Cover not available
Article published In:
Voice in Retranslation
Edited by Cecilia Alvstad and Alexandra Assis Rosa
[Target 27:1] 2015
► pp. 40–57

Translators’ voices in Norwegian retranslations of Bob Dylan’s songs

| Norwegian University of Science and Technology
This paper tackles several questions relating to the issue of the translator’s voice in retranslation: how do others’ voices (including other (re)translations) interact with the translator’s voice in the production of a translation? How does the intersubjectively constituted voice of the translator manifest itself in paratexts, in the translated text and, in the case of singer-translators, in the translator’s physical, performing voice? The case discussed is that of Bob Dylan in (re)translation into Norwegian, and it is concluded that different singer-translators involve others in the process in various ways and to varying degrees; that there are great subjective differences in how and to what extent they take other (re)translations of Dylan into account; and that they choose different strategies for displaying their voices in paratexts, texts and performances, differences that can be explained by reference to the singer-translator’s role and status on the cultural scene.
Keywords: Bob Dylan, authenticity, popular music, retranslation, song translation, voice, Bakhtin, Trønder dialect, manifest voice, non-manifest voice
Article outline
  • 1.The collective nature of the translator’s voice
  • 2.The role of first translations and retranslations in constituting the singer-translator’s voice
  • 3.Paratextual voices
  • 4.Textual voices
    • 4.1“Mr. Tambourine Man”
    • 4.2“Shelter from the Storm”
  • 5.Physical voice
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 February 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.27.1.02gre
References (31)
References
Primary sources / discography
Aadland, Tom Roger. 2009. Blod på spora [Blood on the tracks]. Embacle EMB 147759 1, compact disc.Google Scholar
Aleksandersen, Åge with his band and Taraf de Haidouks. 1997. Fredløs. Dylan på norsk [Fredløs: Dylan in Norwegian]. Kirkelig Kulturverksted FXCD183, compact disc.Google Scholar
Dylan, Bob. 1975. Blood on the Tracks. Columbia 32235, 33 1/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Vold, Jan Erik and Kåre Virud, with Telemark Blueslag. 2009. Stein. Regn [Stone. Rain]. Pan PACD 032, compact disc. Originally released in 1981 as PolyGram 6327 053, 33 1/3 rpm.Google Scholar
Other references
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination. Edited by Michael Holquist. Translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Barker, Hugh, and Yuval Taylor. 2007. Faking it: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Barnstone, Willis. 1993. The Poetics of Translation. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bassnett, Susan, and Peter Bush, eds. 2006. The Translator as Writer. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Bosseaux, Charlotte. 2011. “The Translation of Song.” In The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies, ed. by Kirsten Malmkjær, and Kevin Windle, 183–197. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dastjerdi, Hossein Vahid, and Amene Mohammadi. 2013. “Revisiting ‘Retranslation Hypothesis’: A Comparative Analysis of Stylistic Features in the Persian Retranslations of Pride and Prejudice .” Open Journal of Modern Linguistics 31: 174–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Førland, Tor Egil. 1998. Club 7. Oslo: Pax.Google Scholar
Greenall, Annjo Klungervik. 2014. “Scandinavian Popular Song Translation in the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-first Centuries and their Skopoi .” In True North: Literary Translation in the Nordic Countries, ed. by B.J. Epstein, 191–209. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Gullin, Christina. 1998. Översättarens röst: en studie i den skönlitteräre översättarens roll med utgångspunkt i översättningar av Else Lundgren och Caj Lundgren [The translator’s voice: A study of the role of the literary translator, taking as a point of departure the translations of Else Lundgren and Caj Lundgren]. Lund: Lund University Press.Google Scholar
Holquist, Michael. 1990. Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaindl, Klaus. 2005. “The Plurisemiotics of Pop Song Translation: Words, Music, Voice and Image.” In Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation, ed. by Dinda L. Gorlée, 235–262. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Loffredo, Eugenia, and Manuela Perteghella. 2006a. “Introduction.” In Loffredo and Perteghella 2006b1, 1–16.
, eds. 2006b. Translation and Creativity: Perspectives on Creative Writing and Translation Studies. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Low, Peter. 2005. “The Pentathlon Approach to Translating Songs.” In Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation, ed. by Dinda L. Gorlée, 185–212. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
McMichael, Polly. 2008. “Translation, Authorship and Authenticity in Soviet Rock Songwriting.” The Translator 14 (2): 201–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moore, Allan. 2002. “Authenticity as Authentication.” Popular Music 21 (2): 209–223.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Munday, Jeremy. 2012. Evaluation in Translation: Critical Points in Translator Decision-making. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Negus, Keith. 1996. Popular Music Theory: An Introduction. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Paloposki, Outi, and Kaisa Koskinen. 2004. “A Thousand and One Translations: Revisiting Retranslation.” In Claims, Changes and Challenges in Translation Studies, ed. by Gyde Hansen, Kirsten Malmkjær, and Daniel Gile, 27–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pym, Anthony. 1998. Method in Translation History. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
. 2005. “The Translator as Author: Two Quixotes.” Translation and Literature 14 (1): 71–81. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Douglas. 1991. The Translator’s Turn. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Smith-Sivertsen, Henrik. 2008. Kylling med soft ice og pølser. Populærmusikalske versioneringspraksisser i forbindelse med danske versioner af udenlandske sange i perioden 1945–2007 [Chicken with ice cream and sausages: Versioning practices in popular music with a focus on Danish versions of foreign songs in the period between 1945-2007]. PhD diss. University of Copenhagen.
Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz. 2009. “Retranslation.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, and Gabriela Saldanha, 232–235. 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vangsnes, Øystein A. 2013. Språkleg toleranse i Noreg-Norge, for faen! Er vi nordmenn eigentleg så språktolerante som vi likar å tru? [Language tolerance in Norway, dammit! Are we Norwegians really as linguistically tolerant as we like to think?] Oslo: Samlaget.Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence. 2004. “Retranslations: The Creation of Value.” Bucknell Review 47 (1): 1–7.Google Scholar
Vold, Jan Erik. 1977. Damer i regn [Women in rain]. Oslo: Den norske bokklubben.Google Scholar
Cited by (12)

