Lit 101 - Short Assignment #1

Darlene McCoy
Jody Greene
Lit 101
January 24 2011
Poetry on Papyrus or Paper, Written by Pen or Pencil?
    Some poetry defies time. Some poetry reads in a foreign language. Some people, brave souls, translate old, foreign, poetry. Each translator brings different aspects to their work, each edits a word or phrase in some way that is appealing to their mind, each gives the piece a materiality that they, not the author, created. Two souls, John J. Winkler and Anne Carson, braved the translation process, and developed unique translations of "Fragment 1," a poem written by the ancient Greek poetess, Sappho. While the meanings derived from each translation more or less embody one another, the materiality of the text creates a subtle difference between the two.
    John J. Winkler translated "Fragment 1" in 1990; Anne Carson did so in 2004. In Winkler's translation, he uses a more formal tone than Carson. Lines 3-4 of Winkler consist of "do not tame my spirit, great lady, with pain and sorrow. But / come to me." The phrase expresses the voice of the poem's need of Aphrodite's aid in words that relate more to Greek culture. Carson's lines break differently, so the "equivalent" phrase occurs in lines 2-4, "I beg you, / do not break with hard pains, / O lady, my heart." This phrase expresses the more modern, and personal notion of the idiomatic idea of breaking a heart. Winkler uses the words "divine" and "goddess" in his translation, which create a distance between the poem's voice and the Gods and a feeling of formality in the poem itself - making it more of an address to Aphrodite. Carson employs a more casual word choice, choosing words such as "crazy" and "birds" for her translation. It lacks the more elaborate description of Aphrodite found in Winkler's. The more casual words lend a romantic sense to the poem. It becomes more of a soft, casual, love poem written by a woman in pursuit rather than a formal address to the Gods, written for the pure epicness of the event. Feminine pronouns find themselves embedded in each translation - but one more than the other. Winkler's translation holds to a singular "her," used to denote the poem's voice's beloved. In traditional Greek culture, "the identification of the gender of the beloved, the one now pursued, is delayed until the very last word of the penultimate stanza, etheloisa," the singular "her" follows Greek culture (DuBois 9). Carson's sixth stanza overflows with six uses of the word, "she," which alludes to the idea that the voice of the poem's beloved is a woman, and clearly not a man. This almost overuse of the word "she" implies that Sappho was more than a mere poetess - she was a woman with real feelings, a living being. Winkler breaks the poem's lines in a different manner than Carson does. Winkler's structure forms a rectangle, making it look more modern and classical. It also confines the poem to a set space, and disallows the reader freedom to think between the lines. Carson divides the poem into eight stanzas, each separated by space, as if to signify the space between stanzas on the original papyrus it was written on. The space gives the reader some time to digest each stanza's meaning.
    Though Winkler and Carson translated "Fragment 1" only fourteen years apart, the differences in the materiality of the text create different feelings and meaning for the reader. They also form alternate views of Sappho's character. Winkler's translation defines her as a Greek poetess, and Carson's defines her as a woman lusting after another. The materiality of each translation changes the meaning of the text, and with each translated translation, the mere paper each is written on will continue to do so.