The poetics of grammar as challenge and chance in literary translations.

ABSTRACT

Poetics of grammar is among the largely neglected facts in literary translations. As a rule, this term is missing in translation handbooks and also in surveys concerning translation theory. The reason why this aesthetic device frequently escapes translation scholars' attention, probably has to do with the different make up of languages. There are certain qualities of a language which inspire authors to poetics of grammar. Three such qualities are to be found in the Polish language: 1. a relatively high amount of optional variants of grammatical phenomena, 2. a relatively high amount of grammatical categories and structures equipped with either specific grammatical sense or a number of meanings that a user may choose from, and 3. a certain amount of word classes, which allow for creating lexical variants--first of all with the help of prefixes and suffixes. This study discusses poetics of grammar based on the copula jest, the reflexive pronoun sobie, the adjectival attribute, interjections, and the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects. Most examples are taken from 20th century Polish literature, i.e. from texts written by Witkiewicz, Gombrowicz, Herbert, Rozewicz and others. Both German and English function as target languages.

1. Introduction

Poetics of grammar is among the largely neglected facts in literary translations. So, it is not surprising that, as a rule, this term is missing in translation handbooks and in many studies concerning translation theory. For example, there is no entry dealing with the poetics of grammar in the de Gruyter International encyclopedia of translation studies. (1) However, the term is being used in literary studies. Most books and articles devoted to this artistic device, so it seems, deal with Russian literature. A few titles may illustrate the case: "O poetike O. Mandel'stama. Grammatika kak predmet poezii" (Uspenskij 1990), Problemy poetiki grammaticeskich kategorij (Gin 1996), Poetika grammaticeskich kategorij (2) (Nozdrina 2000). Though fairly comprehensive research on the poetics of grammar has only been going on since the late 1980s, literary scholars have been aware of this phenomenon for a long time: In his meticulous study on Norwid's poem "Czutosc" ('Susceptibility', 'Sensitivity'), Jakobson (1975: 234) talks about the "actualization of grammatical gender" (aktualizacja rodzaju gramatycznego). Jakobson is clearly surveying one out of many aspects of poetics of grammar. A preliminary definition of this frequently underestimated marker of fictional texts, then, may run as follows: Poetics of grammar means actualization and functionalization of any grammatical category and structure in order to create and support aesthetic sense.

Two examples will illustrate this phenomenon. The first one concerns the so-called grammatical sense (grammatischen Sinn) of aspect and Aktionsart (aspects and Aktionsarten respectively), the second one concerns the Polish diminutive. Both cases have to do with Polish-English and Polish-German language asymmetries. The first example is taken from the beginning of Kartoteka ('The card index')--Rozewicz's most important dramatic text. At the opening of the play, the main character, HERO, is lying in bed, looking at his hand. The FATHER, who wants to put an end to this state of apathy, laments: "Co z niego wyrosnie, jak bedzie sit tak dlugo wylegiwal. Wstawaj! Chlopcze!" (Rozewicz 1999: 30). What interests us here is the verb of state and condition, wylegiwal sie. The grammatical sense of this iterative-durative verb is twofold. It communicates the state of 'lying', and also criticism of this posture. It should be remembered that the image contained in the verb wylegiwac sic, the image of a person lolling about in his or her bed, appertains to Rozewicz's central matter of concern: man's reaction to the physical, cultural and mental destruction brought about during the Second World War and after. In Kartoteka, the HERO's reaction, quite typically, is utter apathy and refusal to engage in things going on around him. The way the author makes use of the grammatical sense of the verb, is quite characteristic of his aesthetics. Further examples of this artistic device could be found in most of his theatre plays and also in his poems (Schultze and Matuschek, in press).

Since neither English nor German have a lexical equivalent of the verb wylegiwac sie, translators can only paraphrase certain amounts of the grammatical sense. Adam Czerniawski, the English translator of Kartoteka, manages to maintain the negative connotation of the verb; the reference to duration, however, is lost: "What will become of him if he lolls in bed like this? Up you get, my boy!" (Rozewicz 1969: 39). Czerwinski (1988: 37), however, in his study on Contemporary Polish theatre and drama, is capable of rendering the idea of duration. Here the FATHER's wylegiwac sie. It may be instructive also to take a look at the translations into German. One of the translators, Ilka Boll, avoids the challenge implied in the verb wylegiwac sie by leaving the phrase "jak bedzie sit tak dlugo wylegiwal" untranslated. Her version is: "Was soil bloss aus ihm werden? Steh auf, Junge!" (Rozewicz 1983: 178). Henryk Bereska's first translation of Kartoteka renders the temporal distinction of duration but misses some of the negative overtones: "Was wird bloss aus ihm werden, dieses dauernde ImBett-Liegen. Steh auf, Junge!" (Rozewicz 1961: 2). This example shows that the occurrence of poetics of grammar calls for a translator's special attention. This aesthetic device may touch on the core of a fictional text.

The second example to illustrate the poetics of grammar is connected with the almost unlimited possibilities of the Polish language to coin diminutives. In this instance the artistic device is even underlined by poetic metatext. The example illustrative for "poetics of the diminutive" is taken from Gombrowicz's novel Ferdydurke. This piece of canonical 20th century prose fiction in some places abounds with diminutives. Most of them are lexicalized forms, others are coinings by the author himself. The heading of the second chapter already contains a funny announcement of this artistic device: "Uwiezienie i dalsze zdrabnianie" ('Taking into captivity and further minimizing') (Gombrowicz 1969: 26-53). It should be noticed that the noun pointing at the diminutive is zdrabnianie. This, to quote Jakobson, actualization of the imperfective verbal aspect (zdrabniac) may also be taken as a case of the poetics of grammar. Actualizing the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects and of the Aktionsart is quite typical of Gombrowicz. This device belongs to his personal aesthetics (Personalasthetik) (Hammerschmid and Schultze 1998: 71, 74, 86-88). (3) In order to be able to value the position of the diminutive in Ferdydurke, one has to recall the situation of the narrator and central character, Jozio. Jozio is temporarily living with the "modern" urban family of the Mlodziaks. Being modern, among other things, means that the members of the family, father, mother and daughter, have given up using old-fashioned Polish diminutives. Jozio, the boarder, feels he has to unmask this "modernity show". By making a mess of his sweets and by pronouncing a diminutive (Mamusia), he literally deforms the family lunch (Gombrowicz 1969: 144). For the engineer Mlodziak this deranged meal equals release from having to be "modern". Consequently, he indulges in using suffixes, which had been forbidden hitherto. The engineer's wife, on the other hand, is upset at this return to such old-fashioned "Polishness". A few lines may suffice to recall a scene abundant with diminutives:

