Claudio Magris.doc

Border's em dashes in "The endless travel" of Claudio Magris



Abstract :

The narrative dimension of Claudio Magris in " The endless travel" is
characterized by an analytical syntax, known also as "diurnal" writing,
with a mixture of reflections and considerations by the author. The
construction of such a simple speech, but complex in the meantime, combine
various aspects of language, including the punctuation marks.
This study aims to analyze in linguistic and stylistic key the abundant use
of varied "metanarrative" em dashes trending to a stratification of the
narrative set.
It proceeds with a comparison of the story of theem dashes's use in both
languages , highlighting the low presence of this narrative sign in
Albanian. In conclusion it brings some examples of translational choices.

"Non c'è viaggio senza che si attraversino
frontiere – politiche, linguistiche, sociali,
culturali, psicologiche, anche quelle
invisibili che separano un quartiere da un
altro nella stessa città, quelle tra le
persone, quelle tortuose che nei nostri inferi
sbarrano la strada a noi stessi."


Claudio Magris
L'infinito
viaggiare




The frontier for an author as Magris, is a way of being, or just a
philosophy of life that includes also his style. In the author's vivid
dialogue with his translators, Magris claims attention to the ambiguity of
his mixed narrative, characterized by the "diurnal" and the
"nocturnal"writing.
Although, the enlightened preface of the author emphasizes the prevalence
of the "diurnal" writing in the endless travel, - that is, a writing which
"tries to understand the world, to give an account of its phenomena, to
place individual destinies, even painful, on the background of the whole
reality and its meaning"[1]unlike that "nocturnal" one "that sometimes,
even without planning it, face with the terrible part of life,which wildly
ignore the moral values, of good and evil, justice and mercy or order; a
writing of chaos thatrepresent thealienating and creative meeting, with a
lookalike or an unknown component of themselves, which talks with another
voice"[2], - while a few paragraphsahead, does not exclude the possible
presence of a "nocturnal" voice in his writing[3].
This intertwining of writings sui generis between essay and
narrativewriting, makes the author's style so intricate to interpret.
The indications of the author towards the translators of his works are full
of references regarding the concept of freedom of translation, suggestions
to develop the intuition, rather than the intelligibility of the text, or
to grasp the extent of the text and acoustic and physical rhythm as part
integral of the concept.
His style can be interpreted in many ways, but I would analyze a "subtle"
and "bordering" element, as are the punctuations marks, called also as
indicators of style.
The topic of the punctuations marksis very elusive and in translation,
it'signored in most cases.
Even in the case of Magris, who has written hundreds of pages of tips for
translators of his books[4], there is no information on the subject. For an
author attentive and critical of his style, it is obvious that the choice
of punctuation is not only correct - expression this of one of the
characters of Chekhov –but also it is quite aware[5].
Differently from the opinion of Leopardi, one of the preferred poets of
Magris himself - on the use of hyphens and dashes in general, we could see
that the text of Magris abounds of these signs[6]. We are going to analyze
the dominant use of metalinguistics and parenthetical dashes, with a
prosodic-breaking time function, also mark the logical-syntactic
relationships.
Moreover, grammars don't help much to understand the conscious and
stylistic use of this sign at the edge of the punctuations marks, simply
replaceable with two commas and parentheses.
For Serianni the em dashes, besides introducing a direct speech, especially
in dialogical novels, they are also used to enclose incidental phrases[7].
Buthow it should be interpreted the proliferation of the em dashes used to
introduce incidental phrases in the text of The endless travel?

Let's see a few examples:

1. The writing proceeds with the relocation, packaging and discarding,
trimming, moving empties and fullness, discovers - invents? finds? -
Fugitiveitems from the catalogue and even from the perception of reality
...
The example highlights the polyphony of voices, characteristic of the style
of the author: the voice of the narrator interrupts essayist that breaks
the linear narrative with questions in suspension.

2. ... it is prolonged in transferring from paper to reality - writing
notes, checking, partially erasing, rewriting, moving them, changing its
disposition.
In the case of the single em dash, the attention is focused on the last
element, which has the function of determining, circumscribing and
processing the author's thought. According to grammar, you could easily
replace the dash with a colon, but the author prefers the line in order to
sharpen the sentence added.

