Authenticity of the author’s voice in translation

In this presentation I am going to consider Boris Pasternak’s poem Hamlet and two English versions (a translation by Pasternak-Slater and an “imitation” by Lowell). The aim of this study is to explore the possibility of linking literary and cognitive analyses to examine the authenticity of the original author’s voice in both versions. I suggest that a cognitive approach provides a plausible framework for analysing translations, which relies on matching the cognitive models of the original and of the translation. The cognitive matching process can provide explanations of the differences between the translation and the original and can offer insights into the implications of such deviations from the original. A cognitive analysis can also clarify the reasons for divergences in interpretations of one and the same text.

The findings presented in this paper suggest that examining the dissimilarities in the cognitive models of the original and the translation can indicate how faithfully the writer’s message is conveyed in translation. Such dissimilarities can be revealing as to the authenticity of the author’s voice as transmitted through its translations and imitations.