   --Wiktorze, co ty mowisz? ... Nasze dazenia! Nasze porywy! ...
    Zdrada ...
   --Zdradunia--rzel Mlodziak. --Wiktorze! Nie zdrabniaj! Nie
    zdrabniaj!
   --Zdradeczka. Wikto's powiada ... (4)

(Gombrowicz 1969: 177).

Obviously, there is no way of letting an English reader know how the Polish diminutive is being staged in this squabbling between Mr. and Mrs. Mlodziak. Unfortunately, we do not have an English translation of Ferdydurke at our disposal. Both German translations, quite naturally, resort to the German diminutive suffixes-- -lein and -chen. Fieguth and Fieguth's revised translation of Walter Tiels first German Ferdydurke runs like this:

   "Viktor, wie kannst du nur! ... Unsere Ziele! Unser Elan! ...
   Verrat ..." "Verratlein", sagte der Ingenieur. "Viktor! Keine
   Verkleinerungsformen, ich bitte dich!" "'Verratelchen, sagt
   Viktorchen ..."

(Gombrowicz 1983: 200-201).

Of course, the German nouns "Verratlein" and "Verratelchen" are occasional coinings, just like the Polish words zdradunia and zdradeczka. To a certain extent, the German translators follow the artistic device of the source text, they operate by analogy with Gombrowicz's poetics. They translate verfahrensanalog. Both examples may have shown that the poetics of grammar is a topic which deserves some more attention in translation studies.

The reason why this aesthetic device frequently escapes translation scholars' attention, probably has to do with the different make up of languages. If I am not mistaken, there are certain qualities of a language which inspire authors to poetics of grammar. I find at least three such qualities in the Polish language: 1. a relatively high amount of optional variants of grammatical phenomena, 2. a relatively high amount of grammatical categories and structures equipped with either specific grammatical sense or a number of meanings that a user may choose from, and 3. a certain amount of word classes which allow for creating lexical variants--first of all with the help of prefixes and suffixes. A few examples may illustrate these "invitations" to poetics of grammar: One out of many optional variants is the choice between the nominative and the vocative in first name personal address. Let us recall the evening scene at the Mlodziaks. Instead of using the vocative case of her husband's first name, "Wiktorze", Mrs. Mlodziak might also have chosen the nominative, "Wiktor". Of course, on account of the given situation, Mrs. Mlodziak is much too alarmed to choose the more distanced nominative. Another optional variant concerns the copula jest, i.e. the choice between using or omitting the copula. Then there is the personal pronoun, which may also be used or omitted--"ja bylam", "bylam" ('I was', 'was'). A specific case is the adjective attribute. There is, as we know, a tendency to have the adjective of quality before and the adjective of classification after the noun. With regard to this option, the poetics of grammar will be realized when the adjectives of quality and of classification change their place.

Coming to the poetics of grammar based on the grammatical sense of single categories and structures, the verbal expression wylegiwac sie stands for the actualization of Aktionsart. Examples for actualization of the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects could also be given. Another prominent candidate for the poetics of grammar is the dative of the reflexive pronoun, sobie. Sentences of the type Stoje sobie na rynku ('I am standing around on the market place', 'Ich steh so auf dem Marktplatz rum', 'Ich steh da so auf dem Markt') are a real challenge for translators. All he can do is try to maintain at least some of the semantic facets. A similarly strong candidate for the poetics of grammar is the particle or discourse marker to. This discourse marker contains a whole bunch of semantic extensions derived from the demonstrative pronoun "to" ('it', 'das'). For example, Gombrowicz's most important play, Slub ('The marriage'), not only offers a wide range of meanings of the discourse marker to; it also offers coherent sense based on this textual element (Schultze and Tabakowska 1992). A more or less wide range of meanings is also connected with augmentatives, e.g. augmentatives based on the suffix -isko. In my experience, the range of meanings is largely context-bound.

Then there is poetics of grammar hinging on what we may call multiplication of verbal material with the help of pre- and suffixes. Here again, the evening scene at the Mlodziaks may serve as an example. In this instance, the multiplication of verbal material hinges on diminutives: zdrada --zdradunia--zdradeczka. Of course, the multiplication of verbal material may also be brought about through repetition of just one word or a small group of words. This variant, to quote from American literature, is realized in Dreiser's novel Sister Carrie. Carrie keeps pronouncing the emphatic interjections "o" and "oh", so these interjections function as a sort of personal tag (Schultze and Tabakowska 2004: 555). Poetics of grammar based on one or the other word class or grammatical category seems to be common in many languages. This artistic device can belong to a specific literary or theatrical genre, as is the case with interjections in melodrama (Schultze and Tabakowska 2004: 555).

