (2016). Clarity, Soberness, Chastity: Politics of Simplicity in Nineteenth-Century Translation. In: Blumczynski, P., Gillespie, J. (eds) Translating Values. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54971-6_8
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