2026 Chapters (Layout Features)

Η εξορία, το έθνος και το ενδογλωσσικό φαντασιακό της διαγλωσσικής μετάφρασης

Van Dyck, Karen

Ο Ρίτσος ως μεταφραστής: Η εξορία, το έθνος και το ενδογλωσσικό φαντασιακό της διαγλωσσικής μετάφρασης (O Ritsos os metafrastis: I exoria, to ethnos kai to endoglossiko fantasiako tis diaglossikis metafrasis; Ritsos as translator: exile, the nation and the intralingual imagination of interlingual translation), trans. Geli Medemli, in Idees kai poiitiki sti logotehnia tou eikostou aiona: Timitikos tomos gia ti Christina Dounia (Ideas and Poetics in Twentieth Century Literature), eds. Thanasis Agathos, Dimitris Angelatos and Stefanos Kaklamanis, Hestia, 2026, 263-275.

This essay on the translation practice of the Yannis Ritsos is part of a larger discussion of how Modern Greek poets imagine interlingual translation as intralingual—that is, as rewording within the same language when two distinct languages are involved. In this version published in honor of the Greek literary critic Christina Dounia I discuss Ritsos's translations of Romanian, Czech, and Slovakian poetry. I am interested in how for poet-translators on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the claim of intralingualism responds to the experience of exile, in this case Ritsos as a political prisoner and then as a Communist Party emissary. I chart how intralingual translation assuages xenitia, the pain of not being able to go home, but it also masks interlingual differences that serve other cultural and political functions, in Ritsos's case, his interest in translation as a transnational vehicle for unifying minor cultures. For an English version that also discusses George Seferis's translation practice, see my essay “Xenitia, the Nation, and Intralingual Translation,” PMLA, May 2023.

Keywords: Modern Greek Poetry, interlingual translation, intralingual translation, the Generation of the Thirties, anthologies, literature as a national institution