{"id":29001,"date":"2023-11-07T14:22:41","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/?p=29001"},"modified":"2024-04-30T05:40:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:40:31","slug":"rage-letters-creolization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/fr\/rage-letters-creolization\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rage Letters: &#8216;I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On November 21, Metonymy will be releasing its first translated work\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/fr\/shop\/books\/the-rage-letters-bah\/\"><em>The Rage Letters<\/em><\/a> by Val\u00e9rie Bah. In this post, translator Kama La Mackerel shares what stood out to them about this work (which was published originally in French as <em>Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s<\/em> by les \u00c9ditions du remue-m\u00e9nage, as part of the Martiales collection) and the nature of the collaboration that brought this new version to life.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-29001 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"260\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/val-high-res-black-and-white-260x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/val-high-res-black-and-white-260x300.jpg 260w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/val-high-res-black-and-white-scaled-800x924.jpg 800w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/val-high-res-black-and-white-887x1024.jpg 887w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/val-high-res-black-and-white-768x887.jpg 768w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/val-high-res-black-and-white-1330x1536.jpg 1330w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/val-high-res-black-and-white-1774x2048.jpg 1774w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9781777485276-e1663350152374-200x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"The Rage Letters book cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9781777485276-e1663350152374-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9781777485276-e1663350152374-800x1200.jpg 800w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9781777485276-e1663350152374-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9781777485276-e1663350152374-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9781777485276-e1663350152374.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"218\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-218x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-scaled-800x1099.jpg 800w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-746x1024.jpg 746w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-768x1055.jpg 768w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-1119x1536.jpg 1119w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-1492x2048.jpg 1492w, https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-scaled.jpg 1864w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 18px;\">\n<hr \/>\n<h2>&#8216;I think what surprised me the most at the time was that I had not yet read a work of literature in French where Blackness and queerness are both written in such an unapologetic manner&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>In reading just the first few stories, I felt seen in ways that I had never experienced through a francophone literary work before. Sure, it was about these characters who reminded me of myself, my friends, and my communities\u2014us learning to love, to resist, to stay alive while running anti-oppression workshops during the day and working call-centre jobs at night. But more than that, there was something happening with the language: it felt haunted, as if a ghost was attempting to manifest itself in between the words. It felt like it wasn\u2019t exactly fully French, but at once something more and something less. It was clear to me that Val had managed to address the power dynamics inherent to the French language; they had managed to shape the language into being unapologetically Black and queer.<\/p>\n<p>It was only after my first couple of readings of the book that I started delving deeper into the linguistic and literary form that Vale\u0301rie Bah had composed. I found out that Val had actually first birthed versions of these stories in English, before roughly translating them into French, and then working with and within the language. This amazed me. It turns out that my writing process in French is very similar: even though I am a native French speaker, my first drafts of anything\u2014be it creative writing, love letters, or grant applications\u2014are always in English. It is as if when I attempt to conjure my feelings and thoughts in French first, I stumble on my words. Writing then becomes a demanding exercise in drafting, moulding, and sculpting the language. In English, however, my third language, there is a sense of freedom and permission that I seem to have right from the outset.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t know anything of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s writing process when I first read <em>Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s<\/em>, but it was still palpable to me that the French language had been \u201ccreolized,\u201d which compelled me as both a reader and a translator. We often think of the work of translation as an activity tied to purity: that of being able to transpose the content and form of a work of art from the purity of one language into the purity of another language. There is a long lineage of translation theorists who claim that a translator should always erase themself in the act of translating, that they should not leave any trace of their presence within the translated text. I, on the other hand, believe that translation is a recreation in which the translator injects their subjectivity into the literary voice of the author. Translators are always faced with the question of choice: which expression best represents, captures, and carries the weight, meaning, aesthetic, feeling, impact, rhythm, etc. of the text being translated. I believe that every choice made by a translator is fundamentally \u201cimpure,\u201d it is a form of creolization which, I further believe, is ripe with political potential.