Abstract

This dissertation brings together the disciplines of poetry translation and Continental philosophy. One half of the dissertation Presents an English sonnet-form translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus . ;A series of accompanying essays explore what happens to both language and the translator in the process of translation. Throughout, I posit translation as a specific way of listening to language. ;The first chapter examines the itinerary of the word in translation. How does the process unfold? What is lost, what is gained, what is left behind, and what is carried forward? Is there some special quality in poetic language that makes translation more difficult---or easier? ;The second chapter looks at the nature of language in translation, with reference to Plato, Humboldt, and Heidegger. Is translation mimetic or creative? What does the quality of otherness disclose about both text and translator? I look at the nature and integrity of the translated word, and at the notion of language in translation as somehow stripped to its essence. ;Heidegger's description of the translator's task bears a striking resemblance to the myth of Orpheus, especially as retold in Rilke's sonnets. In the third chapter, I explore the figure of Orpheus in Rilke's sonnets as a poetic articulation of Heidegger's thoughts on language, poetry, and translation. I argue that a true poem is a translatable poem, because the activity of translation invites the act of transcendence which lies at the heart of poetry and of human experience. ;Chapter four continues with some reflections on the role of silence in poetry translation. Finally, in chapter five I articulate the stages which I go through when translating a poem. In a close reading of one of Rilke's sonnets, my ideas about translation are set into context by translating the sonnet first into English, and then into American Sign Language. Moving from an aural to a visual language provides a rich new medium for reflection