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Article In:
Translating Power Distance
Edited by Maria Sidiropoulou
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 10:3] 2024
► pp. 375–392

W. B. Yeats

Unrequited love and gender identity

| National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The study analyzes three Greek versions of two of W. B. Yeats’ poems, ‘When You Are Old’ and ‘No Second Troy’, both related to the theme of unrequited love, merging feelings of bitterness and love. It examines how power distance manifests itself in the three versions of the poems. The study designed a questionnaire to evaluate potential variation in the type and intensity of feelings shaped in the three Greek versions of the two poems. Findings show that there is variation in the interpersonal distance between the poet and the beloved: some translators seem to emphasize bitterness and empathy on the part of the disappointed poet, while others assume more equal power distribution between the poet and the beloved
Keywords: poetry, unrequited love, gender, Greek, aggression, bitterness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Data analysis
    • 4.1‘When You Are Old’ (collection The Rose, 1893)
    • 4.2‘No Second Troy’ (The Green Helmet and Other Poems, 1910)
  • 5.Discussion and significance of the research
  • References
  • Texts
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References (23)
References
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Texts
STs and TTa versions:
W. B. Yeats. 2000. “When you are Old”/ “Όταν Γεράσεις” (transl. by Spyros Iliopoulos) and “No Second Troy”/ “Όχι άλλη Τροία” (transl. by Sophia Skoulikari), in Greek, in 70 Eρωτικά (70 Love poems), επιμ. Ηλιόπουλος, Σπύρος, και Μαρία Σιδηροπούλου. Αθήνα: Εστία.Google Scholar
TTb versions:
W. B. Yeats. 2011. “Όταν Γεράσεις” and “Όχι άλλη Τροία” (transl. by Michalis Papantonopoulos), in Greek, in Ποιήματα του William Butler Yeats (Poems by W. B. Yeats), επιμ. Νικολάκης, Κωστής, Μιχάλης Παπαντωνόπουλος, και Θωμάς Τσαλαπάτης. Aθήνα: Εκάτη.Google Scholar
TTc versions:
W. B. Yeats. 2021. “Όταν Γεράσεις” (When you are Old, transl. by Marianna Papoutsopoulou), in Greek, in Η Λήδα και ο Κύκνος, Ιρλανδοί Ποιητές 19ου αι. and W. B. Yeats (Lida and the Swan: 19th c. Irish Poets and W. B. Yeats). Αθήνα: ΑΩ.Google Scholar
. 2022. “Δεύτερη Τροία δεν Έχει” (Νο second Troy, transl. by Maria Vachlioti). In Φρέαρ literary magazine. Accessed April 18, 2023. [URL]