In fictional texts, most of these variants of the poetics of grammar can be exposed as isolated structural elements. Sometimes, however, several of them overlap and form especially complex aesthetic sense. Among Polish authors of the 20th century, Witkiewicz, Gombrowicz, Mrozek, Rozewicz, Szymborska and Herbert make ample use of the poetics of grammar. Therefore, the following examples will be taken from texts by these authors. The language pairs are Polish-English and Polish-German. One example will concern German as the source and Polish and English as the target languages. Specific attention will be given to poetics of grammar connected with the copula jest, the dative of the reflexive pronoun, sobie, the different handling of adjectives of quality and classification, interjections and, finally, poetics of grammar based on the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects.

2. The copula jest

The copula jest is known to be among the most relevant asymmetries of the language pairs Polish-English and Polish-German (Schultze and Matuschek 1991: 393-396, 2005). In Polish, the copula is often omitted, especially in everyday communication, but also in theatrical texts oriented towards spontaneous speech acts, and, of course, in poetry. The copula may be substituted by the particle to, e.g. Jan to dobry student ('Jan is a good student'), in rare cases it may also be used together with the particle to, e.g. Jan to jest dobry student (Schultze and Matuschek 1991: 393). Similar to the German word ist and the English is, jest also has an ontological dimension. Used as a full verb, it may refer to human and animal existence--to anything there is in the world. So jest may be a synonym of the verbal expression istnieje 'exists' (Doroszewski 1962: 222). Some authors, most of all poets, tend to omit the copula jest unless it refers to matters of existence.

Some of the most prominent examples for poetics of grammar hinging on clusters of jest are contained in Witkacy's three-act play Gyubal Wahazar (Witkacy 1921). According to Witkacy's understanding human existence is fundamentally at stake in the 20th century. Wahazar tries to find the right solution. Confronted with a world of chaos and instability, the dictator, "His Onlyness", pursues two incompatible projects at the same time: to construct a fully automated state of the future and to become an authentic Self capable of getting in touch with the "secret of existence" (Schultze 2000: 425-427, 429-431). At the opening of the play, petitioners are waiting for the dictator, who has already kept them waiting for hours, even for days. The stylistic make-up of the petitioners' dialogue resembles the code of early expressionism. According to the author, this emphatic code will shock the audience and stir everybody's sensitivity to the "secret of existence". The first word to be pronounced in this play is the copula jest. The FIRST GENTLEMAN WITH A TOP HAT decides: "Jest trzecia w nocy. Proponuje, zebysmy po prostu poszli sobie" (Witkiewicz 1998:210). Several statements, in which the copula jest is similary exposed, follow: "Tam jest ON!--A! To po prostu jest swifistwo!--Tam jest symbol jego wladzy" (Witkiewicz 1998: 210-212). This verbal pattern, clearly an example of the poetics of grammar, is a challenge both for English and German translators. The only way of letting English and German readers know that the copula is stressed, is to resort to italics. Capital letters are already used to expose the dictator's substitute names ("ON."). The American translators Daniel Gerould and C. S. Durer do not make any efforts to maintain this verbal pattern; quite the contrary. They choose enclitics: "It's three in the morning. I propose we just leave.--He's in there!--Oh, It's just rotten!--There's the symbol of his authority" (Witkiewicz 1972: 104-106). The first German translation by Ilka Boll renders this series of sentences in the following way: "Drei Uhr nachts. Ich schlage vor, wir gehen nach Hause.--Dort ist ER!--Ah. Eine Schweinerei, so etwas.--Das Symbol seiner Herrschaft" (Witkiewicz 1974: 7-9).

Here, in three out of four sentences the copula is left out entirely. This means that target side readers and spectators will not get the slightest idea of the expressionist code in these sentences. They will not be acquainted with the so-called maximalization (Maximalisierung), which is so characteristic of Witkacy's personal aesthetics (Schultze 1993: 459-460). There is no way of finding out whether the translator, specialized both in Polish literature and in theatre studies, was capable of spotting the poetics of grammar based on the copula jest or not. The sequence of sentences shows that Ilka Boll had been following a definite translatory strategy: translating for the theatre. According to a "rule of thumb", translating for the theatre means that dialogue should follow spontaneous everyday communication. This is where the German copula ist is most likely to be omitted. While the American translators reduce the copula jest to the enclitic, the first German translator chooses ellipsis.

The second German translator, Henryk Bereska, seems to have had access to Boll's theatre manuscript. His translation is the following: "Drei Uhr nachts. Ich schlage vor, wir gehen nach Hause.--Dort ist ER!--Ah! Das ist schlichtweg eine Sauerei.--Seht, das Symbol seiner Herrschaft!" (Witkiewicz 1982: 68-69). Bereska seems to proceed without any specific strategy. Summarizing, we may state that the poetics of grammar based on the copula jest is lost for English (American resp.) as well as for German readers and audiences. It cannot be discounted that the translators wanted to spare readers and audiences the somewhat pithy code of expressionism.

However, it should be remembered that similar series of the copula jest are also contained in Rozewicz's plays. E.g., excessive use of the copula belongs to the YOUNG GIRL's (DZIEWCZYNA) way of speaking in the three-act play Na czworakach ('On all fours'). The YOUNG GIRL literally "showers" the famous writer with the copula:

   --Jest mi bardzo przykro, ze pana niepokoilam ...
   --Jest mi ogromnie ogromnie przeogromnie przykro ...
   --Jest mi szalenie przykro ...

(Rozewicz 1988: 54-57).

The German translator Henryk Bereska partially breaks up this pattern:

   --Es ist mir ausserst peinlich, dass ich Sie beunruhigt habe ...
   --Es ist mir ganz unheimlich wahnsinnig peinlich ...
   --Es tut mir wahnsinnig leid ...

(Rozewicz 1986: 6-9).

German readers and audiences will not know that the obtrusive behaviour of the YOUNG GIRL--"I feel awful about having disturbed you ... I am awfully sorry" is stressed by the poetics of grammar. Instead of maintaining the meaningful aesthetic device, Bereska translates according to the basic principle varietas delectat. This principle seems to spoil the poetics of grammar in many a translation.

