John Bunyans Pilgrim’s Progress in Wales: Taith neu Siwrnai y Pererin (1688) und Taith y Pererin (1699)

Abstract

ZusammenfassungMy contribution discusses two translations of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress into Welsh, Taith neu Siwrnai y Pererin ‘The pilgrim’s progress or journey’ (London, 1688) and Taith y Pererin ‘The pilgrim’s progress’ (Shrewsbury, 1699). It begins with a presentation of the translators, their background and interests, and the books themselves. It then concentrates on the earlier text, especially on the introductory letter of the main translator and driving spirit behind the project, Stephen Hughes (1622–1688), in which he remarks on the strategies for translating, on the changes implemented in the Welsh text, and on the marginal paratexts, complemented by some comparisons with the later version. The metrical forms of the Welsh adaptations of the English verses and the Welsh translations of English descriptive names and special terms are considered next. The contribution closes with remarks on the reception of the translation, which shows that it has become part of the Welsh literary canon of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. One result of the analysis, instructive for literary and translation studies, is the insight that due to the translators’ interventions the relation between the source and the target texts becomes opaque: readers can never be quite certain whether they read Bunyan or his translators.