DISCOVERING THE COULISSES OF ARTISTIC COLLABORATION: A GENETIC READING OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF SAINT-JOHN PERSE’S POEM AMERS

his study aims to analyse the creative process of literary collaboration and, more speciically, of collaborative translation from the theoretical and methodological perspective of genetic criticism applied to translation studies (genetic translation studies). Saint-John Perse’s poem Amers (1956) was translated into English by the American translator and literary scholar Wallace Fowlie in 1957. he manuscripts of this translation, which present the main focus of this article, are kept in the archive of the Saint-John Perse Foundation in Aix-en-Provence (France), and reveal the genesis of a collaborative translation: Wallace Fowlie’s manuscript is paralleled by the work of an unoicial translator, John Marshall, whose manuscript appears to be the closest to the inal version. Both manuscripts show the handwritten suggestions, corrections, and variants of the poet himself. Spanning the various stages of the writing process from which the generation of this collaborative translation progressively emerges, the two manuscripts show a fascinating interaction. Saint-John Perse constantly confronts the versions of his two translators, sculpting them according to his poetic art. He also creates numerous columns of variants in the margins that display the semantic treasure of the original expression. he reader approaching this translation from a genetic standpoint can discover the sinuous gestation of the translation process, as well as the semantic and phonetic laws that govern the poet’s choices. He can also make good hermeneutic use of the poet’s variants, revealing an unexpected interpretative key. Consequently, through analysis of these avant-textual discoveries, many metaphors in absentia can become metaphors in praesentia, leading to a better understanding both of the original poem and its translation.

Et vous pouvez me dire : Où avez-vous pris cela ?-Textes reçus en langage clair !Versions données sur deux versants !(Saint-John Perse, Vents, II, 6) 1 In many cases, artistic collaborations remain secret for a long time, and only the discovery of the authors' pre-textual documents may reveal the fascinating coulisses of collaborative creation.he analysis of the translators' drats here proposed aims to explore the creative process of translation, which we deine as the coming into being of the translator's text with all its thematic, stylistic, rhythmical and ideological aspects. 2 Like the manuscript of the original text, the translator's drat shows the sinuous evolution of textual (and translingual) gestation, with "its blanks and its halts, its hesitations and its bifurcations". 3In fact, "the working documents of the translator conserve the traces of his translation process, i.e. the inscription of the various stages of his working experience […].hese documents are situated in the coulisses of the translator's laboratory, which reveals to be an open and occulted space beyond its circumscribed space -like the genetic space." 4 Attempting to establish a "microhistory of translation", 5 our analysis of the collaborative translation process of Amers / Seamarks will follow the method of genetic criticism, according to the recent emergence of a new ield of research located at the intersection of genetic criticism and translation studies: genetic translation studies 6 .he purpose of this new transdisciplinary approach is to analyse the practices of the "working translator and the evolution, or genesis, of the translated text by studying translators' manuscripts, drats and other working documents." 7 At the same time, as Sergio Romanelli puts it, "such analysis examines translation manuscripts in order to expound the creative process of the translator seen as a true authoring process that serves to demystify deeply rooted stereotypes about the work of the translator." 8onsidering the English translations of Saint-John Perse's poetic work, 9 the analysis of the translators' manuscripts, which are heavily annotated by the poet, shed light on the genetic process of collaborative translation and its scriptural procedures. 10Since the sole reading of the published text of these translations would never have disclosed such an invisible artistic collaboration between Saint-John Perse and his translators, this article aims to explore the sinuous gestation of a threefold artistic collaboration through a genetic study of the English translation of Saint-John Perse's poem Amers (1956).
In 1957 Saint-John Perse's poem Amers was translated into English by the American translator and literary scholar Wallace Fowlie, and published by Bollingen Series, Pantheon Books, New York, during Saint-John Perse's exile in Washington. he manuscripts of this translation, which present the main focus of this article, are kept in the archive of the Saint-John Perse Foundation in Aix-en-Provence (France), and reveal the genesis of a collaborative translation: although this translation is attributed to Wallace Fowlie, professor of Romance Languages at Duke University, the manuscripts that gave birth to this translation show another reality -the reality of an exceptional, collective translation.