Cited by 12 other publications

Ekberg, Laura
2021. Ventriloquism and translation: The translator’s voice in Caribbean literature. Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies 6:1 ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo
Pan, Feng & Tao Li
2021. The retranslation of Chinese political texts. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 33:3 ► pp. 381 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Dingkun
2021. Subtitling in Chinese: Reflections on Emergent Subtitling Cultures in Contemporary China. In The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Dingkun
2022. Subtitling in Chinese: Reflections on Emergent Subtitling Cultures in Contemporary China. In The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies, ► pp. 617 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Tiansi
2021. On the translator’s voice from the paratextual perspective–exemplified by Goldblatt’s English translation of Red Sorghum and Massage . FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction / International Journal of Interpretation and Translation 19:1 ► pp. 65 ff. DOI logo
Chen, Xi
2020. When the classic speaks for children. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 66:4-5 ► pp. 780 ff. DOI logo
Kenny, Dorothy & Marion Winters
2020. Machine translation, ethics and the literary translator’s voice. Translation Spaces 9:1 ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
Güven, Mine
2019. Why “Sway” Again? Prosodic Constraints and Singability in Song (Re)translation. In Studies from a Retranslation Culture [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 177 ff. DOI logo
Taivalkoski-Shilov, Kristiina
2019. Ethical issues regarding machine(-assisted) translation of literary texts. Perspectives 27:5 ► pp. 689 ff. DOI logo
Kim, Kyung Hye
2018. Retranslation as a socially engaged activity: the case ofThe Rape of Nanking. Perspectives 26:3 ► pp. 391 ff. DOI logo
Lee, Zi-ying & Min-Hsiu Liao
2018. The “Second” Bride. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 64:2 ► pp. 186 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2017. Textual and Contextual Voices of Translation [Benjamins Translation Library, 137], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.