The Tremors of Translation
An Edition of Voltaire's Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (1756)

Clive Scott

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Transcript 36

Legenda

15 May 2025  •  186pp

ISBN: 978-1-839543-91-3 (hardback)  •  RRP £95, $120, €120

ISBN: 978-1-839543-92-0 (paperback, forthcoming)

ISBN: 978-1-839543-93-7 (JSTOR ebook)

EnlightenmentFrenchPoetryTranslation

We look to a critical edition of a text to establish its textual being, to detail the historical context of its formation and to provide a comprehensive knowledge of its apparent motivations. But what kind of edition of a text do we need if the reader is to be expressly encouraged to translate it? The Tremors of Translation sets out to be just such a 'translational' edition of Voltaire's Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (1756): it focuses its approach on the interrogative, on the exploratory, on the pursuit of new expressive possibilities; it seeks, if anything, to disestablish the text, to project alternative contexts of formation and to call standard knowledge of the text into question.

Literary translation makes room for different kinds of creative participation in a text, different ways in which the text can reinvent its literary life and engage with its own expressivity. Clive Scott's edition of Voltaire's Lisbon poem seeks to empower the reader as translator by tirelessly awakening the text's latencies and ambiguities and 'invisible'.

Clive Scott is Professor Emeritus of European Literature at the University of East Anglia, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Reviews:

  • ‘Clive Scott’s book is a remarkable celebration of the energies of creative language, and an important continuing contribution to the field of translation studies. It is also an exciting invitation to reread and reassess Voltaire’s poetry.’ — Nicholas Cronk, Voltaire Foundation 1 August 2025
  • ‘For scholars of literature and translation, rich reflections are served up, alongside intensely brilliant close poetic analysis... The most engaging element of this book remains Scott’s own conversational tone, with which he steers readers through a vast spread of erudite discussion, tossing about ideas, doodling and brainstorming to disrupt, provoke, shake, and deconstruct expectations.’ — Siofre Pierse, Modern Language Review 121.2, 2026, 276-77 (full text online)

Bibliography entry:

Scott, Clive, The Tremors of Translation: An Edition of Voltaire's Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (1756), Transcript, 36 (Legenda, 2025)

First footnote reference: 35 Clive Scott, The Tremors of Translation: An Edition of Voltaire's Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (1756), Transcript, 36 (Legenda, 2025), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Scott, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Scott, Clive. 2025. The Tremors of Translation: An Edition of Voltaire's Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (1756), Transcript, 36 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Scott 2025: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Scott 2025: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Tremors-Translation
www.mhra.org.uk/publications/t-36