<\/p>\n<p>Although I had only translated literary works from English to French so far in my practice, I thought taking on <em>Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s<\/em> as a translation project into English would be a rather exquisite challenge. What I did not know yet is how arduous the process would be. Throughout, I was enwrapped in doubt as to whether I was fully capturing all the nuances of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s literary language. I was also constantly faced with the question of relevance regarding certain literary choices in French that I found revolutionary, but not so much once I started reconstructing them in English. (In English, there are already more rooted lineages of Black, racialized, and LGBTQ+ writers who have written and continue to write against the empire.) I felt haunted by the creolite\u0301 of a language that I was trying to capture and express in another language (both colonial), and where most of the time, I felt like I was failing.<\/p>\n<p>A project like this one required that I reimagine my task as a translator, that I unlearn everything I thought I knew in order to find my way to a different translation process. Vale\u0301rie Bah soon joined me in co-developing the manuscript in English. We spent countless hours pondering the initial choices I had proposed, whether these captured Val\u2019s original intentions, whether my choices were leaking into new aesthetic and semantic spaces, and whether the latter supplemented or impaired the integrity of the text. In addition to Val, Esi Callender, and the co-publishers at Metonymy Press, Oliver Fugler and Ashley Fortier, also sank their teeth into the text. By the end of it, even though my name is featured as \u201cthe translator\u201d of this work on the cover, it was really our ten hands together that massaged this text into being. As I now look at the final version of this work in English, I cannot help but think that the translation of a literary text like this one could only be honoured through a collective, hybrid, and creolized process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>(excerpted from Kama La Mackerel&#8217;s full translator&#8217;s note, published in <em>The Rage Letters, <\/em>out November 21, 2023).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On November 21, Metonymy will be releasing its first translated work\u2014The Rage Letters by Val\u00e9rie Bah. In this post, translator Kama La Mackerel shares what stood out to them about this work (which was published originally in French as Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s by les \u00c9ditions du remue-m\u00e9nage, as part of the Martiales collection) and the nature of the collaboration that brought this new version to life. &#8216;I think what surprised me the most at the time was that I had not yet read a work of literature in French where Blackness and queerness are both written in such an unapologetic manner&#8217; In reading just the first few stories, I felt seen in ways that I had never experienced through a francophone literary work before. Sure, it was about these characters who reminded me of myself, my friends, and my communities\u2014us learning to love, to resist, to stay alive while running anti-oppression workshops during the day and working call-centre jobs at night. But more than that, there was something happening with the language: it felt haunted, as if a ghost was attempting to manifest itself in between the words. It felt like it wasn\u2019t exactly fully French, but at once something more and something less. It was clear to me that Val had managed to address the power dynamics inherent to the French language; they had managed to shape the language into being unapologetically Black and queer. It was only after my first couple of readings of the book that I started delving deeper into the linguistic and literary form that Vale\u0301rie Bah had composed. I found out that Val had actually first birthed versions of these stories in English, before roughly translating them into French, and then working with and within the language. This amazed me. It turns out that my writing process in French is very similar: even though I am a native French speaker, my first drafts of anything\u2014be it creative writing, love letters, or grant applications\u2014are always in English. It is as if when I attempt to conjure my feelings and thoughts in French first, I stumble on my words. Writing then becomes a demanding exercise in drafting, moulding, and sculpting the language. In English, however, my third language, there is a sense of freedom and permission that I seem to have right from the outset. I didn\u2019t know anything of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s writing process when I first read Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s, but it was still palpable to me that the French language had been \u201ccreolized,\u201d which compelled me as both a reader and a translator. We often think of the work of translation as an activity tied to purity: that of being able to transpose the content and form of a work of art from the purity of one language into the purity of another language. There is a long lineage of translation theorists who claim that a translator should always erase themself in the act of translating, that they should not leave any trace of their presence within the translated text. I, on the other hand, believe that translation is a recreation in which the translator injects their subjectivity into the literary voice of the author. Translators are always faced with the question of choice: which expression best represents, captures, and carries the weight, meaning, aesthetic, feeling, impact, rhythm, etc. of the text being