The advantages of a «traduction fautive»: Paul Claudel reincarnates Coventry Patmore in the NRF

With this contribution, I aim to analyse on a stylistic level the nine odes translated by Paul Claudel (1868-1955) from The Unknown Eros (1877) by Coventry Patmore (1823-1896) and published in the «Nouvelle Revue Française» in 1911 (September-October). They are deliberately «faulty» translations in which the voice of the translator is not overshadowed by the source at all: could this be a particular quality that differentiates the practice of periodical translation from print books?
The correspondence between Claudel and Valery Larbaud – his collaborator through a critical study – allows us to understand that Claudel’s arbitrary choices have their own reasons: Patmore’s metaphors sometimes have the defect of not “tuning up” and not “being convenient” in French; therefore, he turns away from the literal translation and indulges his personal interpretation to achieve a musical transposition that is as pleasing to read as the original. When Larbaud reproaches him with lexical imprecision, Claudel justifies himself by emphasising the importance of the “breath” and “articulation” of the verse, fundamental principles of his prosody: «Ma traduction fautive a l’avantage de conserver les principales consonnes qui donnent l’accent au vers, considération fort importante à mes yeux».
Using this case study, I will attempt to answer the question of whether a great stylistic freedom is a specificity of periodical translation and what concomitant factors come into play (the source text in the facing page, the freedom in the selection, a critical study as a presentation, and the transnational network of the periodical and thus the target audience).