research was Anatole Le Braz, a Breton poet who translated old Breton songs, poems and stories into French and published his own poetry in French from 1888, as well as being chair of the Union régionaliste bretonne (Breton Regionalist Union). Another member of the Union, François Taldir-Jaffrennou, is seen as the leader of the Breton bardic movement which emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century. He wrote not only in Breton and French, but occasionally also in Welsh. He is responsible for the unofficial “national anthem” of Brittany, Bro Gozh ma Zadoù (Old Land of My Fathers), which he translated from the Welsh national anthem. Favereau (2007: 131) sees Jean-Pierre Calloc’h as “the most gifted poet of his generation”. He wrote in Breton, and his volume of poetry Ar en Deulin was published posthumously accompanied by French translations in 1925.
| Manx, Cornish and Breton – Overview What was translated: – More common to translate out of the languages – Indirect translations into English – Songs, poetry and stories Reasons for translation activity: – Revive Manx, Cornish and Breton literature and culture – Disseminate Manx, Cornish and Breton literature and culture in the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany as well as internationally Translators: – A.W. Moore – Anatole Le Braz – François Taldir-Jaffrennou – Jean-Pierre Calloc’h Aim/Outcome: – Revived interest in language and culture |
3.5 Celtic translation culture(s)
Based on the above analyses of translation traditions in the Celtic regions, the most striking similarity between these traditions during the Celtic Revival was the trend towards translating from the Celtic language into English (or French in the case of Breton) rather than into the Celtic language. This was due to the fact that English had become the predominant language in the British Isles and, thus, the medium which made texts available to the widest audience, although English was seen as the language of the colonising power by many. It also made texts accessible to an international audience interested in Celticism. However, the key aim of many of these translations was to allow people in the Anglicised parts of the Celtic regions to learn more about their cultural heritage and literature and the majority were ancient legends, tales and poetry, published almost exclusively as anthologies, as was the case throughout much of Europe at the time (see e.g. Seruya et al. 2013). In Wales and Ireland, also contemporary literature was translated into English which included self-translations by the authors themselves, such as Douglas Hyde, but also translations of contemporary literature which were included in anthologies alongside medieval literature.
Another reason why translators focussed on ancient literature was to recreate the image of Celtic culture for this new audience. This led to a situation where the hegemonial language which had become dominant in the British Isles was reclaimed by the colonised people for their own purpose. Concerning the use of language in a colonial situation, Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, who investigate the language use in the British Empire and its colonies, make a distinction between abrogation and appropriation – abrogation meaning the absolute denial of the language of the hegemonial power by the colonised people while appropriation is understood as the use of the hegemonial language by the colonised people in their own interest (Ashcroft et al. 1989: 38–40). Many of the translations which were written during the Celtic Revival were very literal, retaining the original syntax and idiom; English as a language was colonised. As a result, Hiberno-English emerged as a literary vernacular, it was appropriated. Efforts were made to also retain the style of the original, which often resulted in the use of archaisms in order to convey the antiquity of the texts. A further translation strategy involved writing metrical translations, which made certain adaptations to the text necessary.
At the time, universities started to play an important role in Celtic language translation. The emergence of Celtic Studies as a university subject increased the demand for English-language versions of Celtic literature. As the main function of these texts was to serve as material for academic analysis, they needed to be quite literal for scholars who were not fluent in the language(s).
Despite similarities between the translation cultures during this movement, there are certainly also many differences. The status and usage of the languages under investigation, for example, varied to some extent. Additionally, there appear to be no clear patterns in relation to who the translators were during the Celtic Revival. However, to explore the parallels and differences between the translation cultures of each of the Celtic regions would be beyond the scope of this paper. Looking at languages can be a way of moving away from nations’ borders and allows for a more integrated approach concerning the translation history of the British Isles when analysing translation processes between all languages involved.
4 Conclusion
This paper set out to investigate the possible existence of Celtic translation culture(s). The concept of translation culture is understood as the consent and dissent of a society concerning translation, reflecting the prevailing power relations and values as well as shaping the receiving culture. To explore this idea, the texts, the translation strategies, the translators, and the reasons for the translations were discussed for the Celtic languages in the late nineteenth century. Parallels and differences between the Celtic languages were identified in relation to all of these aspects.
Furthermore, it was shown that other cultural developments, such as cultural policy and language policy, are also a part of a translation culture. One development which has been revealed in this paper is the shared experience of a Celtic Revival between the Celtic regions in the British Isles and Lower Brittany. In all of these regions, but in particular in relation to Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, the local Celtic language and culture were promoted and encouraged around the turn of the century in a more intensive manner than previously seen. Pan-Celtic communication between the regions was also flourishing, with publications, festivals and congresses providing a framework for interregional discourse and a means of supporting parallel revivals taking place in neighbouring Celtic regions. This shared cultural revival was also one of the main reasons why translations were written.
Aside from cultural interest, these translations also had strong political motivations: when considering all of the aspects of a translation culture discussed in this paper, one of the common denominators of almost all of the Celtic translation cultures is that it can be considered a post-colonial movement. On the one hand, the Celtic nations tried to revive and learn more about their own culture through language and translation. On the other hand, although they translated into the language of the colonial power, they claimed ownership of the language by doing so, creating their own colloquial form of English based on the structure of the Celtic languages in their translations.
This political dimension was the main reason for considering the possibility of Celtic translation cultures in contrast to a British translation culture. As illustrated in the introduction, the term British is problematic as it is politically biased and often used incorrectly. Celtic, on the other hand, does not have a political connotation and could thus be used as an impartial starting point for future research. Furthermore, due to the wealth of languages in the region, translation traditions need to be viewed from different angles using more than one concept. One of these angles is to look at languages and cultures rather than nations due to the lack of clear boundaries. This approach as well as a different and more conscious choice of terminology opens up new research perspectives.
This field of research is still in its infancy and this paper can be seen as a first stimulus to encourage further research. Part of this research would be to include further categories for the analysis of Celtic translation cultures, such