translated. I believe that every choice made by a translator is fundamentally \u201cimpure,\u201d it is a form of creolization which, I further believe, is ripe with political potential. Although I had only translated literary works from English to French so far in my practice, I thought taking on Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s as a translation project into English would be a rather exquisite challenge. What I did not know yet is how arduous the process would be. Throughout, I was enwrapped in doubt as to whether I was fully capturing all the nuances of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s literary language. I was also constantly faced with the question of relevance regarding certain literary choices in French that I found revolutionary, but not so much once I started reconstructing them in English. (In English, there are already more rooted lineages of Black, racialized, and LGBTQ+ writers who have written and continue to write against the empire.) I felt haunted by the creolite\u0301 of a language that I was trying to capture and express in another language (both colonial), and where most of the time, I felt like I was failing. A project like this one required that I reimagine my task as a translator, that I unlearn everything I thought I knew in order to find my way to a different translation process. Vale\u0301rie Bah soon joined me in co-developing the manuscript in English. We spent countless hours pondering the initial choices I had proposed, whether these captured Val\u2019s original intentions, whether my choices were leaking into new aesthetic and semantic spaces, and whether the latter supplemented or impaired the integrity of the text. In addition to Val, Esi Callender, and the co-publishers at Metonymy Press, Oliver Fugler and Ashley Fortier, also sank their teeth into the text. By the end of it, even though my name is featured as \u201cthe translator\u201d of this work on the cover, it was really our ten hands together that massaged this text into being. As I now look at the final version of this work in English, I cannot help but think that the translation of a literary text like this one could only be honoured through a collective, hybrid, and creolized process. (excerpted from Kama La Mackerel&#8217;s full translator&#8217;s note, published in The Rage Letters, out November 21, 2023).<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[85,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Rage Letters: &#039;I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential&#039; - Metonymy Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/fr\/rage-letters-creolization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_CA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Rage Letters: &#039;I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential&#039; - Metonymy Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On November 21, Metonymy will be releasing its first translated work\u2014The Rage Letters by Val\u00e9rie Bah. In this post, translator Kama La Mackerel shares what stood out to them about this work (which was published originally in French as Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s by les \u00c9ditions du remue-m\u00e9nage, as part of the Martiales collection) and the nature of the collaboration that brought this new version to life. &#8216;I think what surprised me the most at the time was that I had not yet read a work of literature in French where Blackness and queerness are both written in such an unapologetic manner&#8217; In reading just the first few stories, I felt seen in ways that I had never experienced through a francophone literary work before. Sure, it was about these characters who reminded me of myself, my friends, and my communities\u2014us learning to love, to resist, to stay alive while running anti-oppression workshops during the day and working call-centre jobs at night. But more than that, there was something happening with the language: it felt haunted, as if a ghost was attempting to manifest itself in between the words. It felt like it wasn\u2019t exactly fully French, but at once something more and something less. It was clear to me that Val had managed to address the power dynamics inherent to the French language; they had managed to shape the language into being unapologetically Black and queer. It was only after my first couple of readings of the book that I started delving deeper into the linguistic and literary form that Vale\u0301rie Bah had composed. I found out that Val had actually first birthed versions of these stories in English, before roughly translating them into French, and then working with and within the language. This amazed me. It turns out that my writing process in French is very similar: even though I am a native French speaker, my first drafts of anything\u2014be it creative writing, love letters, or grant applications\u2014are always in English. It is as if when I attempt to conjure my feelings and thoughts in French first, I stumble on my words. Writing then becomes a demanding exercise in drafting, moulding, and sculpting the language. In English, however, my third language, there is a sense of freedom and permission that I seem to have right from the outset. I didn\u2019t know anything of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s writing process when I first read Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s, but it was still palpable to me that the French language had been \u201ccreolized,\u201d which compelled me as both a reader and a translator. We often think of the work of translation as an activity tied to purity: that of being able to transpose the content and form of a work of art from the purity of one language into the purity of another language. There is a long lineage of translation theorists who claim that a translator should always erase themself in the act of translating, that they should not leave any trace of their presence within the translated text. I, on the other hand, believe that