From Poe to Mallarmé, from Mallarmé to Poe: Translation, Editing, Creation
Mallarmé’s translation of Poe’s poetry questions the relationship between the activities of poet and translator in a remarkable way. Following in the footsteps of Baudelaire, who translated Poe’s short stories but did not dare translate his poetry, Mallarmé took up the challenge and focused his work on the relationship between translation and the singular notion of authorship. In fact, he references not only the author being translated, but the previous translator as well. Proposing a translation that, in spite of its fidelity, takes a surprising amount of liberties, Mallarmé does not only want to offer his own version of Poe’s poetry, but wants to develop an original by taking unusual initiatives. The lines between the roles of poet, translator, and editor, which is taken on by Mallarmé, become blurred, but it is resolved through the notion of depersonalization, the ideal driving Mallarmé’s poetics.