George Bacóvia: a translation agenda

Abstracts

Notas para uma tradução do poeta romeno George Bacóvia. A palavra e o silêncio. O regime das cores e seus intervalos. A polifonia da leitura. A dissolução da orquestra simbolista e os desafios da tradução.

Tradução; Poesia; George Bacóvia

DOSSIER ON LITERARY TRANSLATION

George Bacovia: A translation agenda

Marco Lucchesi

Marco Lucchesi is a writer, poet, translator, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Among his translations are A sombra do amado (Jabuti Award); Poemas de Khliebnikov, Poemas à Noite, by Höldelin and Trakl (Paulo Rónai Award); and Caligarfia silenciosa, by George Popescu. @ - [e-mail]

ABSTRACT

Notes for a translation of the Romanian poet George Bacóvia. The word and the silence. The array of colors and their intervals. The polyphony of reading. The dissolution of the symbolist orchestra and the challenges of translation.

keywords: Translation, Poetry, George Bacovia.

I tune in the Bacovia radio station and hear a Mozart sonata stirred by conflicts and dissonances. As if a DJ were mixing tunes and rhythms, pulverizing a larghetto in a profusion of syncopations. Bacovia's poetry (1881-1957) grows precisely in the void in which it is contained. I cannot miss in the translation the series of staccati, ellipses, changes in register.¹

Largo

Muzica sonoriza orice atom...

dor de tine şi de altă lume,

dor...

plana:

durere fără nume

pe om...

toţi se gândea la viaţa lor,

la dispariţia lor,

muzica sentimentaliza

obositor, -

dor de tine, şi de altă lume,

dor...

muzica sonoriza atom.

Largo^TN1

A música sonoriza os átomos...

nostalgia de ti e do outro mundo,

nostalgia...

paira:

uma dor sem fundo

sobre o homem...

reflete sua vida,

e como se abrevia.

A música sentimentaliza

frágil via –

nostalgia de ti e do outro mundo,

nostalgia...

a música sonoriza os átomos.

*

Tuning in Bacovia radio is complicated. It is impossible to eliminate static. The noises of translation into Portuguese will be clearly received on shortwave. Like Khliébnikov's "The Girls". Like Mandelstam's "The Black Sun". The charm of a predominantly white swan. Someone put together the feeling-idea of whiteness and swan, in a merger process, by saying cisnencanto (charmswan).

*

At the Humanitas bookstore, facing Creţulescu Church, I listen to Bacovia's album. The fundamental gesture of the poet reading his poems, such as "Amurg Violet" and "Nervi de Primăvară ". An admirable score. Without music. Without emphasis. Colorless. I remember Sergiu Celibidache - his opposite - conducting Enescu's second rhapsody.

*

Compared to Verlaine's absolute pitch, Bacovia is practically deaf. This is the thesis of Nicolae Manolescu, according to which the Romanian poet dissolved the symbolist orchestra. Reduced its instruments.² Wisely out of tune. In this flaw lies the quality of the work. Far from the precepts of pure bel canto, negative values. Silence and incompleteness. Thus, when translating him, pas de la musique avant toute chose.

*

To deal with the fragments of Bacovia's poetry, I register Heidegger's construction of the word abyss - Abgrund. Suspended in a condition, Ab-Grund.

Din Urmă

Poezie, poezie...

galben, plumb, violet...

Si strada goală...

ori aştetptări târzii,

şi parcuri îngheţate...

poet şi solitar...

galben, plumb, violet

odaia goală,

şi nopţi târzii...

îndoliat parfum

şi secular...

pe veşnicie...

No fim^TN2

Poesia, poesia...

amarelo, plúmbeo, violeta...

a rua deserta...

a espera tardia,

e os parques congelados...

poe ta e solitário...

amarelo, plúmbeo, violeta,

a sala deserta,

e as noite tardias...

perfume doloroso

e secular...

por toda a eternidade…

*

Bacovia's verses grow inwards, according to a solidarity economy between phonemes. As an addendum. Delicate shades. Progressive.

