Changing Perspectives: Translations of Scottish Twentieth-Century Poetry into German

This essay explores the implications of perspectivity for translating, and reading translations of, Scottish twentieth-century poetry. After outlining the general role of perspectivity and perspective change in translation, it focuses on issues of language and culture, using Iain Galbraith’s 2011 anthology Beredter Norden as an example. In particular, it discusses ways of dealing with the heteroglossia of Scottish poetry (English, Scots and its dialects, and Gaelic) and with various types of reference to Scottish culture. The theoretical basis is a functional approach to translation, which can accommodate different translation strategies depending on the goal(s) pursued.