Translating Patterns of Style in 'Hour of the Wolves'

Abstract

For a translator of poetry, it is important to analyse the style of the original poem in order to gain access to the poetics from which the poem arose. I consider here the translation of a German poem, ‘Stunde der Wölfe’, by Volker von Törne, into English. Stylistic patterns in the original poem include the central metaphor of wolves and many other metaphors: birds, paths and journeys, night and winter. There are images of curtailment, intervention and impediment caused by natural agents such as wolves, hawks, wind and snow. And there are several patterns of repeated sounds. The translator must also look beyond the poem itself, to the context in which the poet was writing, and to the use of metaphor and myth in both languages. Considering the interaction of all these elements allows the translator to find ways of translating that preserve the central images and stylistic patterns.