Ithaca’s Latin-rooted Syntagmata in Macedonian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Russian Translations of 'Ulysses': A Comparative Study

Abstract

In a letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver (Nov. 25, 1921), Joyce described Ithaca as the “ugly duckling” of Ulysses explaining that it was “therefore, [his] favourite” (JJ 500). Drawing on these dark “dry rock pages” (Letters I 173), yet frighteningly human, the article explores the implications of a domesticated translation as an endangering force for retiring from the transmission of the original intention of the author when translating an unusual literary work such as Ulysses. By giving examples of my own struggles with the Macedonian translation of Ulysses (2013), this article also explores comparatively the decisions made by the translators of the Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian and Russian editions of Ulysses.