Somatic Experiences in Song Translation: Brel’s “La chanson des vieux amants” in Polish

The contribution is devoted to analyzing three Polish translations of Jacques Brel’s “La chanson des vieux amants”: by Wojciech Młynarski (famous songwriter and song translator), Roman Kołakowski (Brel’s most effective propagator in Poland) and Dariusz Wasilewski (performer). The choice of the material is motivated by the fact that a whole range of issues raised by the conference circular are combined here. Firstly, somatic aspects connected with the specific type of translation and its stage contexts will be discussed: both the sensual experiences of the receiver and the performer. Interestingly, “La chanson…” in Polish has been sung by the translators themselves, thus vocal comfort of the target versions empirically tested by their makers, and the voice of the translator in the text not separated from the body. It is also worth observing how the most recent version was informed by the fact that it was meant for a duet of a male and a female performer who share or exchange certain lines. Secondly, somatic experiences feature prominently in the text and content of Brel’s song. The love relationship is presented in terms of pleasure and pain (which are psychosomatic states), there is the motif of infidelity, by the translators treated with a different degree of gravity, and the motif of childlessness (“cette chambre sans berceau”), ignored (or suppressed?) by one of the translators. Emotional and physical aspects of the union between the characters and reconstruction thereof in the translations are therefore discussed. It is noted that the psychosomatic state of the speaking subject of the song is represented differently. One of the Polish renditions is distinctly more dramatic in tone – both at the textual level and, correspondingly, in the vocal and physical stage expression. In view of that, the translators’ affective relationship with the text are also explored.