ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses retranslation from a metaphorical vantage point as the concepts of translation and retranslation are applied to musical transmission. The work in question is a collection of notations from 17th-century Istanbul, which marks an isolated step in the history of the transition of traditionally orally transmitted Ottoman music into writing. It is a unique source, which invites reflections on the mediation of music across cultures and times, changing contexts, and changing demands. MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Turc 292 was compiled roughly between 1630 and 1675 by ʿAlī Ufuḳī, a Polish-born Ottoman court musician and interpreter. This bicultural, bimusical individual translated Ottoman music from its source language orality to the target language written music. Here, this step of textualization that represents a frozen moment in the century-old stream of oral tradition is treated as the first translation. The present author is contemplating her role in the process of mediating the source to a modern scholarly and performing audience in a critical edition, likening this role to that of a retranslator.
