Summary Repetition manifests itself in different ways and at different levels of the text. $e first basic type of repetition involves complete recurrences, in which a particular textual feature repeats in its entirety. $e second type involves partial recurrences, in which the second repetition of the same textual feature includes certain modifications to the first occurrence. In the article, repetitive patterns in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “$e Fall of the House of Usher” and its Slovene translation, “Konec Usherjeve hiše”, are compared. $e author examines different kinds of repetitive patterns. Repetitions are compared at both the micro- and macrostructural levels. As detailed analyses have shown, considerable microstructural translation shifts occur in certain types of repetitive patterns. Since these are not only occasional, sporadic phenomena, but are of a relatively high frequency, they reduce the translated text’s potential for achieving some of the gothic effects. $e macrostructural textual property particularly affected by these shifts is the narrator’s experience as described by the narrative, which suffers a reduction in intensity. Key words: repetition, translation shifts, E. A. Poe, “!e Fall of the House of Usher” Povzetek Fenomen ponavljanja se kaže na različne načine in na različnih ravneh besedila. Prvi osnovni tip ponovitev predstavljajo popolne ponovne pojavitve, pri katerih se določen besedilni element ponovi v celoti. Drugi tip predstavljajo delne ponovne pojavitve, pri katerih je pri drugi ponovni pojavitvi istega besedilnega elementa v primerjavi s prvo mogoče opaziti nekatere spremembe. V prispevku avtor primerja vzorce ponavljanja v izvirni noveli Edgarja Allana Poeja, “$e Fall of the House of Usher”, in njenem slovenskem prevodu, “Konec Usherjeve hiše”. Predstavljene so različne vrste vzorcev ponavljanja. Avtor primerja ponovitve tako na mikro- kot na makrostrukturni ravnini. Kot je pokazala temeljita predhodna analiza, je pri nekaterih vzorcih ponavljanja mogoče opaziti precejšnje mikrostrukturne prevodne premike. Ker ne gre zgolj za osamljene, naključne primere, temveč se ti pojavljajo razmeroma pogosto, pride do krnitve potenciala besedila za doseganje nekaterih gotskih oz. grozljivih učinkov. Makrostrukturna besedilna prvina, pri kateri se še posebno močno kažejo vplivi omenjenih premikov, je pripovedovalčevo doživetje, saj v prevodu opis le-tega učinkuje manj intenzivno. Ključne besede: ponavljanje, prevodni premiki, E. A. Poe, “!e Fall of the House of Usher” ” DOI: 10.4312/elope.3.1-2.257-268 Repetition is a phenomenon that occurs when the text features the same element for the second time. Robert de Beaugrande and Wolfgang Ulrich Dressler (1992) recognize two types of repetition: recurrences and partial recurrences. Recurrences are straightforward repetitions of elements or patterns. $is type of repetition is most typical of spoken language where the speaker as a rule does not have sufficient time to plan and form the message, which is why they often use the same words. Beaugrande and Dressler illustrate this type of repetition with a dialogue in which one of the speakers repeats the words of the other speaker, since he cannot believe the first dared to command him in his own house (Beaugrande and Dressler 1992, 46). Partial recurrences, on the other hand, occur when the same word material is used for the second time, however, with some changes (Onič 2002, 98). A typical example of what is known as polyptoton in classical rhetoric, involves sentences where words belonging to different word-classes can be derived from one root (in the American Declaration of Independence, for example, the verb “suffer”, the adjective “sufferable” and the noun “sufferance” appear close to one another [Beaugrande and Dressler 1992, 48]). What is particularly interesting from our point of view is the pattern called parallelism, which entails reusing identical surface formats but with different content. We also need to mention paraphrase, where the content of the message stays the same but is expressed in different ways. Beaugrande and Dressler illustrate the former with the example from the Declaration that describes the English king’s actions: “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns”, and the latter with the following sentence: “I had never seen a murderer ... the decent symbol which indemnifies the taker of a life” (ibid.). It needs to be stressed that the above categorization only recognizes two basic types of recurrence. Each of the two, of course, comprises a number of subcategories. $us paraphrase alone, besides synonymy, to which the example above belongs, also includes incomplete synonymy, the superordinates, general expressions, and so on (Halliday and Hasan 1995). Recurrences and partial recurrences in “$e Fall of the House of Usher” represent an important narrative feature. Analysis has shown that among the 220 sentences constituting the story, almost one quarter (just over 50 sentences) show obvious signs of repetition. $is number only includes certain types of repetition. $ese include repetitions that occur at the sentence level, and only those repetitions above the sentence level that occur in the immediate textual vicinity of the sentence where a particular pattern occurs for the first time (the figure does not include, for example, lexical repetitions of particular words over the text as a whole). $e figure also does not include repetitions that can be found in the poem “$e Haunted Palace”, since its classical form presupposes elements of repetition at various levels (e.g. meter, rhyme). Repetitions that occur at the lowest, phonological level, for example in alliterations of the “horrid and harsh” or “heavy and horrible” type, are likewise not included. Otherwise, the total number of repetitions on the level of the text as a whole would be even higher. A relatively high number of repetitions in the story was not unexpected, since the phenomenon of repetition is even believed by some critics to be a differentia specifica of the gothic genre. Rebecca E. Martin thus believes repetition to be part and parcel of every gothic narrative, which presents itself both as a formal structural device and as a thematic effect. In her view, gothic narratives attract their readers because of their extraordinary visuality, and it is precisely repetition that guarantees them repeated exposure to spectacular scenes (Martin 1998, 75–6). A detailed comparison of the story “$e Fall of the House of Usher” and its Slovene translation, “Konec Usherjeve hiše”, has not shown major discrepancies between the two texts with regard to recurrences and partial recurrences. $is does not come as a surprise, since repetition from the translator’s point of view in most cases does not represent a difficult problem. $e translator usually only has to recognize the figure of repetition and identify its constituent elements in the original text, and then try to recreate the same pattern(s) in the translation. $e complete recurrences