Identity, exoticism and language in the works of Matéo Maximoff: Romani in Icelandic translations

Roma culture is not well known in Iceland and hardly any works of Roma writers have been translated into Icelandic. Roma writers rarely write their works in Romani. The writer and story-teller Matéo Maximoff, for instance, wrote most of his works in French. As many other Roma writers in the 20th cen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Magnúsdóttir, Ásdís R.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:Icelandic
Published: Milli Mála 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/millimala/article/view/3231
Description
Summary:Roma culture is not well known in Iceland and hardly any works of Roma writers have been translated into Icelandic. Roma writers rarely write their works in Romani. The writer and story-teller Matéo Maximoff, for instance, wrote most of his works in French. As many other Roma writers in the 20th century, he wished to give a good account of the Roma people’s history and culture in order to instruct the reader about their life and community by providing various information about their customs and traditions, but also by using both words and short sentences in Romani. This both refers to particular words with no equivalent in other languages as well as words that do have an equivalent in another language and could therefore be easily translated into the target language. This article presents the works and the fictive world of Matéo Maximoff as well as his use of Romani words in his writings in French. Examples will be taken from some of the short-stories in the collection La poupée de Mameliga. Le livre de la peur (Mameliga’s Doll. The Book of Fear). The Romani words add a certain exoticism to the French original and they can also be foundin the translated text. Menning Rómafólks er lítið þekkt á Íslandi og nánast engin verk eftir rithöfunda af rómískum uppruna hafa verið þýdd á íslensku. Fágætt er að rómískir höfundar skrifi verk sín á rómísku þótt þess séu dæmi. Rithöfundurinn og sagnamaðurinn Matéo Maximoff samdi til dæmis flest sín verk á frönsku. Eins og fleiri rómískir rithöfundar á 20. öld vildi hann gera sögu og menningu Rómafólks góð skil í skáldverkum sínum til að fræða lesendur um líf þess og samfélag. Það gerir hann meðal annars með því að skjóta inn fróðlegum upplýsingum um siði og sögu Rómafólks en einnig með því að nota bæði orð og setningar á tungumáli þeirra. Þetta á bæði við um sértæk orð, sem eiga ekki hliðstæðu í öðrum tungumálum, og orð sem eiga hliðstæðu í öðrum tungumálum og auðvelt væri að þýða yfir ámarkmál þýðingarinnar. Hér er sagt frá verkum og hugarheimi Matéos Maximoff og notkun ...