An Andalusian View of Death in Translation: ‘Clamor’ by Federico García Lorca and its Polish Translation

Abstract

Death, an essential part of life, is a mesmerizing topic for a number of reasons. Without a shadow of a doubt, it is a universal phenomenon. Nevertheless, the variety of death rites as well as myths and beliefs related to the act of passing, suggest certain differences in its understanding among individuals, communities, and cultures. Are such differences manifested in language? And if so, can they be examined in an analysis of translations of highly artistic, poetic texts?

In this study I seek to reconstruct the linguistic view of death in ‘Clamor’ by Federico García Lorca and its latest Polish translation (2019) by Jacek Lyszczyna. Having in mind that language constitutes the raw material of literature (Pajdzińska, 2013), I believe that analyzing poetry in light of the linguistic worldview is crucial for its deeper understanding and, as a consequence, delivering a good translation. What is more, I am convinced that applying the analytical tools developed by cultural linguistics, and in particular, the Ethnolinguistic School of Lublin, in translation studies may be useful not only in an assessment of translation quality, but also as very telling of the role of translated texts in the target language, culture and literary system. Therefore, I intend to analyse Lyszczyna’s translation in view of the linguistic worldview to assess its quality and determine what such an ‘infected’ view of death may tell us about our own (Polish) take on this concept.

Firstly, I will analyse García Lorca´s poem to identify the key linguistic exponents of death and reconstruct its non–standard linguistic view (Gicala, 2018) in ‘Clamor’. Secondly, I will capture the key linguistic exponents of death in the form of holistic cognitive definitions following the principles established by Bartmiński et al. (1988, 1996, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2018). Furthermore, I will do the same with their Polish equivalents used in Lyszczyna’s translation. On the basis of the outcomes of the study, I will reconstruct the ‘translated’ linguistic view of death and answer the research questions.