Reading Karen Blixen in different cultures. “Sailor-Boy’s Tale” (“Skibsdrengens Fortælling”): What is lost and gained in self-translation?

Abstract

The paper analyses Karen Blixen’s short story “The Sailor-boy’s Tale”, which opens her collection “Winter’s Tales” (1942), in comparison with the Danish translation made by the author in the same year. The Danish text is considered the result of a process of auto-translation, recoding, and adaptation of the text for the Scandinavian reader. In the Danish version, the prose is more rhythmic and the descriptions are more vivid, which enhances the sensual authenticity. However, allusions to English and American authors and quotations are translated into Danish, which obscures their significance as markers of intertextual dialogue. Additionally, the dialogue with Scandinavian pretexts and paintings familiar to the Danish reader becomes more pronounced.