3. So happens with the writing: something that, while traveling and lived,
seemed fundamental has vanished, the paper is empty, while imperiously
takes shape and stands as something essential in life -during the journey
of life - we had just noticed it.

The sentence introduced serves to specify the word that precedes, in order
to focus the reader's attention on this section of the text.

4. Berlin - divided in two, occupied by four powers and crossed by a
grotesque wall - is the image of a boiling story unnaturally blocked.

The sentence presented above shows detailed explanations, opinions and
other elements of the narrator, in addition to discursive thought of the
author-essayist. The phrase couldbe put between two commas, but the use of
em dashes articulates the author's will to give more evidence of the
"second voice".

5. in the drama ... the crazy slayer is identified with Ludwig, with his
megalomania, which analyzes - better than a psychiatrist - these titanic
designs ...

And againit is the narrative voice that adds an opinion marked by two em
dashes.

6. But Lotte - the real Lotte, one that rests below– was she really the
wife of the director, the mother of his children, whom he shared his life.

7. The city - beautiful, not certainly rich, but of kind and frank
vitality, with its streets full of people and motorcycles of all types and
its pagodas on the lakes - suggests peace and a modest but active life, not
bombs it rained for many years.

But this muted atmosphere it's not to be fooled, it is not - or not only -
a sign of indifference...

In the cases abovewe can see an empathetic participation of the narrator,
who not only adds explanations, but also participate emotionally in the
description, giving the text a conversational tone.

8. The professors - I would say especially the female professors–know the
Italian university like me and they know how to create among their students
a great interest for our country.

This would be the best case in which the em dashes are used to point out
details also visually with a clear separation. An equivalent sentence could
be the following:

 The teachers, or better to say the teachers, know...

In the second example, although the meaning is not different, the
particularity would not be well marked and well underlined. It seems that
Magris travels in his text through and beyond the borders of the em dashes.
For an author who is not only able to interpret all his choices and who
manages to be the critic of himself we can't avoid these choices.
Through a superficially view, without considering the author's style, this
profusion of em dashes in the text can also be interpreted as a simple
influence of theAnglo-Saxon languages , in particular of the German
language[8], since, as is known, there is a lack of presence of that sign
in the literary and nonfiction Italian texts before "modernity."
But if we take into account the ambiguity of his narrative, the use of em
dashes could be interpreted in several ways:

-Stylistically; the incidental phrases represent "the polyphony and the
layering ofthe enunciation "[9] of the literary text . Parenthetical
dashes introduce another voice in the discourse (that of the author
narrator) that takes various positions in comparison with the author
essayist, "contributing to the construction of that ambiguity between
subjective confession and objective account "[10] . According to the
author words, the sentences marked by em dashes are more "nocturnal"
than "diurnal " ;

- Linguistically; them dashes give to the text traits of orality.
"Thesegmentedand broken sentences are in fact typical of the spoken
language; it could be proved just by reading the speech aloud . "[11]

- Syntactic; the various types of asides create a multiplication of complex
sentences in the architecture of the Magri's text.

- According to the content, theem dashes are used to interferewith details,
distinctive features, observations, explanationsof a concept, places, ideas
or persons. The incidental sentences often creates a parallelline to that
of the main topic, forming anintercultural and interdisciplinarynetwork.

Examples:
In the particulate delirium which isafflicting Europe with the fever of
proclaiming roots, ethnic purity and compactidentity, it would not be bad
if this beautiful country remain nameless; would be - as the anonymous
Kafka or the sneers dear toCzech literature - a lesson of human truth and
irony, tolerance and humanity.

If we extend the concept of Magris about the border - seen as a line which
divides, but often makes enemy that people who mingles and clashes in that
territory, and at the same time combines those same people[12] - even the
writing of Magris shows the dual function of em dashes:

- Bringing out and discovering peculiarities, local perfumes, marginal
experiences. The em dashes in the linear narrative are like borders,that
focus on these peculiarities and evidence them. It could be this the reason
why such sentences are not marked between two commas: the effect of pause
and evidence would be lower.