In fact, Seamarks arose from the parallel works of two American translators: Wallace Fowlie's manuscript is paralleled by the work of an unoicial translator, John Marshall, whose manuscript appears to be the closest to the inal version.Both manuscripts show the hand-written suggestions, corrections, and variants of the poet himself.Moreover, these two translators were helped by two other cotranslators: Saint-John Perse himself, who proposed his own translation variants in order to ind the most itting expression, as well as Mina Curtiss, the poet's lady friend and Maecenas, who inscribed Marshall's version into the interlinear spaces of Fowlie's manuscript, and oten ofered her linguistic advice when choosing the "best translation".
Spanning the various stages of the writing process from which the generation of this collaborative translation progressively emerges, the two manuscripts show a captivating interaction.Saint-John Perse constantly confronts the versions of his two translators, sculpting them according to his poetic art.He also creates numerous columns of variants in the margins that display the semantic treasure of the original expression.
Approaching this translation from a genetic standpoint hence allows us to follow the sinuous gestation of the translation process, as well as the semantic and phonetic laws that govern the poet's choices.We can also make good semantic use of the poet's variants, which reveal an unexpected interpretative key, since Saint-John Perse's self-translation process shows the underpinnings of his poetics, both in the French text and in the English translation.Accordingly, our analysis of the two parallel manuscripts will follow three diferent perspectives.
he irst part of this article follows a genetic approach, tracing the diferent stages and movements of the collective translation process.he second part represents a semantic analysis of the diferent variants, leading to clarify some diicult metaphors in the French poem.Lastly, the third part, entitled poetic approach, aims to elaborate a poetics of this collaborative translation of the poem Amers.

he genesis of a collaborative translation process
he following examination of the collaborative translation process will focus on one long stanza of the poem Seamarks, called "Narrow are the vessels" [Étroits sont les vaisseaux].In order to analyse the diferent stages of the translation process, we need to establish the chronological order of the two parallel typescripts produced by Wallace Fowlie and John Marshall, as well as the chronological order of the various layers of variants and corrections inscribed. 11herefore, we have adopted a reverse direction, following backward step by step the genesis of the translation.
In fact, Fowlie's typescript shows two diferent interlinear writings -the irst, rather large pencil handwriting belongs to Mina Curtiss, the poet's friend, who inscribes here the version of the translation by John Marshall and so facilitates a direct confrontation of the two parallel translations on one single page. he second black ink handwriting, which is smaller and narrower, belongs to the poet Saint-John Perse, as well as the variants that appear in the let margin of the typescript.Additionally, the entire text is underlined by Saint-John Perse's black ink pen, choosing and validating each time the most adapted solution between the typed text by Fowlie, the inscribed interlinear text by Marshall, and the poet's own suggestions with black ink.
On the other hand, John Marshall's typescript only shows one single kind of notations with black ink, which appear in the interlinear space.When comparing the two parallel typescripts with the inal, published version, John Marshall's version, corrected by Saint-John Perse, appears to be the inal stage of the translation process.Only very little diferences emerge from this comparison, one misinterpretation excepted: Marshall proposed "stallion" for étalon, which had to be replaced by "standard", corresponding to the initial version by Fowlie.Some minimal modiications correspond to Fowlie's version, revealing the fact that the inal stage of the translation as presented by Marshall's typescript bearing the poet's corrections had been revised once more by the oicial translator Wallace Fowlie before going into print.
Saint-John Perse's corrections on the inal typescript by John Marshall have been elaborated on Wallace Fowlie's translation, which presents thus a preivous stage within the collective translation process.In point of fact, the analysis of Saint-John Perse's corrections needs a comparative back and forth between the two parallel translations.Additionally, we have to consider the advice of Mina Curtiss, who inscribes Marshall's solutions into the interlinear spaces on Fowlie's manuscripts, telling us whenever she prefers Fowlie's formulations while commenting "I like this better".Mostly, these preferences of Mina Curtiss reveal a misinterpretation in Marshall's translation, such as his "inhabitable" for the French inhabitable, which is in fact a faux-ami to be translated by uninhabitable in English (MS Fowlie, 16).In one case, Mina Curtiss proposes a translation herself, writing: "Pierre [Saint-John Perse's nickname], John has "disquiet heart".I like "unquiet" better" (MS Fowlie, 40). he poet actually always follows her advice.
