Translating the poetry of Apollinaire: Description of a project

Abstract

This article outlines founding principles and a guiding strategy for the translation of <br />Apollinaire's poetry; many aspects of the strategy reflect the convictions and practices of <br />Apollinaire's own poetics. But the article is particularly concerned to argue that translation's <br />task is the projection of the source text into its future, rather than being an act of recuperation <br />or preservation; this argument is pursued and evaluated with reference to the thinking of Yves <br />Bonnefoy, and entails the differentiation of sense and meaning. The closing section is <br />concerned with the part that might be played in this ‘multilingual' translational project by <br />photography, and, more particularly, by collages of photographic fragments.