Book review. Translating the Poetry of the Holocaust: Translation, Style and the Reader 192 pp.London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
Table of contents
In this clear-sighted and innovative work, Jean Boase-Beier presents a compelling account of translated Holocaust poetry that foregrounds the act of translating as a constitutive force in how readers respond to and understand these often challenging texts. Poetics serve as a valuable point of departure for thinking critically and creatively about reading for and in translation. The underlying premise is that the emotional and cognitive effects experienced by the reader of the translated poem are contingent on two factors: first, the manner in which the translator has engaged with the poetics of the original poem, and secondly, the extent to which the translation reader is aware of the fundamental translatedness of the poetics with which they, in turn, are engaging. An important and unique strength of the book resides in its applied approach, with Boase-Beier drawing insightfully on her own experience of translating Holocaust poets, including Paul Celan, to arrive at an informed, practical overview of the task of the translator. In addition to considering the implications of translation decisions on a poetic level, the author also brings important questions about the choice of Holocaust poems for translation and their paratextual presentation into analytical view. These pragmatic contributions are further grounded in the framework of cognitive stylistics and linked to larger debates in Holocaust Studies, with the result that the book provides a sound integrated model of theory and praxis.