„Cizí“ jako „naše“? Poznámky k bytí české básně v překladu do českého znakového jazyka

The text asks questions about the extent to which the otherness of the language into which it is translated (Czech sign language), the otherness of communication in this language, and the otherness of the culture of the Czech Deaf, or the otherness of the socio-cultural traditions/norms of the Czech Deaf community, enter into the interlingual translation of an artistic text, the Czech poem Husy by Miroslav Holub. The four translations of Holub’s poem demonstrate a commitment to the minority “our” rather then a commitment to the majority “foreign”: neither the author of the source text nor its title is mentioned in the translations (neither the author nor the title is articulated in the original poems in Czech sign language), and the translated poem thus enters into a different context than its original (not into a relationship with the author of the source text and his work, but into a relationship with the translator and also the producer of the translation). Translations of poems are also linked to original artistic works in Czech sign language by the specificity of the act of not/publishing them (neither original artistic texts nor translations of artistic texts are regularly published). Last but not least, the link to minority “ours” is given by the emphasis on the expressive, immediately sensory accessible aspects of the text, which carries an aesthetic function: by the emphasis on the use of such non-verbal means anchored in non-manual behaviour, which do not carry intellectual meanings, but which do have an “effect”. All of these different practices, means and procedures contribute to the function of translations to demonstrate the ability of Czech sign language to function in the sphere of literary communication and thus to self-validate “our” deaf culture and identity – translations can thus (in addition to the aesthetic value carried by the emphasis on expression) also be attributed a value that is in a way political.