For multilingual group, the art of translation is a cooperative activity

By Linda Myers

Jeannine Routier-Pucci, Catherine Porter and Elizabeth Trapnell Rawlings belong to a group of experienced translators with a command of seven languages between them. Together, the group translated some 40 essays by French and Italian scholars from a 1,000-page collection called Le Savoir grec that became Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge, one of Harvard University Press's most prominent English-language books published in 2000.

A group of translators, with links to Cornell, who work together on projects review proposed changes to a translated manuscript by Renaissance scholar Juan Luis Vives, a friend of Erasmus. Members of the group are, from left: Martha Hsu, Catherine Porter, Elizabeth Rawlings, Jeannine Routier-Pucci, Rita Guerlac (who did the initial translation from Latin to English), Emoretta Yang and Anne Slack. Greek Thought, published by Harvard in 2000, was translated from French and Italian by the group. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

"Translation is a solitary activity -- that's what attracts one -- but sometimes the lack of communication, except written exchanges with publishers, can be isolating," said Routier-Pucci, who has been a Spanish language instructor at Cornell for many years,

The group began to meet informally in fall 1996 to discuss the craft of translating. Within months, Porter proposed they take on the Greek Thought project together. Harvard had asked her to do it on her own, but at an encyclopedic 11,000 manuscript pages written by a range of authors, it seemed much too long and unwieldy for one person. "It didn't take more than one meeting for them to jump at the opportunity," recalled Porter.

The translators of Greek Thought have exceptional credentials. Rawlings, who is perhaps best known on campus as the wife of Cornell President Hunter Rawlings, earned an MFA in translation (in French and Francophone languages) from the University of Iowa; Routier-Pucci, a native French speaker who is married to Cornell classics professor Pietro Pucci, is fluent in Italian as well as Spanish and English; Porter, who is married to Cornell Arts and Sciences Dean Philip Lewis, is the former head of SUNY Cortland's foreign language department and won the Chevalier d'Or des Palmes Académiques for furthering Franco-American relations through teaching and translation. Rita Guerlac, the widow of history of science professor emeritus Henry Guerlac, is a published translator with a master's degree in Greek and Latin from Cornell. Anne Slack is a retired French language faculty member from Harvard who now lives in Ithaca and a former president of the American Association of Teachers of French. Emoretta Yang is a translator, writer and former staff member at Cornell's Johnson Museum who is fluent in French. Dominique Jouhaud is a native French speaker who translates professionally from English to French. Selina Stewart, who collaborated long-distance on two essays focusing on science and technology, has a Cornell Ph.D. in classics.

"Hunter asked me, 'What are you going to do when conflicts begin to arise?'" said Rawlings. "It took him a few months to understand. There were some lively arguments but never any friction. People were just totally cooperative at arriving at the best solution."

Members, who meet in one another's homes, attribute the group's smooth working relationship to a serendipitous mix of personalities, an affinity for working cooperatively, everyone's unique skills -- and, most of all, Porter's seamless ability to organize tasks and keep track of multiple translation drafts.

Under Porter's guidance, the group approached the translation of the book's individual chapters in pairs. Native speakers of English translated from French to English, and native speakers of French read the translations carefully against the French and suggested changes. Porter highlighted subjects for discussion, and the group met regularly to review progress and solve problems.

"We try to tease out the tone and the meanings, to find a balance between interpreting and leaving some ambiguity," said Porter. At a recent meeting, when a new project on ancient Syria was under consideration, the group discussed how to translate a phrase describing the location of a place in ancient Phoenicia. The phrase "en dehors de ..." had four possible meanings: separate from, except for, besides and in addition to. "To translate accurately, we realized we needed to find out more about the geography and history of the region," said Porter. Another discussion centered on how to translate the verb "soumise," which literally means subdued but has a more active sense in French than in English. "We finally agreed on 'subjugated,'" said Porter.

"What's so terrific about this group is what great readers these women are -- I'm always learning something from them," said Yang, praising individual members for a range of skills, from promoting precision in syntax to grasping and articulating a passage's whole argument to mentoring with care and humor.

The group's current project is the editing of a 400-page manuscript translated from Renaissance Latin to English by Guerlac. On the Causes of the Corruption of the Arts is part of a treatise by Juan Luis Vives, a Jewish convert to Catholicism from Spain who lived in Bruges, Belgium, and was a friend of Erasmus. The book criticizes the intellectuals of the day for excess of pride and lack of scholarship. "Vives thought they were a comedown from Seneca," said Guerlac. For accuracy, the group is consulting translations in Spanish and German with help from new member Martha Hsu, a Cornell librarian with a specialty in German language and literature.

"Rita has a wonderful style, formal, concise, that fits the material, which is amazingly contemporary," said Rawlings. "You'd be surprised at how relevant it is," added Routier-Pucci. "It could be a night-table book for any dean today."

Group members describe translation as both an art and a labor of love. Indeed, the time-consuming work pays so modestly that, if done full time, it would bring a good translator less than half of what the average college language instructor earns. Nevertheless, "we all enjoy the process," said Porter. What matters more than money is that a project be intrinsically interesting.

There are other compensations too. For example, Porter was delighted to spot a copy of Greek Thought tucked under the arm of a professor from Truman State University in a photograph on a web site devoted to, of all things, Bob Dylan lyrics. And at Porter's birthday celebration, the group persuaded President Rawlings to recite "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" in perfect Latin, flawlessly translated by Guerlac (that's "ab luce argenteae lunae").

The group also serves as a sounding board for members working on projects and offered advice on thorny passages in a translation by Rawlings of The Mourning Voice: An Essay on Greek Tragedy (by Nicole Loraux with a foreword by Pietro Pucci, Cornell University Press, 2002) and two works published in 2001 that Porter translated for Stanford and Duke. And Porter and Routier-Pucci, who will co-teach a one-time course in translation for upper-level undergraduates at Cornell next fall, say they're counting on the group's help with any tricky translation problems that arise.