3. The reflexive pronoun sobie

Sobie, the dative of the reflexive pronoun, also belongs to those asymmetries of the language pairs Polish-English and Polish-German, which can be a real challenge for translators. Considering its frequency in fictional texts and the range of meanings evoked whenever it appears, sobie even seems to be a singular case within the Slavic language family. It is known that sobie indicates the perception of the self in private, non-official speech (Boguslawski 1984: 50). The situation of self-perception is either phrased in the perspective of the agent himself (Choruje sobie 'I'm sick', 'Ich krankele so'n bisschen') or seen from the outside (Dzieci biegaly sobie po lesie 'The children ran around the forest', 'Die Kinder tobten im Wald herum') (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 126-127). What is important about this situation of self-perception is the feeling of contentment that accompanies it (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 128-129). This feeling of self-satisfaction, occasionally also of relaxation, may be due to the fact that the individual or the group confined to such an experience do not permit any irritations from the outside.

It should be noticed that the reflexive pronoun sobie also occurs in the beginning of Witkacy's Gyubal Wahazar. The FIRST GENTLEMAN suggests: "Proponuje, zebysmy po prostu poszli sobie" (Witkiewicz 1998: 210). Of course, this has to do with the poetics of grammar. The decision to "just walk away", when "His Onlyness" is being awaited, may be interpreted as the wish to defy the dictator. The reflexive pronoun reveals that walking away without paying any attention to what is going on around is impossible. The American translators, so it seems, were aware of the function of sobie at the beginning of Witkacy's play. Their translation is: "I propose, we just leave" (Witkiewicz 1972: 104). Both German translators omit the sobie entirely. They may have been unaware of its function.

One of the most prominent cases of the reflexive pronoun is Mrozek's oneact play Emigranci 'Emigrants' (Mrozek 1974). In this instance, sobie belongs to an idiolect. It characterizes the worker XX, a 20th century version of the Polish cham. When relating his visit to the railway station to AA, XX uses utterances like these: "Mysle sobie", "zapalilem sobie", "stoje sobie", "Tak sobie pomyslalem" (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 131-132). The poetics of grammar is not only justified by the fact that sobie is a part of XX's idiolect. It also points out XX's mental situation: He's indulging in the illusion he will make a fortune abroad and turn back home, a "wealthy man". The American translator, Henry Beissel, renders the reflexive pronoun in this way: "I just stood", "I just smoke very calmly", "So I decided". On the whole, he manages to render that XX is an intellectually limited person, but fails to render the attempts at self-deception (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 132-133). In Christa Vogel's German translation, XX uses colloquial German: "Zund mir nur 'ne Zigarette an", "Ich nich. Ich sag mir: wozu" ('Only light myself a cigarette', 'Not me. I'm telling myself: what for'). The wozu ('what for') brings in the purpose of the action. In consequence, the German XX is less "body-oriented" than the Polish cham. And, of course, instead of trying to deceive himself, this XX is trying to persuade himself (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 134).

Similar challenges for translators occur in the beginning of Mrozek's one-act play Strip-tease (Mrozek 1961). One of the two characters, PAN I (MR. I) describes his state of self-contentment: "wlasnie szedlem sobie, jak zwykle" (Mrozek 1963:159). The reflexive pronoun sobie clearly functions as a starting point for the play's issue--i.e. matters of conditio humana. Similar to the situation in Emigranci, a character thinks he is master of the situation and has to learn there are no "safeties" at all. The American translator Lola Gruenthal seems to have been aware of the reflexive pronoun. Her translation is: "I was walking along as usual ..." (Mrozek 1972: 5). The verbal expression walking along, may include self-contentment. However, the readers or the audience will not know that the character is not interested in what is going on around him. The same goes for Ludwig Zimmerer's translation into German: "Ich ging gerade wie gewohnlich ..." (Mrozek 1965: 27). The translator renders the everyday situation. He probably has no chance of informing target side readers or audiences about the character's narrow, even "self-confined" view of the world.

In rare instances, translators manage to use the reflexive pronoun for creative translation. One such case occurs in Heinrich Kunstmann's revised translation of Gombrowicz's Iwona, ksiezniczka Burgunda 'Iwona, Princess of Burgundy' (Gombrowicz 1937). We have to recall that Iwona is a female version of the King-for-a-day-theme (Z chlopa krol), in German: eine Bauernfurstin, Eintagsfurstin. According to tradition, the courtiers, having had enough pleasure watching the drunkard-king, carry the "boor" back to the place where they had found him. Gombrowicz's Iwona, however, does not want to leave her new surroundings. Having fallen in love with the prince (FILIP), she resists being escorted back home. The prince understands that Iwona is unassailable. And the reflexive pronoun sobie renders unassailability: "Mozesz sobie stac, ile wlezie ... Stoj sobie, jak chcesz!" (Gombrowicz 1994: 66). Heinrich Kunstmann's translation runs as follows: "Du kannst dir hier die Beine in den Leib stehen ... Steh hier herum, solang du willst!" (Gombrowicz 1982: 81). When the legs return into the body ("sich die Beine in den Leib [Bauch] stehen"), reflexiveness is taken literally. I think Kunstmann had a chance here and took that chance.

4. The adjectival attribute

The poetics of grammar based on the adjectival attribute mostly occurs in poetry and in theatrical plays. Zbigniew Herbert's poem "Kamyk" 'Little stone', 'Pebble' (Herbert 1961) may serve as an example. The first two lines are:

   Kamyk jest stworzeniem
   doskonalym

(Herbert 1987: 386).

In this instance, the adjectival attribute, i.e. an adjective of quality, doskonaly ('accomplished', 'perfect'), is emphasized in two ways: by occurring in the place of the adjective of classification and by forming a single line. (5) There is no way of rendering this aesthetic device in an English translation. The first lines of Czeslaw Milosz's English version of "Kamyk" read:

   Pebble
   the pebble
   is a perfect creature

(Herbert 2000: 39).