*

I follow a register with almost no variety (Grigurcu 1974, Ch.1). As in the litanies of the Orthodox church - the ectenie. And yet, nothing in Bacovia matches the plan of salvation. A perennial orphanage governs his world. In the dispersion of the white. In the contraction of the black. And finally, the gray, which dominates permanently, if not overwhelmingly, that pluvial land, linked to the color of lead (Cimpoi, 2005, p.57).

La Ţărm

O, gând amar...

singuratăţi,

pribege seri de primăvară,

parfumuri ce se duc pe vânt

şi flaute din stânci de mare...

- A fost ca niciodată ...

şi valuri ce fosnec la ţărm,

îngrijitoare asteptări,

singurătăţi

şi flaute

din stânci de mare...

Na Praia^TN3

Ah! Pensamento amargo...

solidão,

as noites vagas de primavera,

perfumes que se espalham pelo vento

e flautas nos arrecifes do mar...

- Era uma vez...

e as ondas junto à praia a murmurar,

esperanças inquietas,

solidão

e flautas

nos arrecifes do mar...

*

The dark metal skies of Georg Trakl (schwarze himmel von Metall) reappear here, keeping the rhyme al, plus the exact title of the source-poem "Winterdämmerung":

Amurg de Iarnă

Amurg de iarnă, sumbru, de metal,

câmpia albă – un imens rotund –

vâslind, un corb încet vine din fund,

tăind orizontul, diametral.

Copacii rari, şi ninşi, par de cristal.

Chemări de disparitie mă sorb,

pe când, tăcut, se’ntoarce-acelaş corb,

tăind orizontul, diametral.

Crepúsculo de Inverno^TN4

Crepúsculo de inverno, frio, metal

um prado alvíssimo – vasto, rotundo –

já vem remando um corvo lá do fundo,

cortando o horizonte, em diagonal.

As árvores na neve são cristal. Funestos

pensamentos absorvo,

e volta o mesmo silencioso corvo,

cortando o horizonte, em diagonal.

*

A diagonal agenda? There is no definitive poem. Trials. Attempts. As if the Desired continued even more lost. Or, perhaps, as if the most Lost continued to be desired.

Notes

^TN1 - Largo

Every atom sang that music . . .

longing for you, for another world,

longing . . .

to fly . . .

The man gave himself

to a nameless pain . . .

All were thinking of his life,

his tired exit.

The music expressed

fatigue ―

longing for you, for another world,

longing.

Every atom sang that music . . .

^TN2 - Latterly

Poetry, poetry ...

Yellow, lead, violet ...

And the empty street ...

Or else late waits

And frozen parks ...

Poet, and solitary ...

Yellow, lead, violet

The empty room

And late nights ...

Fragrance mournful ...

And secular

For eternity

^TN3 - On The Beach

Ah! Bitter thought ... loneliness,

night spots spring scents that are spread by wind and flutes reefs in the sea ...

- Once upon a time ...

and the waves along the beach muttering, hopes restless,

loneliness

and flutes

reefs in the sea ...

^TN4 - Winter Dusk

Gloomy, metallic winter dusk.

The white plain ― a huge circle―

A raven comes, rowing,

obliquely cutting the horizon.

Rare snowed trees seem crystal.

I think of disappearing

while the same raven turns back,

obliquely cutting the horizon.

References

• BACOVIA, G. Opere Bucureşti: Semne, 2006.
• CIMPOI, M. Secolul Bacovia București: Editura Fundației Culturale Idea Europeană, 2005.
• GRIGURCU, G. Bacovia, un antisentimental București: Albatros, 1974.
• MANOLESCU, N. Poeţi moderniBraşov: Aula, 2003.

1

The original poems were taken from Bacovia (2006).

2

For Manolescu (2003, p.7), "

simbolismul urmărea să fie musical, sugestiv, evanescent. arta poetică a lui Verlaine conţine întreg programul. Muzica lui Bacovia e dizarmonică, sincopată, ţipată la trompetă, histerică. Faţă de violinele lui Verlaine, el pare amuzical; sau procedează prin stenogramă de elemente disparate ca Trakl".

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 Nov 2012
• Date of issue
  Dec 2012

History

• Received
  11 July 2012
• Accepted
  20 July 2012