21-04-2002, 01:02
Pour ajouter un peu de "substance" ¨¤ ce d¨¦bat, je cite quelques passages du <i>Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings</i> r¨¦dig¨¦ par Tolkien ¨¤ l'intention des traducteurs (ce guide n'a pas ¨¦t¨¦ utilis¨¦ ni par Francis Ledoux, ni par Tina Jolas). On y d¨¦couvre que certians noms devaient absolument ¨ºtre traduits (comme <i>Underhill</i> "Soucolline"), mais d'autres devaient ¨ºtre laiss¨¦s tels quels :<p>"A further difficulty arises in some cases. Names (of places and persons) occur, especially in the Shire, which are not 'meaningless', but are English in form (that is, in theory the author's translation of Common Speech names), containing elements that are in the current language obsolete or dialectal, or are worn-down and obscured in form. (See Appendix F.) From the author's point of view it is desirable that translators should have some knowledge of the nomenclature of persons and places in the languages used in translation, and of words that occur in them that are obsolete in the current forms of those languages, or only preserved locally. The notes I offer are intended to assist a translator in distinguishing 'inventions', made of elements current in modern English, such as <i>Rivendell</i>, <i>Snow-mane</i>, from actual names in use in England, independently of this story, and therefore elements in the modern English language that it is desirable to match by equivalents in the language of translation, with regard to their original meaning, and also where feasible with regard to their archaic or altered form."<p>"<i>Dunlendings</i>. Leave unchanged except in the plural ending. It represents Rohan <i>dun(n)lending</i>, an inhabitant of <i>Dun(n)land</i>"<p>"<i>Underhill</i>, Translate by sense."<p>"<i>Woses</i>. This represents (modernized) the Rohan word for 'old men of the woods'. It is not a purely invented word. The supposed genuine Rohan word was <i>w¨¡sa</i>, plural <i>w¨¡san</i>, which if it had survived into modern English would be <i>woses</i>. It would have been better to call the 'wild men' <i>woodwoses</i>, for that actually occurs in Old English <i>wudew¨¡sa</i>, glossing 'faunus, satyrus, savage men, evil creatures'. This word survived into the Tudor period as <i>woodoses</i> (often corrupted to <i>woodhouses</i>), and survives in heraldry, since the <i>woodhouse</i> = a wild hairy man clad in leaves, common as a supporter to arms."<p>"<i>Dunland</i>. This contains the English adjective <i>dun</i> 'dark, dusky, dull-hued'. See III 408."<p>On semble donc percevoir l¨¤ une inconsistance de Tolkien : il dit explicitement de ne pas traduire <i>Dunlending</i>, mais donne l'exlication de <i>Dunland</i>... La meilleure solution me semble donc de ne traduire ni <i>Dunlending</i> ni <i>Dunland</i> mais d'indiquer par une note de traduction l'origine de ce dernier.<p>Toko