While the source text postpones and isolates the attribute ('[The] pebble is [a] creature/perfect'), the target text isolates the topic of the poem, the pebble. The result of this translatory option is an unequivocal judgement on the state of the pebble. English readers will be unaware of the fact that the pebble is not characterized as being "perfect", but classified as a "perfect" creature.

The German translator, Karl Dedecius, manages to isolate the adjectival attribute, however, at the cost of semantic deviation:

   Kiesel
   Der kiesel ist als geschopf
   vollkommen
   (Herbert 1987: 387).

This translation restricts the perfection of the pebble in terms of ontology (cf. note 5): As far as the state of a "creature" is concerned, the pebble is perfect. Problems connected with the adjectival attribute, then, keep being a challenge for translators. All Polish-English and Polish-German translators can do is try to come as close as possible to the meaning of the source text.

Rozewicz even uses the adjectival attribute as comic device. A telling example, which may illustrate this case, occurs in Kartoteka ('The card index'). In this play, private life is fundamentally threatened: "a street" seems to be "passing through the HERO's room" (Rozewicz 1969: 38). And, indeed, next to family members and acquaintances, who keep visiting the HERO, there are also strangers, who just pass through the room. Of course, the threat to private life and private property (Schultze and Matuschek 1991: 399), first of all, aims at the situation in communist Poland around 1960. But we may also note a general allusion to man's loss of privacy in the second half of the 20th century. One of the HERO's uninvited visitors is the FAT WOMAN (T[?]USTA KOBIETA), a former acquaintance. The verbal pattern based on the adjectival attribute is:

   BOHATER ... Co pani tu robi? To jest mieszkanie prywatne! ...
   TLUSTA KOBIETA Cha! cha! cha! cha! (zasmiewa sie) Mieszkanie
   prywatne!

   BOHATER ... To jest prywatne mieszkanie.
   TLUSTA KOBIETA (smieje sie) Prywatne mieszkanie? Mieszkanie
   prywatne!
   (Rozewicz 1999: 44-46).

In her second answer, the FAT WOMAN first uses the adjective of quality ('Private apartment?'), then the adjective of qualification ('Private apartment!'). This difference can be rendered in German. The blessings of a private home could be expressed in this way: Eine private Wohnung! The difference between living quarters of one's own choice and those made available by the employer could be underlined by the compound Privatwohnung--in contrast to Dienstwohnung.

Obviously, there is no way of letting English readers know about this joke based on the Polish adjectival attribute. Czerniawski's translation is:

   HERO ... What are you doing here, madam? This is a private
   apartment....
   FAT WOMAN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha! (laughs herself silly) Private
   apartment!

   HERO ... This is a private apartment.
   FAT WOMAN: (laughs) Private apartment? A private apartment!
   (Rozewicz 1969: 56-58).

Thus, the English translation questions the private character of the apartment and ridicules the HERO's insistance on privacy.

The translators of two German versions of Kartoteka, Ilka Boll and Henryk Bereska, so it seems, failed to notice the, admittedly slight, chance of rendering the joke based on the adjectival attribute in German. Ilka Boll's translation of the FAT WOMAN's last utterance is: "Eine Privatwohnung? Eine Privatwohnung!" (Rozewicz 1983:195). Henryk Bereska tries to stress the private character of the HERO's room by strengthening the punctuation: "Privatwohnung? Privatwohnung!!!" (Rozewicz 1961: 23). English and German readers and audiences will probably understand that the HERO is trying to defend his private home. Summarizing, we may say that the poetics of grammar based on the dual realization of the adjectival attribute, especially with respect to the language pair Polish-English, is a case of untranslatability.

If I see it correctly, translators have more chances to resort to creative translation when they are confronted with the poetics of interjection. We shall have a look at one of the prominent cases of the poetics of interjection, Busch's "story of two rascals in seven tricks", Max und Moritz (Busch 1996: 5).

5. Interjections

In Busch's "Tale in pictures", the poetics of grammar consists of almost forty different interjections. Among them are conventional primary interjections (e.g. ach, Autsch! Rums!) and conventional secondary interjections (e.g. herrje, herrjemine!), but also pieces of poetic invention (e.g. Schnupdiwup! Ritzeratze!) (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 560-561). One has to bear in mind that Max und Moritz is not only a witty tale about two nasty rascals--and not only a book for children. Quite the contrary. It is mainly a book for grown-ups. It ridicules the German petit bourgeois (the Spiessburger), who loves his way of life filled with daily routine and "dear habits", i.e. a life which can yield a feeling of safety. Of course, the deep-rooted sceptic Busch was quite suspicious of any concept of life founded on the ideal of safety and standing-still. Poetics of grammar based on interjections will be investigated in one Polish and one English translation. To start with, both translators, Robert Stiller, whose Polish translation only appeared in 2004 and Walter W. Arndt, whose English translation goes back to 1982 (Busch 1996: 158), were well aware of the role of interjections in Max und Moritz. In our study, specific attention will be paid to the so-called "elegiac Ach" ("elegisches Ach") and onomatopoeic expressions that imitate sounds produced by inanimate objects (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 556). Quite characteristically, the poetics of grammar is already announced in the "Preface" to Max und Moritz. The first word is the elegiac Ach:

   Ach, was muss man oft von bosen
   Kindern horen oder lesen!
   (Busch 1996: 6).

Since the elegiac Ach does not exist in the English language, the translator chooses another primary interjection. At any rate, he also opens the text with an interjection:

   Ah, the wickedness one sees
   Or is told of such as these ...
   (Busch 1996: 7).

