Cover not available
Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 11:2 (2016) ► pp.248–267

T. S. Eliot, anti-Semitism, and Hebrew translation

Image construction through text selection and paratexts

T. S. Eliot’s early poems, as well as his letters and prose, contain expressions of anti-Semitism. This article deals with the way in which Hebrew translators and others involved in the production of translations, such as scholars contributing introductions, have treated this issue. Based on the premise that the image of a foreign author can be manipulated by the very selection of the texts to be translated, as well as by paratexts such as introductions and footnotes, it examines how Eliot has been presented to the Hebrew readership. Three approaches of presenting Eliot are described. The examination of these approaches leads to the conclusion that Eliot’s expressions of anti-Semitism did not significantly interfere with the construction of his image in the target culture despite the antagonism expressed by some translators and critics. Finally, the paper attempts to explain this indifference, which is particularly striking when compared to the ongoing debate about Eliot’s anti-Semitism in the English-speaking world.

Keywords: manipulation, anti-Semitism, poetry, T. S. Eliot, paratexts, image construction
Published online: 4 August 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.11.2.06wei
References
Eliot, T.S
1934 After Strange Gods: A Primer of Modern Heresy. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
1936 “Review of The Yellow Spot.” Criterion (July).Google Scholar
1940 The Idea of a Christian Society. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
1963 Collected Poems 1909–1962. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
1970/1928 For Lancelot Andrewes: Essays on Style and Order. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
1982 The Idea of a Christian Society and Other Writings. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
1988/1928 “Review of The Future of an Illusion.” In Freud without Hindsight: Reviews of his Work 1893–1939, ed. by Norman Kiell, 575–577. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Eliot, Valerie
(ed) 1988 The Letters of T. S. Eliot. Vol. 1: 1898–1922. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Eliot, Valerie and Hugh Haughton
(eds) 2009 The Letters of T. S. Eliot. Vol. 2: 1923–1925. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Avidan, David
(trans) 1993 “Ha-Anashim ha-Khalulim” [“The Hollow Men”]. Achshav 601: 12–15.Google Scholar
(trans.) 1993/1965 “Marina.” Achshav 601: 9–10.Google Scholar
(trans) 2001/1965 “Marina.” In Ha-Neshika mi-Ba’ad la-Mitpakhat: Mivkhar Hashva’ot Tirgumei Shira [ A Kiss through the Veil: Hebrew Verse Translations by Many Hands Compared ], ed. by Asher Reich, 190. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.Google Scholar
Ben, Menachem
(trans) 1993/1967 “Miskhak Shakhmat” [“A Game of Chess” from “The Waste Land”]. Achshav 601: 11–12. Google Scholar
Bernstein, Ory
(trans., notes, and introduction) 2010 Kol Shirei T. S. Eliot [ T. S. Eliot: Collected Poems 1909–1962 ]. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad.Google Scholar
Bejerano, Maya
(trans.) 1993 “Yom Revi’i shel Efer” [“Ash Wednesday”]. Achshav 601: 16–20.Google Scholar
Bronovsky, Yoram
(trans) 1975 Al ha-Shira [ On Poetry ]. Tel Aviv: Zmora Bitan Modan.Google Scholar
Dor, Moshe
(trans) 2001/1965 “Marina.” In Ha-Neshika mi-Ba’ad la-Mitpakhat: Mivkhar Hashva’ot Tirgumei Shira [ A Kiss through the Veil: Hebrew Verse Translations by Many Hands Compared ], ed. by Asher Reich, 189. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.Google Scholar
(trans.) 2003 “Le-T. S. Eliot” [“To T. S. Eliot”]. In Be-Siman Kokhav: Shirei Meshorerim Yehudim be-Sifrut ha-Olam [ Anthology of Jewish Poets in World Literature ], ed. by Itamar Yaoz-Kest, 224–225. Tel Aviv: Eked.Google Scholar
Gelber, Dalia
(trans.) 1981 Mi-Shirei T. S. Eliot [ Poems by T. S. Eliot ]. Introduction by Richard E. Sherwin. Tel Aviv: Eked.Google Scholar
(trans) 2001/1981 “Marina.” In Ha-Neshika mi-Ba’ad la-Mitpakhat: Mivkhar Hashva’ot Tirgumei Shira [ A Kiss through the Veil: Hebrew Verse Translations by Many Hands Compared ], ed. by Asher Reich, 192. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.Google Scholar
Ravikovitch, Dalia
(trans) 1976 “Gerontion” (a segment). In Tehom Kore [ Deep Calls ], 59–60. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad. Also in: Ravikovitch, Dalia. 1995. Kol ha-Shirim ad Ko [The Complete Poems So Far], 348–349. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hemaeuchad.Google Scholar