translation is a recreation in which the translator injects their subjectivity into the literary voice of the author. Translators are always faced with the question of choice: which expression best represents, captures, and carries the weight, meaning, aesthetic, feeling, impact, rhythm, etc. of the text being translated. I believe that every choice made by a translator is fundamentally \u201cimpure,\u201d it is a form of creolization which, I further believe, is ripe with political potential. Although I had only translated literary works from English to French so far in my practice, I thought taking on Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s as a translation project into English would be a rather exquisite challenge. What I did not know yet is how arduous the process would be. Throughout, I was enwrapped in doubt as to whether I was fully capturing all the nuances of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s literary language. I was also constantly faced with the question of relevance regarding certain literary choices in French that I found revolutionary, but not so much once I started reconstructing them in English. (In English, there are already more rooted lineages of Black, racialized, and LGBTQ+ writers who have written and continue to write against the empire.) I felt haunted by the creolite\u0301 of a language that I was trying to capture and express in another language (both colonial), and where most of the time, I felt like I was failing. A project like this one required that I reimagine my task as a translator, that I unlearn everything I thought I knew in order to find my way to a different translation process. Vale\u0301rie Bah soon joined me in co-developing the manuscript in English. We spent countless hours pondering the initial choices I had proposed, whether these captured Val\u2019s original intentions, whether my choices were leaking into new aesthetic and semantic spaces, and whether the latter supplemented or impaired the integrity of the text. In addition to Val, Esi Callender, and the co-publishers at Metonymy Press, Oliver Fugler and Ashley Fortier, also sank their teeth into the text. By the end of it, even though my name is featured as \u201cthe translator\u201d of this work on the cover, it was really our ten hands together that massaged this text into being. As I now look at the final version of this work in English, I cannot help but think that the translation of a literary text like this one could only be honoured through a collective, hybrid, and creolized process. (excerpted from Kama La Mackerel&#8217;s full translator&#8217;s note, published in The Rage Letters, out November 21, 2023).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/fr\/rage-letters-creolization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Metonymy Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-07T19:22:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-30T10:40:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ashley Fortier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u00c9crit par\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ashley Fortier\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimation du temps de lecture\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/rage-letters-creolization\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/rage-letters-creolization\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ashley Fortier\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/326babe0ee83e9524ace23b129b804b6\"},\"headline\":\"The Rage Letters: &#8216;I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-07T19:22:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-30T10:40:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/rage-letters-creolization\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":986,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/rage-letters-creolization\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/kama-black-and-white-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/rage-letters-creolization\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metonymypress.com\\\/rage-letters-creolization\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Rage Letters: 'I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential' - 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Metonymy Press","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/fr\/rage-letters-creolization\/","og_locale":"fr_CA","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Rage Letters: 'I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential' - Metonymy Press","og_description":"On November 21, Metonymy will be releasing its first translated work\u2014The Rage Letters by Val\u00e9rie Bah. In this post, translator Kama La Mackerel shares what stood out to them about this work (which was published originally in French as Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s by les \u00c9ditions du remue-m\u00e9nage, as part of the Martiales collection) and the nature of the collaboration that brought this new version to life. &#8216;I think what surprised me the most at the time was that I had not yet read a work of literature in French where Blackness and queerness are both written in such an unapologetic manner&#8217; In reading just the first few stories, I felt seen in ways that I had never experienced through a francophone literary work before. Sure, it was about these characters who reminded me of myself, my friends, and my communities\u2014us learning to love, to resist, to stay alive while running anti-oppression workshops during the day and working call-centre jobs at night. But more than that, there was something happening with the language: it felt haunted, as if a ghost was attempting to manifest itself in between the words. It felt like it wasn\u2019t exactly fully French, but at once something more and something less. It was clear to me that Val had managed to address the power dynamics inherent to the French language; they had managed to