The second elegiac Ach in the preface--"Ach, das war ein schlimmes Ding"--is rendered in this way: "Woe, I say, and double woe!!" Here, the translator underlines the meaning of the elegiac Ach ("woe"), i.e. he resorts to so-called explanatory transfer.

Since the pattern composed of the German Ach throughout the text cannot be maintained in the English translation, Walter Arndt chooses different translatory strategies to save at least the basic meaning of the Ach. The first trick, to give an example, offers the following series of the Ach, out of which the last one does not connotate elegiac lament, but spontaneous horror:

   Flattern auf und in die Hoh,
   Ach herrje, herrjemine!
   Ach, sie bleiben an dem langen
   Durren Ast des Baumes hangen.

   Ahnungsvoll tritt sie heraus:
   Ach, was war das fur ein Graus!
   (Busch 1996: 23-27).

The English translation reads:

   Flutter up into the air,
   What a desperate affair!
   Gracious me, all tangled now
   And suspended from the bow!

   She steps out in nameless fright
   Oh, the horror of the sight!
   (Busch 1996: 23-27).

Walter Arndt even strengthens the impression of dismay and horror. One of the primary interjections is rendered as the secondary interjection "Gracious me!"; and the last two lines contain the primary interjection Oh as well as two words instead of the German noun "Graus" ('terror', 'horror')--"fright" and "horror". The English translation, thus, is clearly directed at the effect of Busch's "story of two rascals".

Two examples may suffice to illustrate Arndt's translatory skills in rendering sounds produced by inanimate objects. Both of them occur in the third trick. In this instance, Max and Moritz play a trick on "Schneider Bock", in the English translation, "Tailor Billy". The verses which interest here are:

   Max und Moritz, gar nicht trage,
   Sagen heimlich mit der Sage,
   Ritzeratze! Voller Tucke,
   In die Brucke eine Lucke.

   Und schon ist er auf der Brucke,
   Kracks! Die Brucke bricht in Stucke.
   (Busch 1996: 55, 59).

The English translation runs as follows:

   Max and Moritz, full of spite,
   Saw with mischievous delight
   Reeker-rawker, heartless prank,
   At the plank from bank to bank.

   He is crossing at a dash;
   No! A crash, and then a splash!
   (Busch 1996: 55, 59).

By rendering Busch's onomatopoeic interjection "Ritzeratze!" as "Reekerrawker", Arndt certainly had a chance of creative translation and took that chance. The interjection "Kracks!", however, is lost--probably in favour of the triple rhyme: "Brucke--Brucke--Stucke", "dash--crash--splash". It should be noted that Arndt, at least indirectly, supports the poetics of grammar. While the three nouns in the source text cannot serve as secondary interjections, there are English secondary interjections of the type "dash it!" and "crash!". Further examples could show that Walter Arndt fully manages to transfer the texture of interjections to the English version of Busch's "Tale in pictures".

The Polish translation of Max und Moritz shows deviations from the German source text, which may have to do with Robert Stiller's 'struggling' with the rhymes. Though the Polish language has the elegiac Ach at its disposal, there is no Ach in the Polish "Preface" ("Przedmowa"):

   Ciagle slyszy sie lub czyta,
   Jaka podlosc w dzieciach skryta

   Niech nikogo nie zachwyca

   (Busch 2004: 9).

Instead of starting the "tale" from the interjection Ach, Stiller starts it from the adverb oft (here: ciagle 'permanently'). The lines "Ach, das war ein schlimmes Ding,/ Wie es Max und Moritz ging!" are rendered as "Niech nikogo nie zachwyca/Przyszlsc Maksa i Moryca" ('Max's and Moritz's future should not delight anybody'). While in the source text already the "Preface" announces the poetics of grammar, the Polish target text postpones this information to the first trick. The three lines of the first trick beginning with the interjection Ach read:

   Boze! Toz to istny krzyz!
   Lecz nic puscic ani mysli!

   Ach, i jak tu grozy nie czuc?
   (Busch 2004: 13-14).

Thus, only the third Ach is rendered by direct transfer (Tabakowska and Schultze 2002: 559); the first Ach is replaced by the secondary interjection Boze! ('God!', 'Heavens!'); instead of the second Ach the translator uses the conjunction "Lecz" ('But'). For all that he obviously tries to make up for these omissions by inserting the interjection Ach in lines where it does not occur in the source text. E.g., the line "Fliesset aus dem Aug, ihr Tranen!" ('Flow down from the eyes, my tears!') is rendered as "Ach, lzy mi sie z oczu leja,!" (Busch 2004: 15). Regardless of such translatory device to make up for omissions of the Ach, this interjection is not quite as "present" in the Polish version of Busch's Max und Moritz as it is in the source text. On the other hand, sounds produced by inanimate objects are rendered without exception. Again, the third trick may serve as an example. In the Polish text, the trick is played on the tailor Koziet. The line "Ritzeratze! Voller Tucke" reads: "Chrup-chrup! Wziely sie diableta" (Busch 2004: 23), and the line "Kracks! Die Brucke bricht in Stucke" is

"Chrrrup! Rozpadla sie na czesci" (Busch 2004: 25). Of course, the interjection chrup or chrup-chrup comes closer to the German onomatopoeic interjection "Kracks!" than to the sound of the saw, "Ritzeratze!"

On the whole, we may acknowledge that Walter Arndt's English and Robert Stiller's Polish translation manage to equip the target texts with a wide range of different interjections. The verbal pattern of the English translation contains interjections as e.g. "Pitter, patter", "Bow-wow", "Bah!", "Plop!", "Krroom!"; the Polish version of Max und Moritz offers these sound effects: "Mee ... mee ... mee!", "Chlups!", "bums!" "Bach!", "Szust!" and others. Thus, with respect to English and Polish, this variant of the poetics of grammar allows for successful translatory results.

