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Peut-on traduire une émotion érotique? L’exemple des traductions françaises de l’ode 31 de Sappho

Université de Lausanne, Anthropole, IASA, bureau 4026, CH-1015 Lausanne, Suisse, david.bouvier{at}unil.ch

A study of numerous French translations of Sappho’s Ode 31 allows us to challenge certain postulates about the universality of emotional perception. The importance of multiple variations of the original in translation invites us to evaluate the reasons and factors which can influence the modes and tendencies of the Western sensibility. The poetic evocation of an emotion, Ode 31 mixes two orders of emotivity — poetic and erotic. Expressing love, jealousy or fear, male or female, affecting the heart or the body, the symptoms described by Ode 31 vary from one translation to another and are clearly linked to specific tendencies pertinent to each epoch. A deeper explanation of these variations is the fact that words and metaphors have culture- and epoch-specific memory and connotations. Borrowing metaphors that express the warlike fear of Homeric poetry, Sappho plays in the register which her translators cannot capture properly, as their vocabularies and metaphors are imbued with other connotations.

Key Words: Emotion amoureuse • Emotion poétique • Mémoire • Sappho • Traduction

Social Science Information, Vol. 48, No. 3, 465-485 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0539018409106201


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