Dear All,
Intertext? What’s that?
Something that the translator needs to be very much aware of! Imagine you were the first person to translate the Magnificat! Mary’s song of praise is a classic example of intertext, as it is a text woven from many scriptural references, the only books Mary knew!
Let me give you a contemporary example: the Working Document for GC29 (aka the Instrumentum laboris). This was produced by the pre-Chapter Commission, and in translating it I soon realised that there were many texts I needed to be aware of and to check as part of the business of translating this document.
What are the techniques of intertextual representation?
- Direct quotation, which in Italian is recognisable from certain punctuation features: «...», “...”, ‘...’, or maybe block indentation. The good translator checks these where possible to ensure accuracy, and also to see if they have been previously translated, since that is the translation that should be used especially if it is an official translation.
- Indirect quotation, where perhaps the source is indicated but the authors reword or place their spin on the original. It gets more difficult when the source is not acknowledged but you suspect is being quoted.
- Mention of a person, document or statement. That usually sends you searching for what that person, document or statement says, just in case there could be a different interpretation involved.
- Comment on or evaluation of a statement, text or some otherwise invoked voice. A simple example might be ‘the signs of the times’: yes, it has a background in any number of Salesian texts, but it originally comes from Mt 16:3, and that cannot be ignored either.
- Use of recognisable phrasing or terminology associated with specific people, or groups or documents. Obviously this is where a thoroughly 'Salesian' knowledge is required.
- Use of language of forms that seem to echo certain ways of communicating, or discussions among other people, or types of documents. This quite frequently calls in wider knowledge, including cultural knowledge.
These all came into play in the Working Document, since its authors were dealing with texts that had arrived from 92 different circumscriptions, different parts/cultures of the world and the individual members of the Commission obviously also had their own opinions. So while you can easily say, ‘Let’s just translate the text I find before me’, it is not as simple as that, as you can see above.
The Coordinator of translation/interpretation at GC29, Fr Gianni Rolandi, has done something that I consider to be a best practice in this regard. You might want to look at it in the attached Best Practice.
best_practice_46-Intertextual analysis.docx