6. The grammatical sense of the verbal aspects

Next to the reflexive pronoun sobie and Aktionsart, the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects also confronts translators with problems which are hard to tackle. One short example may illustrate this case. The poetics of grammar based on the grammatical sense of the verbal aspects is crucial in the beginning of Rozewicz's poem "W srodku zycia" 'In the middle of life' (Rozewicz 1955):

   Po koncu swiata
   po smierci
   znalazlem sie w srodku zycia
   stwarzalem siebie
   budowalem zycie

   (Rozewicz 1971: 366).

Since we do not have a professional translation at our disposal, a working translation will have to suffice: 'After the end of the world/after death/[I] found myself in the middle of life/ created myself/ built life'.

What interests here is the sequence of verbs, out of which the first one, znalazlem sie, is perfective, whereas the following ones are imperfective. Karl Dedecius' German translation of the series of verbal expressions is:

   fand ich mich in der mitte des lebens
   ich schuf reich neu
   ich baute leben

   (Rozewicz 1996: 815).

The first verbal expression, fand, is a poetic abbreviation of "befand ich mich", "fand ich mich wieder". The other verbal expression, schuf and baute, sound equally plain and seem to be quite transparent. And yet they cannot inform target side readers of the grammatical sense of the Polish imperfective verbs: stwarzalem siebie means 'I tried to create myself'; it also means that the outcome of this process is open and unknown. Similarly, the verbal expression budowalem indicates the attempt at building life anew and, again, the outcome of this process is totally open (Schultze and Matuschek, in press). In this instance, the poetics of grammar clearly concerns the core of Rozewicz's lifelong aesthetic quest--the search for meaningful human existence and a new system of values after the devastations of the Second World War and in the 1950s. This example shows that even single occurrences of the poetics of grammar may be quite relevant in literary translations.

Summarizing, we may state that the poetics of grammar deserve specific attention in translation analyses and also in translation theory. Any case of the poetics of grammar, be it the German interjections in Wilhelm Busch's Max und Moritz, be it the copula jest in Witkiewicz's Gyubal Wahazar, are a challenge for translators. Eventually, as is the case with Heinrich Kunstmann's translation of Iwona, the poetics of grammar allows for creative translation, i.e. for translation, which will even surpass the source text in one or the other phrasing or texture.

REFERENCES

PRIMARY SOURCES

Busch, Wilhelm 

1996 Max und Moritz polyglott. (13th edition.) (dtv. 10026). Munchen: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.

2004 Maks i Moryc. Opowiesc lobuzerska w siedmiu psotach oraz inne rozkoszne wierszyki dla dzieci i dorostych z obrazkami aurora [Max and Moritz: A juvenile history in seven tricks.] (Translated by Robert Stiller.) Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa.

Dedecius, Karl (ed.)

1996 Panorama der polnischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1/1: Poesie. Zurich: Ammann Verlag.

Gombrowicz, Witold 

1969 Ferdydurke. (Dziela zebrane 1.) Paryz: Instytut Literacki.

1982 Yvonne, die Burgunderprinzessin. (Translated by Heinrich Kunstmann.) (Fischer Taschenbuch 7069.) Frankfurt, Main: Fischer.

1983 Ferdydurke. Roman. (Translated by Walter Tiel.) (Revised by Hilde and Rolf Fieguth.) Munchen: Carl Hanser.

1994 Iwona, ksiezniczka Burgunda. Slub. Operetka. Historia [Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy. The marriage. Operetta. A story.] (2nd edition.) Krakow: Wydawnictwo KOS.

Herbert, Zbigniew 

1987 Poesie der Welt. (Auswahl und Prosa-Ubertragungen Peter und Renate Lachmann.) Berlin: Propylaen Verlag.

2000 Selected poems. (Translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter and Czeslaw Milosz and Peter Dale Scott.) Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

Mrozek, Slawomir 

1961 Die Karthotek. (Translated by Henryk Bereska.) Berlin: G. Kiepenheuer.

1963 Utwory sceniczne [Plays.] Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

1965 Striptease. Satiren. (Translated by Ludwig Zimmerer.) (dtv 332.) Munchen: Henssel Verlag.

1972 Striptease, Repeat performance, and The prophets. New York: Grove Press.

Rozewicz, Tadeusz

1971 Poezje zebrane [Collected poems.] Wroclaw: Ossolineum.

1983 Gediehte, Stucke. Frankfurt, Main: Suhrkamp.

1988 Teatr [Theatre.] Vol. 2. Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

1996 In der Mitte des Lebens, in: Karl Dedecius (ed.), 819.

1999 Kartoteka. Kartoteka rozrzucona [The card index. The card index scattered.] Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

1986 Auf allen Vieren. (Translated by Henryk Bereska.) Berlin: Henschelverlag.

1969 The card index and other plays. (Translated by Adam Czerniawski.) London: Calder & Boyars.

Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy

1972 Tropical madness. Four plays. (Translated by D. C. Gerould and C. S. Durer). New York: Winter House.

1974 Gyubal Wahazar oder Im Engpass des Unsinns. Nicht-Euklidisches Drama in 4 Akten. (Translated by Ilka Boll.) Frankfurt, Main: Suhrkamp.

1982 Stucke. Berlin: [No indication of publisher.]

1998 Dramaty [Dramatic works.] Vol. 2. (Dziela zebrane.) Warszawa: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.

SECONDERY SOURCES

Boguslawski, Andrzej

1984 "Polskie nieidentyfikacyjne wyrazenia osobowo-referencjalne" [Personal referential non-identifying phrases in Polish], Polonica 10: 49-71.

Czerwinski, Edward Joseph

1988 Contemporary Polish theatre and drama (1956-1984). (Contributions to the Study of World Literature 26.) New York: Greenwood Press.

Doroszewski, Witold

1962 Studia i szkice jezykoznawcze [Linguistic studies and sketches.] Warszawa: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

Erlich, Victor--Roman Jakobson (eds.)