Going from the two parallel versions present on Fowlie's typescript, Saint-John Perse elaborates his own, deinitive solutions with his black ink pen. he coming into being of these corrections can be observed in the paradigms of variants in the margins, revealing the progressive elaboration of the most itting expression through a list of synonyms.As a synthesis of the suggestions of four translators -Fowlie, Marhall, Curtiss and Saint-John Perse -, this deinitive version is underlined on Fowlie's typescript, before being written as a correction on Marshall's typescript.hus, the poet's corrections on Marshall's document are posterior to the ones we encounter of Fowlie's document, and represent the inal synthetic state of a lexical research that has taken place on the oicial translator's typescript. he American translation published in the Bollingen Series represents therefore a result of a collective translation that emerged from the dialectical confrontation of four translation works.Consequently, the manuscript page sometimes looks like a battle ield, where the diferent versions intertwine, interweave, intermingle, and interconnect.

From genetics to semantics of translation
Most interestingly, the poet's paradigm of variants in the margins of Fowlie's manuscript shows the micro-genesis of the translation process, transforming the textual margin into a space of both lexical and rhythmical invention and experimentation, which may be considered as the principal moment of the poetic translation process.We have tried to follow the poet's methodical research of the most itting translation, beginning with an organisation of the poetic material through semantic approximation, and leading to the inal selection of the deinitive expression.Aterwards, the selected expression is inserted into the text, moving from the virtual margin into the actualized centre of the manuscript page, where it igures as a correction.Consequently, the paradigms of variants in the margins show the dynamic process of a translingual emergence of sense, and represent a semantic guide for the comprehension both of the original French text and the English translation.
At present, we would like to analyse some of these paradigms of variants which Saint-John Perse inscribes in the margins of Fowlie's typescript.hese paradigms seem to function according to the principle of analogy.Consequently, they ofer a semantic key for the interpretation of diicult passages, since the diferent meanings of the French expression are progressively elaborated through the semantic deploying of a list of translingual variants.
French text: Il n' est plus femme qu'agréée.(Amers, p. 327) 12 Saint-John Perse's variants: there is no part of / nothing of the woman to be… that / which has not been accepted / asserted / approved that / which does not need agreement / approval / acceptation that / which has not been / is not enjoyed / acclaimed / approved / appraised / acclaimed / appreciated / greeted Fowlie: there is no woman save the one admitted Marshall: there is no longer a part of her that does not consent.inal version : there is nothing of the woman that has not been greeted he polysemy and abstraction of the French expression femme…agréée in this passage is concretized by the paradigm of English variants that accumulates its diferent semantic elements: accepted / asserted / approved / acclaimed / appraised / appreciated / enjoyed / greeted…woman. he English expression chosen by the poet creates a phonetic analogy ([gr]) with the French expression: agrééegreated.Additionally, both the French and English expressions create a phonetic link towards the metaphorical dimension that governs the whole poem, associating the body of the beloved woman with the gréement [the rigging] of the vessel, carrying the lovers on the sea waves: agrééegréementgreated.
he following example illustrates the semantic development of the French expression mêlée through a paradigm of variants in the English language: French text : l' Amant tient l' Amante comme une mêlée d'astres (Amers, p. 336) Paradigm of Saint-John Perse's variants 13 throng / crush / bunch / herd / lock / group / body / gang / band / gathering / group / bunch Fowlie : "like a contest of stars" Marshall : "like a clash of stars" Corrected version : "and the Lover holds the Woman like a mêlée of stars." he corrected version ignores all of the poet's suggestions and variants, and inally borrows a French word, which makes us think that the translator is cheating.Or is the word mêlée untranslatable? he English variants contest and crash, employed by the two translators, underline over all the semantics of violence and aggression, whereas the expressions gathered by Saint-John Perse in the paradigm show the predominant semantics of a multitude, composed of diferent unities: throng / crush / bunch / herd / lock / group / body / gang / band / gathering / group / bunch.According to its etymological meaning, the word mêlée, descending from the latin word misculare, micere "to mix", connects the meanings of multitude and mixture, disorder and of movement, without necessarily including the meaning of violence.
