Friendling Translation
- Cole Swensen (Brown University)
Abstract
In this text, originally delivered as a keynote address at the American Literary Translators’ Association in October 2013, poet and translator Cole Swensen examines and experiences the translatability of the neologism Amitier—the title of a monograph by the French philosopher Gilles Tiberghien—through the lenses of historical etymology and translingual semantics. Swensen places “friendship” under etymological review, tracing the historical transformation and dispersion of the concept, by way of morphological mutation and sociolinguistic application, from Sanskrit to Japanese, Danish, Proto-Germanic, Arabic, and American Englishes. In working dialogue with the contemporary French poets and prose artists Suzanne Doppelt and Jean Frémont, Swensen explores what friendship and translation elicit from and engender in one another.
Keywords: Tiberghien, translation, etymology, stylistics, friendship, French poetry, Walser
How to Cite:
Swensen, C., (2014) “Friendling Translation”, Critical Multilingualism Studies 2(1), 148-161.
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