Tag: John Boje

Death of a beloved translator, John Boje

by Candace Barrington

One of the great joys of the Global Chaucers project has been the opportunity to correspond (and sometimes meet) many translators and scholars from around the world. Each one has taught me much about translation, Chaucer, and the joys of literature. Perhaps none taught me more than John Boje of Pretoria, South Africa.

He and I began corresponding in November 2013. I had learned (from someone on some platform) about his ‘n Keur uit die Pelgrimsverhale van Geoffrey Chaucer [A Selection of the Pilgrims’ Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer]. I emailed him, asking if he’d be willing to answer some questions. I tapped “send,” and before I had a chance to make a cup of tea, I heard back from him with an enthusiastic “Yes!” And so began our collaboration and our friendship.

Earlier that year, he had completed his translation of all the tales (including, he was proud to report, The Parson’s Tale and The Tale of Melibee), so all the tribulations and victories of translation were fresh in his mind. I would send one-line questions, and he’d respond with pages filled with exuberant answers and multiple examples. He described complications and shared insights that I didn’t have the experience to imagine. He gleefully (and mischievously) explained how he exploited the common Dutch ancestry of both Middle English and Afrikaans words. He showed me how Afrikaans, a language associated with an oppressive regime, could be slyly used (in ways that Chaucerians can appreciate) to subvert the dominant discourse.

Because he eventually wrote “‘Save oure tonges difference’: Reflections on Translating Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales into Afrikaans,” his doctoral dissertation whose erudition is belied by the “reflections,” I have at hand a compendium of his thoughts about particular techniques or specific dilemmas.

I am fortunate that I learned of his decline in time to send him a note expressing my gratitude. I wanted him to know that our initial email conversations became the foundation of my scholarly practice. His clear and enthusiastic answers to my ambitious questions convinced me that I would be able to make a long-term project out of my germ of an idea.

I must add one more note: John’s generosity of spirit extended far beyond the gracious help he offered me. As his friends and family testify, he provides an unbeatable example of how to work towards a world where “justice can rise up / And hope and history rhyme” (Seamus Heaney, “The Cure of Troy”).

Troilus and Criseyde in Afrikaans: Progress Report

by Candace Barrington

One of the joys of each new year is receiving updates from friends, especially our Global Chaucers colleagues. This year, most of the translators we work with relayed that they are working on new projects, generally outside of Chaucer and medieval literature. John Boje, Chaucer’s Afrikaans translator in Pretoria, South Africa, wrote with slightly different news: he has begun translating Troilus and Criseyde. At the end of December 2023, he had translated 715 of the poem’s 1171 stanzas, and he projects completing the translation by October 2024.

I’m proud to possess number 16 of 20 copies of Die Pelgrimsverhale van Geoffrey Chaucer, his translation 60 years in the making. I’m also pleased that he continues to translate.

When he translates into Afrikaans, he allows us to see what Chaucer’s language might have looked and sounded like if William of Normandy had stayed home in 1066.

Most of all, his insights into translation as well as Chaucer’s Middle English text have been invaluable in my own thinking. I’m eager to learn what he has to teach us about T&C.

He has shared with me the proem to T&C Book II, from which I now share a bit with you.

      Daarom verwag ek ook nie blaam of dank
      vir hierdie werk, maar ek wil nederig vra
      om verskoon te word indien my woorde mank
      voorkom – ek volg maar net my bronteks na. (II.15-18)

Wherfore I nyl have neither thank ne blame
Of al this werk, but prey yow mekely,    
Disblameth me if any word be lame,    
For as myn auctour seyde, so sey I.     .

I like thinking of John, working in his Pretoria garden abloom with hyacinths, agapanthus, dahlias and amaryllis, letting the pleasure of his work provide the reward “vir hierdie werk.”

Boje’s Reflections on Translating The Canterbury Tales into Afrikaans

by Candace Barrington

2017-11-17 07.56.57Without the enthusiastic help and support of Chaucer’s many living translators, the Global Chaucers project would have had a much narrower scope. From the beginning, the practical insights and experiences of these translators have tempered and shaped our theoretical perspectives.

One of the first translators to share his thoughts about translating the The Canterbury Tales was John Boje of Pretoria, South Africa. Boje began translating the Tales when he was still a schoolboy. In 1989, he published a volume of selected tales–‘n Keur Uit Die Pelgrimsverhale van Geoffrey Chaucer–which made it past the government’s censors and received a surprising number of accolades. Over the next 25 years, he continued to translate until he had completed all the tales.  His translation project–worked on during a sixty-year period spanning the time during and after the apartheid regime–provided an unusual device for commenting on the upheaval and injustices around him.

During 2013 and 2014, we had a lively exchange, wherein my “simple” questions (such as “How did you handle metaphors?”) prompted lengthy, lively and thoroughly thoughtful responses from him. Seeing one of his notes in my inbox was always a treat. We learned a great deal from him about translation as well as the peculiar situation of translating from Middle English to Afrikaans, a modern language not too distantly related to Chaucer’s language yet fraught in its relationship to the other languages of South Africa.

Aspects of Boje’s translation and his astute perceptions have made their way into several Global Chaucers essays, articles, and book chapters that Jonathan Hsy and I have written.  But until now, few of Boje’s own reflections have made their way into print. This week, I learned that his University of Pretoria doctoral thesis, “‘Save our tonges difference’: Reflections on translating Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales into Afrikaans,” has been accepted by the examining faculty. Finally, Boje’s engaging account of his translation is ready to share.

I read a near-complete draft last June and was impressed by his exploration and assessment (using an auto-ethnographic approach) of the translator’s role and the challenges faced when the “stock value” of the source text seems to be declining. And though he had not made much recourse to translation theory while translating, his thesis demonstrates his trenchant understanding of the various theoretical paradigms and how they allow him to view his project from those perspectives. I was delighted to see that his examiners concurred. Congratulations, John!

Afterlives!

NewCompanionThe 2nd edition of Peter Brown’s A New Companion to Chaucer is now available.  Featuring 36 alphabetically arranged chapter topics–Afterlives, Auctorite, Biography, Bodies, Bohemia, Chivalry, Comedy, Emotion, Ethnicity, Flemings, France, Genre, Ideology, Italy, Language, London, Love, Narrative, Other Thought-Worlds, Pagan Survivals, Patronage, Personal Identity, Pilgrimage and Travel, Religion, Richard II, Science, The Senses, Sexuality, Sin, Social Structures, Style, Texts, Things, Translation, Visualizing, and Women–the volume is noticeably heftier than the 2002 edition.

Currently the companion’s first chapter is freely available for download. In a nice piece of irony that tickles our hearts, that chapter is the one Jonathan and I contributed. Though our chapter “Afterlives” deals those things that come last chronologically, its title comes first alphabetically, making real the injunction that “the last will be first.”

Our deepest appreciate to Carolyn Collette for suggesting we take up the topic in her stead, and our thanks to Peter Brown for incorporating us into his excellent lineup of scholars.