- Integrating the particularity, the second voice, the interior of the
speech. Probably for this reason the incidental sentences between the em
dashes are not enclosed in braces, which would create a block, an
exclusion, an effect of pause and of greater evidence, treating the whole
sentence as a strangepart of the literary text.

From this point of view, the em dashes in the text of Magris become
semantic and stylistic borders to carefully evaluate in the translation
process. According to the translation into the Albanian, the use of theem
dashes has changed in different periods. So, before standardizationof the
Albanian language, we can find a significant presence of the dashes in the
literary magazines of the thirties, especially in authors with a cultural
influence from English and German[13].
After the seventies, with strict rules of the state Publishing House "Naim
Frashëri" and the flattening of the writing style of socialist realism,
there is the tendency to exclude generally the em dashes and to replace
them with parentheses or commas.
After the nineties, in an atmosphere of chaos, there is also a tendency to
break the rules of writing.
In the translation process predominates the "author-oriented" strategy, so
a translation focused more on the source language that on the target
language. This, in some cases, has reduced the understanding of the target
text.
In this specific case we tried to analyze, the translator of the text of
Magris, should adopt an interpretative strategy of the parenthetical
dashes: preserving them in compliance with the authorial choices or
replacing with commas or parentheses as the traditional use of the Albanian
language?
A question that in the translation science compares with two principles:
that of adequacy and that of acceptability, in other words,the source-
oriented approach, focused on the preservation of the prototext and the
target - oriented, focused on the metatext.[14]

From the correspondence with translators, we could see as Magris chooses
the respect of the ambiguity of his writing and the principle of the
adequacy and a source- oriented approach.

" As always in the case of difficulties, both structural general, as
singular sentences , as you know , I think the translation should not
explain, simplify, or smooth out the difficulties of the original text,
which then are the same difficulties of life and its story, the
difficulties that each of us , very often , should understand . For this
reason, is better running the risk of not being understood that not taking
the tone of the Cicerone of themselves and of the own work, which takes the
reader by the hand and graciously explains things, levelling the
bumps"[15].

In addition to the opinion of the author, in this case the parenthetical em
dashes should be interpreted as indicators of style, and that's why in most
cases would just respect them. The translator of the preface has opted for
the faithful reproduction of such punctuation marks.

In conclusion, we can say that the translation of the work of Claudio
Magris The endless traveling is a challenge both for the translatorand the
Albanian reader, because the different language problems, syntactic and
stylistic mentioned above, we encounter a long line border between
different cultures, and it will demand greater participation in the
reading, to be understood as a journey done not by a tourist guided, but by
a curious explorer interested to go beyond the frontiers of understanding.






















Bibliography:


1. C. Magris, L'infinito viaggiare, Milano, Mondadori, 2005.
2. C. Magris, Lettera traduttori, correspondenza inedita con i suoi
traduttori.
3. C. Magris, Trieste. Un'identità di frontiera,Torino: Einaudi, 1982.
4. Rivista letteraria Aleph, Intervista di Claudio Magris, realizzata da M.
Hysa, Tirana,
autunno 2011, nr. 21.
5. Rivista letteraria Aleph, Shënime udhëtimi, tradotto da R. Bejko,
Tirana, Estate 2011, nr. 20.
6. U. Eco, Dire quasi la stessa cosa. Esperienze di traduzione, Milano,
Bompiani, 2003.
7. B. Osimo, Manuale del traduttore: guida prattica con glossario, Milano,
Hoepli Editore,
2004.
8. B. Ivančić, Il dialogo tra autori e traduttori. L'esempio di Claudio
Magris, Quaderni di
CeSLiC, Centro di Studi Linguistici-Culturali, ISBN:2038-7954,URT, 2010.
9. B. Ivančić, Tra le (non) virgole di Alla cieca e sul rapporto di Claudio
Magris con i
trattutori, Quaderni di Italianistica, Voll 32, Nr.1, 2011.
10. Gideon Toury, Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, Amsterdam-
Philadelphia, John
Benjamins Publishing Company, 1995.
11. L. Serianni (con la collaborazione di A. Castelvecchi), Grammatica
italiana, Torino, UTET,
1989.
12. B. Montara Garavelli, Prontuario di punteggiatura, Roma-Bari, Laterza,
2003.
13. B. Montara Garavelli (a cura di), Storia della punteggiatura in Europa,
Roma-Bari, Laterza,
2008.
14. B. Mortara Garavelli,"L'interpunzione nella costruzione del testo." La
costruzione del testo in italiano. Sistemi costruttivi e testi costruiti.
Atti del Seminario Internazionale di Barcellona (24-29 aprile 1995). Eds.
María de las Nieves Muñiz and Francisco Amella. Firenze: Franco Cesati,
1996. 93-113.
15. F. Serafini, Questo è il punto, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012.
16. Akademia e Shkencave, IGJL, Drejtëshkrimi i gjuhësshqipe, Tiranë, 1973.
17. Akademia e Shkencave, IGJL, Rregullat e pikësimit, Tiranë, 1981.
18. Akademia e Shkencave, IGJL, Rregullat e pikësimitnëgjuhënshqipe,
Tiranë, 2002.
19. Gj. Shkurtaj, Si tëshkruajmëshqip - Ngadrejtëshkrimi te
shkrimetprofesionale, Tiranë,
Toena, 2008.