1975 For Wiktor Weintraub. Essays in Polish literature, language, and history presented on the occasion of His 65th birthday. (Slavistic Printings and Reprintings 312.) The Hague--Paris: Mouton.

Gin, Jakov I.

1996 Problemy poetiki grammaticeskich kategorij: Izbrannye raboty [The problems of the poetics of grammatical categories: Collected works.] Sankt-Peterburg: Gumanitarnoe Agentstvo "Akad. Proekt".

Grochowski, Maciej--Daniel Weiss (eds.)

1991 Words are physicians of an ailing mind. (Sagners slavistische Sammlung 17.) Munchen: Otto Sagner.

Gutschmidt, Karl--Helmut Keipert--Hans Rothe (eds.)

1993 Slavistische Studien zum XI. internationalen Slavistenkongress in Pressburg/ Bratislava. (Bausteine zur Slavischen Philologie und Kulturgeschichte. Reihe A. NF 11/71.) Koln--Weimar--Wien: Bohlau.

Hammerschmid, Beata--Brigitte Schultze

1998 "Inszenierte Kultur: Mahlzeiten in Gombrowicz's Ferdydurke--polnisch und deutsch", in: Beata Hammerschmid--Hermann Krapoth (eds.), 61-96.

Hammerschmid, Beata--Hermann Krapoth (eds.)

1998 Ubersetzung als kultureller Prozess. Rezeption, Projektion und Konstruktion des Fremden. (Gottinger Beitrage zur Internationalen Ubersetzungsforschung 16.) Berlin: Erich Schmidt.

Jakobson, Roman 

1975 "'Czulsc' Cypriana Norwida" ["Sensitivity" by Cyprian Norwid], in: Victor Erlich--Roman Jakobson (eds.), 227-237.

Kittel, Harald--Armin Paul Frank--Norbert Greiner--Theo Hermans--Werner Koller--Jose Lambert--Fritz Paul (eds.)

2004 Ubersetzung. Translation. Traduction. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Ubersetzungsforschung. Vol. 1. (Handbucher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 26.1.) Berlin--New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Nozdrina, Ljudmila A.

2000 Poetika grammaticeskich kategorij: Kurs lekcij po interpretacii chudo estvennogo teksta. [The poetics of grammatical categories: A course in the interpretation of a literary text.] Moskva: Tezaurus.

Schultze, Brigitte

1993 "Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz's Dramen im internationalen Ubersetzungsvergleich: am Beispiel der Buhnenparabel Gyubal Wahazar", in: Karl Gutschmidt--Helmut Keipert--Hans Rothe (eds.), 455-489.

2000 "Machtbesitz und Machtverlust als Kontinuum: Thema, Motivstruktur und polnische Stereotypen in St. I. Witkiewiczs Buhnenparabel Gyubal Wahazar (1921)", in: Theodor Wolpers (ed.), 421-449.

Schultze, Brigitte--Herbert Matuschek

1991 "Asymmetrien des Sprachenpaares Polnisch-Deutsch als Herausforderung for Ubersetzer. Dargestellt am Beispiel polnisch-deutscher Dramenubersetzungen des 20. Jahrhunderts", in: Maciej Grochowski--Daniel Weiss (eds.), 389-401.

in press "Sprachliche Asymmetrien als Beobachtungsort polnisch-deutscher literarischer Ubersetzungen", Zeitschrift fur Slawistik 50/2.

Schultze, Brigitte--Elzbieta Tabakowska

1992 The Polish discourse marker in Gombrowicz's Slub ('The marriage') and in its English, German, French and Czech translations: Cognitive linguistics and poetics of the theatre text. (Mainzer Slavistische Veroffentlichungen 15.) Mainz: Liber Verlag.

2004 "Interjections as a translation problem", in: Harald Kittel--Armin Paul Frank Norbert Greiner--Theo Hermans--Werner Koller--Jose Lambert--Fritz Paul (eds.), 555-562.

Schultze, Brigitte--Beata Weinhagen

2004 "Kultura inscenizowana. Posilki w Ferdydurke Gombrowicza--po polsku i po niemiecku (translated by Beata Kozak)" [Culture on stage. Meals in Gombrowicz's Ferdydurke--in Polish and German], in: Marek Zybura--Izabela Surynt (eds.), 333379. Tabakowska, Elzbieta--Brigitte Schultze

2002 "The case of SOBIE: On poetics of grammar", Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny 49/2: 119-142.

Uspenskij, F. V.

1990 "O poetike O. Mandel'stama. Grammatika kak predmet poezii", [On poetics of O. Mandel'stam. Grammar as the object of poetry.] Blokovskij sbornik 11: 90-96. Wolpers, Theodor (ed.)

2000 Der Sturz des Machtigen. Zu Struktur, Funktion und Geschichte eines literarischen Motivs: Bericht uber Kolloquien fur literaturwissenschaftliche Motiv- und Themenforschung 1995-1998. (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen, Phil.-Hist. Klasse III/234.) Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Zybura, Marek--Izabela Surynt (eds.)

2004 Patagonczyk w Berlinie. Witold Gombrowicz w oczach krytyki niemieckiej [A Patagonian in Berlin. Witold Gombrowicz in the eyes of the German critics.] (Polonica leguntur 2.) Krakow: Universitas.

BRIGITTE SCHULTZE

Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz

(1) The first out of three volumes appeared by the end of 2004.

(2) This textbook for students contains a bibliography (cf. Nozdrina 2000: 220-232).

(3) A reprint in Polish translation: Schultze and Weinhagen (2004: 346, 350, 366-368).

(4) The italics are mine [B.S.].

(5) of course, the nature of the pebble is also stressed by the copula jest, which clearly implies an ontological statement (Schultze and Matuschek 2005).