From "Paris Peasant" by Louis Aragon. A translation

Abstract

The process of translation takes many forms, be it within a single language, from one language to another, or even from one sign system to another. Within the realm of world literature, one must focus on the interlingual form and the way in which it affects texts we read from other cultures. However, one literary movement on the stage of world literature was focussed on the exploration of the third, intersemiotic form of translation; the goal of Surrealism was to translate the non-verbal signs within the unconscious into the verbal signs of language. Given that the logical mind would deem this task impossible to perform without adaptation, this role of translator runs very much parallel to the role of the interlingual translator, who wishes to be invisible in his portrayal of the original text but inevitably cannot fulfill this goal to perfection. My project resides at the crossroad of these two types of translation, as I translate an excerpt of a Surrealist text, Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant. My philosophy as a translator will mirror that of the Surrealist author, and I will make the text relevant outside of the Surrealist era.