No Lāčplēša raizēm līdz Tāravas Anniņas priekiem: pagrieziens tulkojumā – pirmā latviešu prozas antoloģija latviešu valodā

Abstract

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, due to the rise of democratization trends, the Latvian Awakening movement, and the increasing level of education, interest in Latvian culture grows among the Baltic German intellectuals, along with the number of translations of Latvian literature. Latvian songs, folklore, and poetry are translated into German. In 1910, the first collection of Latvian short stories in German, “From the Baltics” (Aus dem Baltenlande), is published in Regensburg, Germany. In the introduction, the editor and translator Hanny Brentano (1872–1940) describes the history of the Baltic region and modern Latvian prose. The collection includes works by three Latvian authors – Andrievs Niedra (1871–1942), Augusts Saulietis (real name Augusts Plikausis, 1869–1933) un Jānis Poruks (1871–1911) – as well as one story by an unidentified K. Liepiņš. Together, these works provide a multifaceted portrayal of the era, focusing mainly on family relationships, generational conflict, and the inner world of children. The texts chosen by Brentano do not address the colonial past or local German and Latvian relationship. Stylistically, the book represents modern Latvian prose quite well. Translations of several stories have been shortened and supplemented with phrases not present in the original; at times, plot twists have been altered, and instead of a dramatic or even tragic ending, an optimistic resolution is offered. Brentano’s translation principles are revealed through a comparison of Niedra’s story “The Fault of Women” (Bābu vaina) in the original and its translated version “My Friend Berger” (Mein Freund Berger). The aim of the article is to hypothesize an explanation for the shift toward sentimentality and the glorification of a patriarchal family model in the translations by examining the translator’s biography, her views, as well as briefly characterizing the historical context and the Baltic German society's ambivalent attitude toward Latvian emancipation and the flourishing of national culture. Brentano’s freely translated anthology of Latvian literature can be regarded as an early and unique contribution to the promotion of Latvian literature within the German cultural sphere. The article employs a postcolonial approach and is grounded in the insights of translation theory.