Reich, Asher
(ed) 2001 Ha-Neshika mi-Ba’ad la-Mitpakhat: Mivkhar Hashva’ot Tirgumei Shira [ A Kiss through the Veil: Hebrew Verse Translations by Many Hands Compared ], ed. by Asher Reich. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.Google Scholar
Sandbank, Shimon
(trans) 1972 “Marina,” “Gerontion,” “Yom Revi’i shel Efer” [“Ash Wednesday”]. In Antologia Anglit: Leket Shira min ha-Me’a ha-Asirit ad ha-Yom [ English Anthology: English Verse from “The Wanderer” to Ted Hughes ], 259–266. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Schocken.Google Scholar
(trans) 2001/1972 “Marina.” In Ha-Neshika mi-Ba’ad la-Mitpakhat: Mivkhar Hashva’ot Tirgumei Shira [ A Kiss through the Veil: Hebrew Verse Translations by Many Hands Compared ], ed. by Asher Reich, 191. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.Google Scholar
Seter, Gideon
(trans) 2002 “Burbank im ha-Baedeker: Bleistein im Sigar” [“Burbank with the Baedeker; Bleistein with a Cigar”]. In “Antishemiyut Mefuyetet” [“Lyrical Anti-Semitism”]. Nativ 87–88: 70–80.Google Scholar
Stern, Noah
(trans) 1974/1940 “Eretz ha-Shmama” [“The Waste Land”]. In Bein Arpilim: Shirim, Tirgumim, Reshimot [ Among Mists: Poems, Translations, Essays ]. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad. Google Scholar
Vizan, Yehuda
(ed) 2014 Ezra Pound – Mivkhar Ktavim [Ezra Pound – Selected Writings]. Tel Aviv: Dekhak.Google Scholar
Wolfman, Yafa
(trans) 1993 “Little Gidding” [The name has been transcribed] from “Four Quartets.” Achshav 601: 21–22.Google Scholar
Bassnett, Susan, and André Lefevere
(eds) 1990 Translation, History and Culture. London and New York: Pinter.Google Scholar
Ben-Ari, Nitsa
2002 “The Double Conversion of Ben-Hur: A Case of Manipulative Translation.” Target 14 (2): 263–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Black, Joseph
2010 The Broadview Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 6A1. Calgary: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Jean-Claude Passeron
1977 Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc Wacquant
1992 An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bronovsky, Yoram
1994 “Sheker u-Shmo Biographia” [“A Lie Named Biography”]. Haaretz (June 17).Google Scholar
Cohen, Shimon
2007 “Meshorer Antishemi be-Virkat Sarat ha-Khinukh” [“An Anti-Semitic Poet Embraced by the Minister of Education”]. Arutz 71 [ Channel 71] (September 12). Last accessed March 23, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Empson, William
1984 Using Biography. London: Chatto and Windus.Google Scholar
Farahzad, Farzaneh
2003 “Manipulation in Translation.” Perspectives 11 (4): 269–281. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fox, Margalit
2011 “Emanuel Litvinoff, Poet and Detractor of T. S. Eliot, Dies at 96.” The New York Times (October 3). Last accessed March 23, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard
1997/1982 Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree, trans. by Channa Newman and Claude Doubinsky. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Grudzensky, Shlomo
1972 “Ha-Mikre George Steiner” [“The Case Joseph Steiner”]. Davar (February 18), 191, 23. Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo
(ed) 1985 The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation. London and Sydney: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Ivry, Benjamin
2011 “T. S. Eliot’s On-Again, Off-Again Anti-Semitism.” Forward 231 (September). Last accessed March 24, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Julius, Anthony
1995 T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2003a “A Response to Ronald Schuchard.” Modernism/modernity 10 (1): 41–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003b “The Poetry of Prejudice.” The Guardian (June 7). Last accessed March 23, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Kuran-Burçoğlu, Nedret
2000 “At the Crossroads of Translation Studies and Imagology.” In Translation in Context: Selected Contributions from the EST Congress, ed. by Andrew Chesterman, Natividad Gallardo San Salvador, and Yves Gambier, 143–150. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lefevere, André
1992 Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lewis, Bernard
1986 Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
O’Sullivan, Carol M
