“The Walter Scott of Tahiti”: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Ballad Translation

Abstract

This paper examines the unrestrained license that Robert Louis Stevenson used while composing his ballad, “Song of Rahéro: A Legend of Tahiti,” which is a translation of a traditional Tahitian legend. Stevenson attempted to replicate Tahitian rhythms in his translation, thus bringing foreign forms and, in transliteration, foreign words, to a traditionally British genre. Moreover, his formal choices – blending the epic into his ballad – helped to make “Song of Rahéro” a unique work in Stevenson’s Pacific oeuvre, as it depicts characters radically unlike the Tahitians portrayed in texts associated with evolutionary anthropology. Stevenson’s “Song of Rahéro” features confusing transitions and awkward phrasing, but, as Walter Benjamin has argued, even “bad” translations may adapt “meaning” well. An understanding of the form and composition of this under-studied work can shed new light on Stevenson’s conception of, and translation of, the South Pacific. Intriguingly, the paratexts to “Song of Rahéro” undermine the politics of the text that they frame. While “Song of Rahéro” represents strong Tahitian characters, the preface and annotations position Stevenson as one more capable of sophisticated analysis than his sources.