Abstract
From 1987 to 1989 the Afrikaans actress Anna Neethling-Pohl (1906–1992) translated 25 of William Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. In 1997 these translations were compiled and published posthumously by Gamsberg Macmillan Publishers. This collection of translations, titled Vyf en twintig Shakespeare sonnette [Twenty-five Shakespeare sonnets] was augmented with commentary by Hannes Horne, Chris du Toit and Elize Botha, and provides the reader with information that illuminates Neethling-Pohl’s intention with these translations. For this reason, Vyf en twintig Shakespeare sonnette is a useful source in the study of translation approaches and translators in the history of Afrikaans literature. The paratextual information accompanying the collection suggests that, for Neethling-Pohl, the translation of Shakespeare’s sonnets was an attempt at self-expression and at raising social awareness.
I draw on Genette’s (2001) formulations of the paratextual dimension of texts, specifically in terms of how paratexts (epi- and peritexts) prepare the reader’s interpretation of the author’s intent, in this case, the translator’s intent. Genette (2001:407) suggests that, after all, the “most essential of the paratext’s properties […] is functionality. Whatever aesthetic intention may come into play as well, the main issue for the paratext is not to ‘look nice’ around the text but rather to ensure for the text a destiny consistent with the author’s purpose.” I therefore draw extensively on the peritextual preface, introduction and blurb, as well as on Neethling-Pohl’s epitextual autobiography Dankbaar die uwe (1974) [Gratefully yours] and Ferreira’s biography Anna Neethling-Pohl en haar Portugese dagboek (2015) in an endeavour to connect these sonnet translations with the personality and aims of the translator.
The most prominent theme in both her commentary on her translations and in the translated sonnets is that of aging, especially of age discrimination. I am specifically influenced by Van Zyl’s (2019) application of critical gerontology on literary analysis for the way in which it helps to identify and undermine mainstream ideas of old age and to expose and investigate alternative manifestations thereof in literature, an agenda that is consistent with Neethling-Pohl’s incentive to translate these sonnets.
Given the ceremonial contexts of Neethling-Pohl’s recital and handing over of these translations to friends and family members, and considering the rhetorical content of the sonnets themselves, they are studied in this article as examples of speech acts. Austin’s (1962) original definition of speech acts is supplemented here with the refinement and elaboration thereof by especially Parker and Sedgwick (1995). Subsequently Neethling-Pohl’s translations are read as speech acts from recent considerations of the perlocutionary dimensions of translations from the discursive avenue of translation studies as theorised by, especially, Godard (2000:329), Marinetti (2013:311) and Bermann (2014:288).
This translation-centred analysis of poetry translations thus depends on and contributes to the interdisciplinary research area of life narrative studies (especially in reference to autobiography) and, given Neethling-Pohl’s profession, theatre and performance studies. Vyf en twintig Shakespeare sonnette is approached here as the product of a protracted project by an actress-translator who challenges disempowering views of old age concurrently by means of theatrical performance and performative speech acts.
I also seek to gauge how much of the translator’s intentions could be inferred from a study of the strategic decisions Neethling-Pohl made as a translator. These decisions can be approached in two ways: On a macro-level the specific text selection (as her choice) is analysed, in conjunction with a consideration of the occasions which she had picked during which to recite these sonnets. On a micro-level the lexical and syntactical decisions and metrical choices that undergird her translation are studied. I discuss these two levels not separately, but interchangeably, in relation to the identified themes.
The 25 translated sonnets are handled here as a unit, and it is assumed that Neethling-Pohl had selected these specific sonnets from Shakespeare’s sequence of 154 sonnets because this selection reflected her personal worldview and experience regarding retirement and aging.
Two types of performativity are discussed in this analysis.
Drawing on Foucault’s (1998) and Butler’s (1999) outlining of subject-formation I first consider the performativity of age in terms of the ways in which the subjectivity of pensioners is judicially created and the ontological consequences thereof, both economically and socio-culturally. In this section I focus on the effects lamented by Neethling-Pohl in paratexts that constellate around Vyf en twintig Shakespeare sonnette. In this regard she specifically vents her alarm at being robbed of economic agency and the treatment of her as non-compos mentis upon retirement, concerns that are comparably voiced by the aging poet-speaker in her sonnet translations.
I then consider the ways in which literature, the performing arts and translation can also be described as performative in Austinian terms, especially for the ways in which judicial performatives are often undermined by writers, the performers and translators (and in this case a performer-translator) of their texts. Neethling-Pohl’s sonnet translations are not merely analysed as texts that are verbally converted from English into Afrikaans, but also in terms of embodiment: An elderly actress performed these translations, demonstrating her competency, both mentally (as she flaunted her achievement as a translator) and physically (with her live recital of these poems). With her theatrical performance of her sonnet translations, she asserted a way of being that contradicts legal definitions of age by which she had felt victimised. Her performance of these age-themed sonnet translations at birthday celebrations (which are inherently perlocutionary rituals pertaining to age) is especially emphasised in this regard.
While this article puts two types of performative utterance into conversation with each other, it does not equate them in terms of their socio-cultural power dynamics and force. Indeed, the perlocutionary effects of legislation regarding retirement are more extensive (as they manifest in socio-cultural attitudes towards the elderly) than those of the recital of sonnet translations at private birthday parties and even by the publication of the sonnets.
Still, it could be argued that the non-judiciary nature of performative expressions in the arts holds a perlocutionary power with a uniquely persuasive force. The (perlocutionary) impact that a private recital of poem translations seeks to achieve, relies (in contrast with public judiciary speech acts) on a voluntary audience/reader. The freer, more intimate, ambiguous, and affective dimensions of private recitals can inspire in the (however, smaller grouping of) congregated confidants, a more nuanced attitude towards authoritative/canonical truths (or metanarratives) than the mere issuing of such truths through conventional legal means. It is this performative potential that is explored in this article, with reference to the peritextual clues attending the publication of Neethling-Pohl’s sonnet translations.
Keywords: Afrikaans Shakespeare translations; (South) African and Afrikaans theatre translation; age discrimination; Anna Neethling-Pohl; life narrative studies; autobiography; paratexts; poetry translation; William Shakespeare; sonnets; speech act theory
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