Untying the Knot: Shakespeare’s Sonnets 27 and 144 in Serbian Translations

Authors

  • Jelisaveta Milojević

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2014.6.3

Keywords:

sonnets, analysis, translation, translation criticism, licentia poetica

Abstract

This paper deals with the Serbian translations of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 27 and 144. These sonnets have been chosen because of their striking polysemy and consequent translation issues. Analysis of the original is considered and different translations are compared and assessed. My translations are also presented, being published for the first time in this volume of the BELLS journal. General questions are put forward and answered: Why the sonnets, again? Why translate that which has already been translated? Can a person with no knowledge of the source language translate poetry with the assistance of a prose translation done by someone who does know that language? Where are the limits of poetic license in versification? Are the critic and translator to be the same person? Is it possible to criticise a translation even if one has no sovereign control over the source language? Why is translation criticism necessary? As the importance of such criticism is defended in this paper, presented to the readers as a form of apologia and for the purposes of illustration is a side-by-side analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 27 and 144 and their respective Serbian translations, including my own.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2014-11-23

How to Cite

Milojević, J. (2014). Untying the Knot: Shakespeare’s Sonnets 27 and 144 in Serbian Translations. Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies, 6(1), 43–59. https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2014.6.3

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2014): BELLS - volume 6

Section

SHAKESPEARE: LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Jelisaveta Milojević

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in  Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies by the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade (Faculty of Philology, Studentski trg 3, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia). Author’s name will be evident in the printed article in the journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
  2. Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
  3. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  4. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.