Po kładce nad urwiskiem, przymrużając oko
On the Footbridge over the Cliff, Winking

Translating Humorous Poetry on the Example of Szymborska’s "Rhymes for Big Kids"

Author(s): Andrea Ceccherelli
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Wisława Szymborska; humour in literature; humour in poetry; laughter in poetry; translating poetry
Summary/Abstract: The article presents a practical-theoretical reflection on translating humorous poetry on the basis of the author’s experience as a translator of Wisława Szymborska’s "Rymowanki dla dużych dzieci" ("Rhymes for Big Kids"). Since humor is the dominant function of the text, and laugh is the expected reaction, functional equivalence – rather than the semantic one – is to be pursued here. The goal of any translator of humorous texts is to produce the equivalent effect on the reader. In the case of Szymborska’s "Rymowanki", the task is made more difficult by the poetic form, which plays a primary role in generating the comic effect. The author observes that the three categories of joke – universal, cultural and linguistic – proposed by Debra Raphaelson-West do not take into account such highly formalized utterings as humorous verses, in which the form is not a mere decoration aiming at potentiating the aesthetic effect, but definitely contributes to generating the humorous effect. The article shows how the mechanisms of laugh/smile proper of these poetic texts were reproduced in translation following some simple principles, and ends with the suggestion to add a fourth category to Raphaelson-West’s classification: a poetic joke.

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