Similarly, the following paradigm of variants of Saint-John Perse explicates the meaning of the metaphor tête carénée in the French text: French text : l'amour à tête carénée (Amers, p. 337) paradigm of Saint-John Perse : hull / carina / keel / stream-line carinate / keeled / faired / sheer Fowlie : love with its keel-shaped head Marshall : love with sleek head Corrected version : love with faired head he meaning of the metaphor develops from the metonymical transfer between the stream-lined form of the shape of the vessel, compared to the "head of Venus / love" (we can speak here of a mythological allegory of love), and its metaphorical characteristics of sharpness and perspicacity.he expression faired in the inal version, whose irst meaning addresses the sharpened form of the vessel, seems also to keep in mind the echo of the adjective fair, meaning beautiful.
he metaphorical link between the body of the beloved woman and the form of the vessel that carries the lovers on the sea emerges once more in the following passage: Saint-John Perse's variants, bay, gulf, harbour, cannot be considered as a faithful translation of the French expression courbe, exactly rendered by curve in the English version of Fowlie and Marshall.Nevertheless, the poet's variants interpret and explicit the metaphorical link between the marine landscape and the body of the beloved woman, and so, hint at the metaphorical network that carries the whole poem.
Consequently, through analysis of these pre-textual discoveries, many metaphors in absentia can become metaphors in praesentia, leading to a better understanding both of the original poem and its translation.

Towards a poetics of collaborative translation
In our last approach, which might be called poetic approach, we would like to observe how the poeticity of the French text is reproduced in the English translation.In fact, despite his attempts of self-translation, Saint-John Perse considered his poetry as utterly untranslatable.In his letter to Archibald MacLeish, written in 1941, he wrote: "By the way, I am not sure at all if such an oeuvre could be published in French in the US.On the other hand, it would be untranslatable: not only in its intellectual form, with its abstractions, ellipses and ambiguities, but also in its physical dimension, with its alliterations, its assonances and its incantations, that oten imitate the rhythm of the sea and its waves, and, at last, in its literal aspect, with the etymological resources of some words." 14 Speaking about the diiculties of every poetic translation, Saint-John Perse posits the speciicity of his poetics that challenges the translators of his oeuvre.Consequently, the various aspects composing Saint-John Perse's style -the lexical ones (abstractions, ellipses, etymology and ambiguities), as well as the syntactical and the metrical ones (the rhythm of the waves and incantations), as well as the poetic ones (alliterations and assonances) -also represent the main aspects of the poet's suggestions and modiications within the translation process.
Accordingly, Saint-John Perse prefers to keep within the English expression the etymology of the French word.For example, he prefers leather bands to leather straps for bandes de cuir, he chooses haunch instead of hips or lanc to translate hanche, and the word écaille should be translated by scale, rather than by shell.
Other modiications of the English translation follow a metrical order, since Saint-John Perse tries to recreate the rhythmical cadence of the French poem.Let us have a glance at the following passage: Infante calls this intimate relationship between author and translator, who elaborate together the nascent text of the translation. 15How did the translators perceive the poet's dominant supervising of their work?How could they tolerate his function as an exigent co-translator?Unfortunately, the Saint-John Perse Foundation does not keep any signiicant correspondence between Saint-John Perse and his translators W: Fowlie and J. Marshall as a testimony of their personal relationship or as an exchange of views on their collective translation work.
However, the famous poet T.S. Eliot, translator of Saint-John Perse's poem Anabase (1924), seems to take advantage of the complex and oten reverse relationship between poet and translator that governs their closelaboration, since he states the following in his preface to his Anabasis (1930): "As for the translation, it would not be even so satisfactory as it is, if the author had not collaborated with me to such an extent as to be half-translator". 16n the other hand, translation itself might be understood as an intrinsic collaborative process, as the famous French translator M.-E.Coindreau posits it: "Traduire est un acte d'amoureuse collaboration.Le traducteur et son auteur doivent interpréter sans cesse la fable de l' Aveugle et du Paralytique: je marcherai pour vous, vous y verrez pour moi." 17 [Translation is an act of amorous collaboration. he translator and his author have to interpret unceasingly the fable of the Blind and the Lame: I shall march for you, and you will see for me.] Nevertheless, the discovery of the secret coulisses of artistic collaboration certainly shows the dynamic and enriching phenomena of a translingual exchange.Moreover, the collaborative translation process of Amers / Seamarks reveals the esthetical and ideological keystones of the poem, as well as the poetics both of the French text and its translation into English.

Notes
French text : Heureuse la courbe qui s'inscrit au pur délice de l'amante.(Amers, p. 348).variants of Saint-John Perse : bay / [gulf] / harbour Fowlie and Marshall : "Happy the curve which is inscribed in the pure delight of the Mistress." Corrected version : "Happy the curve inscribed in the pure delight of the woman who loves."