Born in the Blood

Rating

Since Europeans first encountered Native Americans, problems relating to language and text translation have been an issue. Translators needed to create the tools for translation, such as dictionaries, still a difficult undertaking today. Although the fact that many Native languages do not share even the same structures or classes of words as European languages has always made translation difficult, translating cultural values and perceptions into the idiom of another culture renders the process even more difficult. In Born in the Blood, noted translator and writer Brian Swann gathers some of the foremost scholars in the field of Native American translation to address the many and varied problems and concerns surrounding the process of translating Native American languages and texts. The essays in this collection address such important questions as, what should be translated? how should it be translated? who should do translation? and even, should the translation of Native literature be done at all? This volume also includes translations of songs and stories.

Introduction Brian Swann Part One 1. Should Translation Work Take Place? Ethical Questions Concerning the Translation of First Nations Languages Carrie Dyck 2. Reading a Dictionary: How Passamaquoddy Language Translates Concepts of Physical and Social Space Robert M. Leavitt 3. Translating Time: A Dialogue on Hopi Experiences of the Past Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa 4. Hopi Place Value: Translating a Landscape Peter M. Whiteley 5. Related-Language Translation: Naskapi and East Cree Bill Jancewicz 6. Performative Translation and Oral Curation: Ti-Jean/Chezan in Beaverland Amber Ridington and Robin Ridington 7. Translation and Censorship of Native American Oral Literature William M. Clements 8. In the Words of Powhatan: Translation across Space and Time for The New World Blair A. Rudes Part Two 9. Ethnopoetic Translation in Relation to Audio, Video, and New Media Representations Robin Ridington, Jillian Ridington, Patrick Moore, Kate Hennessy, and Amber Ridington 10. Translating Algonquian Oral Texts Julie Brittain and Marguerite MacKenzie 11. Translating the Boundary between Life and Death in O'odham Devil Songs David L. Kozak with David I. Lopez 12. Revisiting Haida Cradle-Song 67 Frederick H. White 13. Translating Tense and Aspect in Tlingit Narratives Richard L. Dauenhauer and Nora Marks Dauenhauer 14. Translating Performance in the Written Text: Verse Structure in Dakota and Hocak Lynn Burley 15. Toward Literature: Preservation of Artistic Effects in Choctaw Texts Marcia Haag 16. Translating an Esoteric Idiom: The Case of Aztec Poetry John Bierhorst 17. Translating Context and Situation: William Strachey and Powhatan's "Scorneful Song" William M. Clements 18. A Life in Translation Richard J. Preston 19. Memories of Translation: Looking for the Right Words M. Terry Thompson and Laurence C. Thompson Contributors Index

Promotional Information

An anthology of essays on the translation of Native American languages and literatures.

About the Author

Brian Swann is a professor of English at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. His many publications include Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America and Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems, both available in Bison Books editions. Contributors: John Bierhorst, Julie Brittain, Lynn Burley, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, William M. Clements, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Richard L. Dauenhauer, Carrie Dyck, Marcia Haag, Kate Hennessy, Bill Jancewitz, Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, David Kozak, Robert M. Leavitt, David I. Lopez, Marguerite MacKenzie, Patrick Moore, Richard J. Preston, Amber Ridington, Jillian Ridington, Robin Ridington, Blair A. Rudes, Brian Swann, Laurence C. Thompson, M. Terry Thompson, Frederick White, and Peter M. Whiteley.

Table of Contents

Promotional Information

About the Author