On jazz writing and translating Boris Vian

If Vian’s writing has been described as ‘jazzy’ – and one appropriate translation strategy is to ‘jazz it up’ – how might we conceive of a ‘jazzy’ approach to translation? Using Stanley Chapman’s translation of Vian’s L’Ecume des jours – Froth on a Daydream – this paper will explore that question through analysis of a number of challenges that Vian’s ‘jazz writing’ (as a case study) poses to the translator. Finally, in the sense that the translator is – like a jazz musician – ‘elaborating or playing palimpsestically over that which is already composed’ (Michael Jarrett), what can ‘jazz translation’ tell us about the translator as creator, as original artist in their own right?