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Some will say, there is a surer way of approaching the original, which is to translate it into verse; for, as they allege, poets are to be translated into verse, to retain their fire. This would certainly be best, were it practicable; but to believe it possible is a mistake...
Anne Dacier1
The translator of poetry ought to be a poet, Dryden tells us.2 If only it were that simple. Many argue that translation is in itself impossible, and it is at times "very tempting to take such a position seriously".3 The translation of Boris Vian's posthumous poetry collection Je voudrais pas crever is a case in point in terms of expanding the frontiers of the possible with regard to translation. Indeed, translating Vian's prose is already a sufficiently challenging task given the high degree of pathos and (very often language-focused) humour, with which he and authors like him, including close friend and OuLiPian Raymond Queneau, have become synonymous.4 To translate Vian's poetry is, therefore, all the more challenging since his poetry is so often considered to be supplementary to his novelistic production;5 and a translation of this verse component of the Vian oeuvre needs to be sensitive not only to his penchant for lexical innovation but also his poetic technique. It is from within this framework that I wish to describe here some specific translation issues that arose while I was producing my own English version of what has been argued to be Vian's most intimate and poignant collection of verse.6
Je voudrais pas crever is a complicated collection, thematically as well as linguistically. The collection has an extremely wide range of subject matter with themes ranging from the very serious to the very light. The title poem, "Je voudrais pas crever", deals with Vian's fears of dying without leaving a legacy, or, perhaps, even more so, without having known life. Knowing life, to Vian, entails an understanding of death; as such the poem constitutes something of a memento mori. "Je voudrais pas crever", or, "I'd Like Not To Pass Away",7 clearly shows a need to experience the world before it is too late, a fear that ultimately proved all too real when he died as a result of a chronic heart condition in...