International Medieval Society, Paris • Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2010 - Traditio

'Qui voit qu’il boit du nilotem aquam’ : Observations on French translation problems in the Songes selon Daniel

Larissa Birrer, Aberystwyth University

The Achmetis Oneirocriticon, a treatise on dream interpretation, was first compiled in Greek in Constantinople around the 8th century. We currently know of three extant French manuscripts (two in continental French, one Anglo-Norman), which arrived in western Europe through a Latin translation from the 12th century. As the Oneiro­cri­ticon attributed its interpretations to the Indians, Persians and Egyptians, the text was bound to contain references to persons, places and objects that were unknown to the western public. My paper will investigate how the various translators have dealt with this geographical and cultural translatio, whether transposing, deleting, or emending the relevant passage. Why does one manuscript give “Dieu” in the singular for “gods and idols”, while another one gives “dieux ou les ydoles”? Does the writer/copyist of one manuscript always react the same way when encountering a similar problem? What reason could there be for the French texts to ignore the vision of worshipping the Pharaoh’s throne, while worshipping the Pharaoh’s staff makes its way into all three texts, though in slightly different form? Why did drinking “water from the Nile river” become “qu’il boit du nilotem aquam”. How did the two other copyists handle this translation? Why did both the turban and the jubbah turn out as ‘jupe’ in the Anglo-Norman version? In my paper, I will attempt to answer why the three different translators used different translation processes.