shape the language into being unapologetically Black and queer. It was only after my first couple of readings of the book that I started delving deeper into the linguistic and literary form that Vale\u0301rie Bah had composed. I found out that Val had actually first birthed versions of these stories in English, before roughly translating them into French, and then working with and within the language. This amazed me. It turns out that my writing process in French is very similar: even though I am a native French speaker, my first drafts of anything\u2014be it creative writing, love letters, or grant applications\u2014are always in English. It is as if when I attempt to conjure my feelings and thoughts in French first, I stumble on my words. Writing then becomes a demanding exercise in drafting, moulding, and sculpting the language. In English, however, my third language, there is a sense of freedom and permission that I seem to have right from the outset. I didn\u2019t know anything of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s writing process when I first read Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s, but it was still palpable to me that the French language had been \u201ccreolized,\u201d which compelled me as both a reader and a translator. We often think of the work of translation as an activity tied to purity: that of being able to transpose the content and form of a work of art from the purity of one language into the purity of another language. There is a long lineage of translation theorists who claim that a translator should always erase themself in the act of translating, that they should not leave any trace of their presence within the translated text. I, on the other hand, believe that translation is a recreation in which the translator injects their subjectivity into the literary voice of the author. Translators are always faced with the question of choice: which expression best represents, captures, and carries the weight, meaning, aesthetic, feeling, impact, rhythm, etc. of the text being translated. I believe that every choice made by a translator is fundamentally \u201cimpure,\u201d it is a form of creolization which, I further believe, is ripe with political potential. Although I had only translated literary works from English to French so far in my practice, I thought taking on Les Enrage\u0301\u00b7e\u00b7s as a translation project into English would be a rather exquisite challenge. What I did not know yet is how arduous the process would be. Throughout, I was enwrapped in doubt as to whether I was fully capturing all the nuances of Vale\u0301rie Bah\u2019s literary language. I was also constantly faced with the question of relevance regarding certain literary choices in French that I found revolutionary, but not so much once I started reconstructing them in English. (In English, there are already more rooted lineages of Black, racialized, and LGBTQ+ writers who have written and continue to write against the empire.) I felt haunted by the creolite\u0301 of a language that I was trying to capture and express in another language (both colonial), and where most of the time, I felt like I was failing. A project like this one required that I reimagine my task as a translator, that I unlearn everything I thought I knew in order to find my way to a different translation process. Vale\u0301rie Bah soon joined me in co-developing the manuscript in English. We spent countless hours pondering the initial choices I had proposed, whether these captured Val\u2019s original intentions, whether my choices were leaking into new aesthetic and semantic spaces, and whether the latter supplemented or impaired the integrity of the text. In addition to Val, Esi Callender, and the co-publishers at Metonymy Press, Oliver Fugler and Ashley Fortier, also sank their teeth into the text. By the end of it, even though my name is featured as \u201cthe translator\u201d of this work on the cover, it was really our ten hands together that massaged this text into being. As I now look at the final version of this work in English, I cannot help but think that the translation of a literary text like this one could only be honoured through a collective, hybrid, and creolized process. (excerpted from Kama La Mackerel&#8217;s full translator&#8217;s note, published in The Rage Letters, out November 21, 2023).","og_url":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/fr\/rage-letters-creolization\/","og_site_name":"Metonymy Press","article_published_time":"2023-11-07T19:22:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-04-30T10:40:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1864,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ashley Fortier","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"\u00c9crit par":"Ashley Fortier","Estimation du temps de lecture":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/rage-letters-creolization\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/rage-letters-creolization\/"},"author":{"name":"Ashley Fortier","@id":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/#\/schema\/person\/326babe0ee83e9524ace23b129b804b6"},"headline":"The Rage Letters: &#8216;I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential&#8217;","datePublished":"2023-11-07T19:22:41+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-30T10:40:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/rage-letters-creolization\/"},"wordCount":986,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/rage-letters-creolization\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/kama-black-and-white-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Books","News"],"inLanguage":"fr-CA"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/rage-letters-creolization\/","url":"https:\/\/metonymypress.com\/rage-letters-creolization\/","name":"The Rage Letters: 'I believe that every choice made by a translator is a form of creolization, ripe with political potential' - 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