Original scientific paper
Carmen de doctrina Domini nostri Iesu Christi pendentis in cruce in Baroque Translations Into Croatian
Gorana Stepanć
orcid.org/0000-0001-9642-1181
; Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli
Abstract
The Carmen de doctrina Domini nostri Iesu Christi pendentis in cruce (Venice, 1507) is a dialogical poem of Marulić of 39 Latin elegiac couplets, in the first half of which the Christian asks the crucified Christ of details of the crucifixion and his incarnation, while in the second half there is Christ’s monologue on the pains of hell and the last judgement. The Carmen is the Marulić work with the largest reception (at first it was connected with the edition of the De institutione but later became independent). In the Latin original it was printed more than 20 times, and in various degrees of completeness and faithfulness to the original appeared in seven languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, English, Croatian and Slovene). It was published in total in more than a hundred different publications. The Carmen de doctrina was translated into Croatian five times. Two are of a relatively recent date (Gortan, 1969; Lučin, 2005); one is from the 16th century, and two were created in the early 18th century.
Until recently there was a settled opinion that there were two translations of the Carmen from the 16th century, the oldest by the author himself, and a somewhat later translation by Šibenik Humanist Mihovil Vrančić (1507-1571). The Marulić translation (which in its 82 double rhymed dodecasyllabics follows the Latin original almost to the end) was published on the foundation of MS NSK R 6638 in company with generically similar Marulić Croatian dramatic and dialogical texts (Kolombić, 1994). Vrančić’s translation is mentioned in several places (Béné, 1994; Tomasović, 1999); with the note that it is inaccessible, since the MS has been lost. However, it was not remarked that it had been published by Franjo Fancev in 1925. In the meantime the MS of Vrančić was found, or identified, as MS Archives of HAZU no. XV-44-8. It turned out that the text of the Carmen that was in this MS is identical to the text published by Kolumbić.
At the beginning of the 18th century Carmen de doctrina was translated by two contemporaries, the Komiža poet Andrija Vitaljić (1642-1725) and the Split poet Ivan Dražić (1655-1739). Vitaljić’s translation was printed as part of the edition of the psalter Istumačenje pisnih Davidovih [Translations of the Psalms of David] (Venice 1703). This translation and the paraphrasis of the psalms were written in the sesta rima stanza (a sestina in octosyllabics with ababcc rhymes) which was particularly often used in Croatian Baroque poems. Vitaljić’s translation follows its original, quoting every Marulić couplet that it paraphrases, and yet it regularlyamplifies the text - ranging from one to as many as 25 sestinas for one of Marulić’s couplets. The content of the original was expanded by semantic amplification and concretisation of the mainly abstract images of Marulic: the exhaustion of the scope of the described object typical of the Baroque is at work here. The style of Vitaljić’s translation is a highly Baroque style: it is characterised by the vigorous use of structural figures, figures of repetition, figures per adjectionem (parallelism, chiasmus, anaphora, epistrophe, antithesis, listing, exclamation, apostrophe, paregmenon, polyptoton).
The MS of Dražić’s translation (Archives of HAZU 1 c 65, pp. 293-298)shows that the author did not impart the final form to his work. This is the first publication of the poem. As with Vitaljić, every original couplet is quoted, but then translated into octosyllabic quatrains rhyming abab/abba), in regular proportions: one quatrain of translation is equivalent to one couplet of the original. Dražić’s text shows fewer propensities to Baroque figures or speech than Vitaljić’s, but his style too can be defined as Baroque.
These two Baroque translations in parts show common characteristics in their contents, which do not however exist in the original, and it is possible to speculate about how they might be mutually linked.
Keywords
Carmen de doctrina Domini nostri Iesu Christi; Marko Marulić; Andrija Vitaljić; Ivan Dražić; Baroque writing; Baroque style
Hrčak ID:
67394
URI
Publication date:
22.4.2011.
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