2011 “Croker vs. Montalembert on the Political Future of England: Towards a Theory of Antipathetic Translation.” In Translation and Opposition [ Translating Europe , vol. 41], ed. by Dimitris Asimakoulas and Margaret Rogers, 182–203. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pellat, Valerie
2013 “Introduction.” In Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation, ed. by Valerie Pellatt, 1–6. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Perloff, Marjorie
2003 “A Response to Ronald Schuchard.” Modernism/modernity 10 (1): 51–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pokorn, Nike K
2010 “A World Without God: Slovene Bambi.” In Why Translation Studies Matters, ed. by Daniel Gile, Gyde Hansen, and Nike K. Pokorn, 57–68. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Regelson, Avraham
1951 “Eliot: Hatafato ve-Shirato” [“Eliot: His Preaching and Poetry”]. Orlogin 31. Last accessed March 23, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Ricks, Christopher
1988 T. S. Eliot and Prejudice. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Sandbank, Shimon
1976 Shtei Brekhot ba-Ya’ar: Ksharim u-Makbilot bein ha-Shira ha-Ivrit ve-ha-Shira ha-Eiropit [ Two Pools in the Wood: Hebrew Poetry and the European Tradition ]. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad.Google Scholar
Schuchard, Ronald
2003 “Burbank with a Baedeker, Eliot with a Cigar: American Intellectuals, Anti-Semitism, and the Idea of Culture.” Modernism/modernity 10 (1): 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seter, Gideon
2002 “Antishemiyut Mefuyetet: Sipura shel Em ha-Minzar le-Jeoffrey Chaucer; Burbank im ha-Baedeker le-T. S. Eliot” [“Lyrical Anti-Semitism: The Prioress’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, and Burbank with a Baedeker by T. S. Eliot”]. Nativ 87–881 (September): 70–80.Google Scholar
Sherry, Samantha
2010 “Censorship in Translation in the Soviet Union: The Manipulative Rewriting of Howard Fast’s Novel The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti .” Slavonica 16 (1): 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sherwin, Richard E
1981 “Al T. S. Eliot” [“On T. S. Eliot”]. Introduction to Mi-Shirei T. S. Eliot [Poems by T. S. Eliot] trans. by Dalia Gelber. Tel Aviv: Eked.Google Scholar
2001 A review of T. S. Eliot’s Bleistein Poems: Uses of Literary Allusion in “Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar” and “Dirge” by Patricia Sloane (2000). H-Antisemitism (February). Last accessed March 23, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Simeoni, Daniel
1998 “The Pivotal Status of the Translator’s Habitus.” Target 10 (1): 1–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sloane, Patricia
2000 T. S. Eliot’s Bleistein Poems: Uses of Literary Allusion in “Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar” and “Dirge.” Bethesda, MD: International Scholars Publications.Google Scholar
Sterling, Michael
2011 “Emanuel Litvinoff vs. T. S. Eliot.” Habitus: A Diaspora Journal. Last accessed March 23, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Tahir-Gürçaglar, Şehnaz
2002 “What Texts Don’t Tell: The Use of Paratexts in Translation Research.” In Crosscultural Transgressions: Research Models in Translation Studies II: Historical and Ideological Issues, ed. by Theo Hermans, 44–60. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon
2012 Descriptive Translation Studies — and Beyond, revised edition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vizan, Yehuda
2011 “Dir ha-Shirim: ‘Kol Shirei T. S. Eliot’ be-Tirgumo shel Ory Bernstein – Avel” [“Pen of songs (instead of Shir ha-Shirim – Song of Songs, an intended insult): ‘All the poems by T. S. Eliot’ Translated by Ory Bernstein – An Injustice”]. Walla/Culture (April 15). Last accessed March 23, 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Weissbrod, Rachel
2006 “Coping with Anti-Semitism in Hebrew Literary Translation.” In Übersetzen – Translating – Traduire: Towards a “Social Turn”? ed. by Michaela Wolf, 143–152. Münster: LIT.Google Scholar
Zhang, Mei
2012 “Translation Manipulated by Ideology and Poetics - A Case Study of The Jade Mountain .” Theory and Practice in Language Studies 2 (4): 754–758. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Däumer, Elisabeth & Dominic Meo
2018. T. S. Eliot Bibliography 2016. The T. S. Eliot Studies Annual 2:1 ► pp. 161 ff. DOI logo
Lee, Sang-Bin
2024. Changes in the translator’s position on the author and readers. Translation and Interpreting Studies DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 april 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.