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COPYRIGHT 2005 Adam Mickiewicz University Press
ABSTRACT
Poetics of grammar is among the largely neglected facts in literary translations. As a rule, this term is missing in translation handbooks and also in surveys concerning translation theory. The reason why this aesthetic device frequently escapes translation scholars' attention, probably has to do with the different make up of languages. There are certain qualities of a language which inspire authors to poetics of grammar. Three such qualities are to be found in the Polish language: 1. a relatively high amount of optional variants of grammatical phenomena, 2. a relatively high amount of grammatical categories and structures equipped with either specific grammatical sense or a number of meanings that a user may choose from, and 3. a certain amount of word classes, which allow for creating lexical variants--first of all with the help of prefixes and suffixes. This study discusses poetics of grammar based on the copula jest, the reflexive pronoun sobie, the adjectival attribute, interjections, and the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects. Most examples are taken from 20th century Polish literature, i.e. from texts written by Witkiewicz, Gombrowicz, Herbert, Rozewicz and others. Both German and English function as target languages.
1. Introduction
Poetics of grammar is among the largely neglected facts in literary translations. So, it is not surprising that, as a rule, this term is missing in translation handbooks and in many studies concerning translation theory. For example, there is no entry dealing with the poetics of grammar in the de Gruyter International encyclopedia of translation studies. (1) However, the term is being used in literary studies. Most books and articles devoted to this artistic device, so it seems, deal with Russian literature. A few titles may illustrate the case: "O poetike O. Mandel'stama. Grammatika kak predmet poezii" (Uspenskij 1990), Problemy poetiki grammaticeskich kategorij (Gin 1996), Poetika grammaticeskich kategorij (2) (Nozdrina 2000). Though fairly comprehensive research on the poetics of grammar has only been going on since the late 1980s, literary scholars have been aware of this phenomenon for a long time: In his meticulous study on Norwid's poem "Czutosc" ('Susceptibility', 'Sensitivity'), Jakobson (1975: 234) talks about the "actualization of grammatical gender" (aktualizacja rodzaju gramatycznego). Jakobson is clearly surveying one out of many aspects of poetics of grammar. A preliminary definition of this frequently underestimated marker of fictional texts, then, may run as follows: Poetics of grammar means actualization and functionalization of any grammatical category and structure in order to create and support aesthetic sense.
Two examples will illustrate this phenomenon. The first one concerns the so-called grammatical sense (grammatischen Sinn) of aspect and Aktionsart (aspects and Aktionsarten respectively), the second one concerns the Polish diminutive. Both cases have to do with Polish-English and Polish-German language asymmetries. The first example is taken from the beginning of Kartoteka ('The card index')--Rozewicz's most important dramatic text. At the opening of the play, the main character, HERO, is lying in bed, looking at his hand. The FATHER, who wants to put an end to this state of apathy, laments: "Co z niego wyrosnie, jak bedzie sit tak dlugo wylegiwal. Wstawaj! Chlopcze!" (Rozewicz 1999: 30). What interests us here is the verb of state and condition, wylegiwal sie. The grammatical sense of this iterative-durative verb is twofold. It communicates the state of 'lying', and also criticism of this posture. It should be remembered that the image contained in the verb wylegiwac sic, the image of a person lolling about in his or her bed, appertains to Rozewicz's central matter of concern: man's reaction to the physical, cultural and mental destruction brought about during the Second World War and after. In Kartoteka, the HERO's reaction, quite typically, is utter apathy and refusal to engage in things going on around him. The way the author makes use of the grammatical sense of the verb, is quite characteristic of his aesthetics. Further examples of this artistic device could be found in most of his theatre plays and also in his poems (Schultze and Matuschek, in press).
Since neither English nor German have a lexical equivalent of the verb wylegiwac sie, translators can only paraphrase certain amounts of the grammatical sense. Adam Czerniawski, the English translator of Kartoteka, manages to maintain the negative connotation of the verb; the reference to duration, however, is lost: "What will become of him if he lolls in bed like this? Up you get, my boy!" (Rozewicz 1969: 39). Czerwinski (1988: 37), however, in his study on Contemporary Polish theatre and drama, is capable of rendering the idea of duration. Here the FATHER's wylegiwac sie. It may be instructive also to take a look at the translations into German. One of the translators, Ilka Boll, avoids the challenge implied in the verb wylegiwac sie by leaving the phrase "jak bedzie sit tak dlugo wylegiwal" untranslated. Her version is: "Was soil bloss aus ihm werden? Steh auf, Junge!" (Rozewicz 1983: 178). Henryk Bereska's first translation of Kartoteka renders the temporal distinction of duration but misses some of the negative overtones: "Was wird bloss aus ihm werden, dieses dauernde ImBett-Liegen. Steh auf, Junge!" (Rozewicz 1961: 2). This example shows that the occurrence of poetics of grammar calls for a translator's special attention. This aesthetic device may touch on the core of a fictional text.
The second example to illustrate the poetics of grammar is connected with the almost unlimited possibilities of the Polish language to coin diminutives. In this instance the artistic device is even underlined by poetic metatext. The example illustrative for "poetics of the diminutive" is taken from Gombrowicz's novel Ferdydurke. This piece of canonical 20th century prose fiction in some places abounds with diminutives. Most of them are lexicalized forms, others are coinings by the author himself. The heading of the second chapter already contains a funny announcement of this artistic device: "Uwiezienie i dalsze zdrabnianie" ('Taking into captivity and further minimizing') (Gombrowicz 1969: 26-53). It should be noticed that the noun pointing at the diminutive is zdrabnianie. This, to quote Jakobson, actualization of the imperfective verbal aspect (zdrabniac) may also be taken as a case of the poetics of grammar. Actualizing the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects and of the Aktionsart is quite typical of Gombrowicz. This device belongs to his personal aesthetics (Personalasthetik) (Hammerschmid and Schultze 1998: 71, 74, 86-88). (3) In order to be able to value the position of the diminutive in Ferdydurke, one has to recall the situation of the narrator and central character, Jozio. Jozio is temporarily living with the "modern" urban family of the Mlodziaks. Being modern, among other things, means that the members of the family, father, mother and daughter, have given up using old-fashioned Polish diminutives. Jozio, the boarder, feels he has to unmask this "modernity show". By making a mess of his sweets and by pronouncing a diminutive (Mamusia), he literally deforms the family lunch (Gombrowicz 1969: 144). For the engineer Mlodziak this deranged...
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