Unpublished material
1. Avvertenze generali per i traduttori di Microcosmi
2. Avvertenze ai traduttori de La mostra
3. Lettera ai traduttori di Alla cieca

MimozaHysa








-----------------------
[1] C. Magris, L'infinito viaggiare, Prefazione, Mondadori, 2008, p. XXIII.
[2] Idem, p. 24,
[3] "In this pages the dépaysement, that in my other books is central, is
dammed, content or circumvented by an "diurnal" attitude, perhaps
defensive. But the journey, by itself, always creeps in the writing a
"nocturnal" component.. " . Ibidem, p.21.
[4]B. Ivan
i ", Il dialogo tra autori e traduttori. L esempio di Claudio
Magris, Quaderni. Ivančić, Il dialogo tra autori e traduttori. L'esempio di
Claudio Magris, Quaderni di CeSLiC, Centro di Studi Linguistici-Culturali,
URT, 2010.
[5][6]F. Serafini, Questo è il punto, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012.

[7]G. Leopardi, Pensieri di varia filosofia e di bella letteratura,curato
da Giosuè Carducci,Vol. II, April 22 . Easter Day 1821 : " What is this
encumbrance of dashes, dots , of little spaces, double and triple points of
admiration , that I know? I am to see you go back to fashion hieroglyphic
writing , and feelings and ideas you don't want to write more but represent
, and not knowing how to say things with words, we want to paint or mean
with sign , like the Chinese , whose writing is not the words, but things
and ideas . " , Florence , Le Monnier , 1898 ; p . 310 .
[8]L. Serianni, Grammatica italiana, in collaboration with Alberto
Castelvecchi, Torino, Utet 1989; "Trattino" p. 78-79.

[9]" This process , which in Italian is outstanding ( and in any case
should not be extended beyond the technical- scientific competence), is
current in German, a rich language with compound words ." L. Serianni (in
collaboration with A. Castelvecchi ) , Grammatica Italiana , Torino , UTET
, 1989, p . 79 .

[10][11]B. MontaraGaravelli, Prontuario di punteggiatura, Roma-Bari,
Laterza, 2003, p.95.
[12]B. Ivančić, Tra le (non) virgole di Alla cieca e sul rapporto di
Claudio Magris con i traduttori, Quaderni di Italianistica, Voll 32, Nr.1,
2011, p. 96.
[13]Ibidem.
[14]Claudio Magris, Trieste. Un'identità di frontiera,Torino, Einaudi,
1982; p. 10.
[15]Revistaletrare Java, Kris Maloku "A ështëpoetLasgushPoradeci?", 1937.

[16]Gideon Toury ,Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond , " An
acceptable translation has as objective the maximum usability of the text
in the target culture, at the cost of sacrificing the specificity of the
original. It is an approach that Toury de fines target - oriented, oriented
metatext , while the principle of adequacy is oriented to the preservation
of the prototext as an expression of the source culture , producing a
source -oriented translation. " Amsterdam - Philadelphia , John Benjamins
Publishing Company , 1995.
[17]Claudio Magris, Lettera traduttori AC, p. 9