Translation in Canadian Literature ed. by Camille La Bossière (review)

500 LETTERS IN CANADA 1983 No collection of poems would be complete without verses dealing with the theme of love, be it impassioned, amorous declarations ('Se Dovessi,' Aida Viero, 'Donne che Passa,' Giovanni Di LuIlo, 'Femmena,' 'Sunettiello Appassiunato,' 'Tengo'mmiria,' Corrado Mastropasqua) or the regretoflove that has ended (,Poi Domani,' Aida Viero, 'Pupazzi,' Gianni Anelli). The poems represented in this volume are all modem and are written in free verse. The appeal of this anthology lies in its simplicity. It tugs at the heartstrings of the immigrant. Some poets transform scenes and vignettes from everyday life into poetry. Their message is stated simply and directly. Certain poems tell a story conjuring up people and events of the poets' past. The portrait of the immigrant is presented by various images. He is compared to a foreign sparrow ('Passero Forestiero,' Giuseppe CirceIli) searching for crumbs yet finding none. His life is one of exile and his past is a blackened mirror where memories appear unclearly. One of the most complex poems of the anthology is the lyrical 'I Limbi' (Fulvio Caccia). Here mythical allusion and rich imagery combine to create an effective poem. 'Faville' (Giovanni Di Lullo) is composed of one-word lines to form a zigzag pattern reproducing the visual image of sparks. Whatever their form, the poems in this anthology are vehicles for human feelings. Whether dealing with universal themes such as love, suffering, and social justice, presenting the plight of the immigrant, or nostalgically conjuring up the past, La Poesia Italiana Nel Quebec testifies to the desire of Italian Canadians to keep their culture alive in their adopted country. (ROSANNA FURGlUELE) Camille La Bossiere, editor. Translation in Canadian Literature University of Ottawa Press, 'Reappraisals of Canadian Writers: 132 Each spring, the University of Ottawa hosts a symposium on Canadian literature; in 1982 the symposium was devoted to the question of literary translation. Ottawa was then in a carnival mood because of the proclamation of the new constitution. The exclusion of Quebec from this political fete provided a subtext in several of the papers devoted to the translation of Quebec writing. An unusual polemical note intruded into the symposium , underlining the political realities of translating in Canada, but contributing to my feeling of dissatisfaction with this volume of essays, the first book on literary translation to be published in English in Canada on this increasingly important art. In his keynote talk, 'How Do You Say "Gabrielle Roy"?', E.D. Blodgett remarked that 'Canada has as yet no tradition in literary translation,' afact this volume sets out to correct - with, however, only partial success. HUMANITIES 501 Important in this regard is David Hayne's essay, 'Literary Translation in Nineteenth-Century Canada: which provides a wealth of historical facts about the active translation during that century and offers a detailed case study of the transactions and correspondence involved in Lemay's translation of Kirby's The Golden Dog. Thus, there is a tradition of translation, but a tradition of which we are unconscious. In his conclusion , Hayne provides the clue to this when he remarks that literary translation in that period was 'a random and unorganized activity, possessing no recognized tradition of theory and ' practice.' Blodgett echoes this, lamenting that 'Canadian meditations on translation are neither as plentiful nor as various as they might be.' His essay is the most far-reaching attempt yet to develop a theory for translation in Canada. Grounding his argument in Rudy Wiebe's The Temptations of Big Bear with its meditation on untranslatability (the 'hat'l'crown' symbols so ludicrous respectively in English and Indian concepts of power), in meditations by translators, and in hermeneutical theory, Blodgett suggests that the function of translation is not to create a homogeneous Canadian culture but to illuminate our differences. Translation should define the parameters of solipsism, making us aware of all that we do not know. Paradoxically, translation is non-translation, as Blodgett wittily paraphrases: 'Translation if necessary, but not necessarily translation.' It is an 'inter-text: in between two positions, in the threshold. This position allows for the coexistence of anglophones' understanding of translation as completion of the Other, identity achieved through a mutual relationship , and francophones' sense...