seem particularly unproblematic in this respect. However, repetitive patterns in the original and the translation occasionally do differ considerably. $ese examples are the more interesting because it turns out that these translation shifts affect not only the microstructural, but also the macrostructural level of the text. Repetition turns out to be a formal means that the narrator uses to intensify the narrative and make it more dramatic. It is particularly the following types of repetition patterns in which translation shifts occur: repetitions of syntactic patterns at the sentence level and repetitions at the level of the phrase, in particular prepositional phrases and appositions. $is category includes sentences in which a particular syntactic pattern repeats two or three times. In the majority of examples these patterns are formed by the subject + verb + object string, in which the same pattern is repeated with modifications to one or more of its constituent elements. Except for these partial recurrences, the original text features examples of complete recurrences, where the syntactic pattern and its constituent elements repeat in entirety. Preliminary analyses have shown that these repetitions most often occur in those parts of the text that are characterized by uncertainty, in particular when the narrator tries to rationally explain supernatural phenomena. Repetitions show the narrator’s continuous, almost cyclic attempts at naming or describing these phenomena. A typical example can be found in the introductory part of the narrative, in which the narrator describes his arrival at the House of Usher. According to him, it was already with the “first glimpse of the building” that “a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded his spirit”. He immediately asks himself about the cause of the unusual experience (Poe 1986, 186): What was it – I paused to think – what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? (My emphasis, as in all the subsequent quotes from the original text and/or its Slovene translation.) As can be seen in the underlined part of the text, the narrator sets the question in such a way as to repeat its introductory part twice. A complete recurrence of the syntactic structure “what was it” occurs. $e recurrence is not coincidental here. It is the result of his manner of experiencing the situation. By beginning to develop the question, then pausing for a brief moment (which he explicitly indicates with the words “I paused to think”), and then returning to the initial point of departure, together with the verbatim repetition of the initial part of the question, the narrator signals his uncertainty about and even discomfort with the phenomenon. It is evident the phenomenon is at least partly a mystery to him, which is why this particular textual segment functions somewhat dramatically at the macrostructural level. $e fact that he is dealing with the situation retrospectively adds to this effect, since not even remoteness in time helps him gain deeper insight into what has happened. In Slovene, the effect of the narrator’s self-questioning is similar to the effect of the following wording: “kaj, le kaj me je tako vznemirilo…?”. Considerable shifts among these components appear in the Slovene translation (Poe 1993, 31): Ustavil sem se in pomislil, kaj je to, kar me je ob pogledu na Usherjevo hišo tako potrlo. $e first noticeable change is the loss of the repetition. While in the original the introductory part of the sentence is repeated in its entirety, that does not happen in the translation. $e question “what was it” thus occurs only once. $e other shift regards the question as such. While the question mark in the original makes it evident that the narrator is directly quoting the question he was asking, the translation features a declarative sentence instead, in which the narrator only summarizes the content of the original question. $ese microstructural shifts result in changes on the macrostructural level of the text. While the manner in which the narrator poses the question (through the repetition) in the original points to the intensity of his experience, this effect is somewhat weakened in the translation because of the loss of repetition and through the introduction of the declarative sentence. Another element that contributes to the weaker effect of the translation is the changed narrative technique. In the original text the narrator employs the type of discourse 1 that moves in the direction of free direct thought; the translation, in contrast, exhibits a move in the direction of the narrative report of a thought act. $is shift above all affects the distance between the narrator and the reader and the reader and the narrator-narratee (the object of the narrator’s own narrative). While in the original the distance between the reader and the narrator-narratee, i.e. the person that in the framework of the narrative is situated in front of the House of Usher, thinking about its unusual effects upon him, is small; that is not so in the translation. Since in the translation the narrator inhabits the discourse level, summarizing his own past thoughts, his distance from the reader diminishes, while the reader’s distance from the narrator-narratee increases. $is distinction may at first sight seem unimportant, since both the narrator and the narrator- narratee represent the “same” person. In principle, that is true. However, we must not overlook the fact that this “same” person in the framework of the textual world inhabits two different temporal and spatial positions; that according to narratological conventions the first-person narrator occupies the discourse level, so that his hic et nunc differs from that of the narrator- narratee, i.e. of the object of his own narrative, who finds himself somewhere “in the past” in front of the House of Usher. $is distinction between the two temporal planes is important from the point of view of the story’s dramatic effects. It allows the narrator to establish a dialogic relationship between himself as the narrator and himself as the narrator-narratee. By constantly switching between the discourse level and the story level, and by continuously returning to the thoughts that went through his mind “in the past”, he adds to the intensity of his attempts to deal rationally with the (irrational) phenomena he has witnessed. $is is why the distinction between the temporal and spatial planes needs to be preserved in the translation, together with the form and the character of the thoughts past and present. $is simultaneously clarifies why the elements of the two different discourses have to be preserved in the translation, including the repetitions in the narrator’s discourse, which are particularly characteristic of his experience of the situation at the House of Usher. Another similar example can be found in the introductory part of the narrative. In this sentence, the narrator is describing the letter he has received from Roderick. According to the narrator, Roderick spoke of an acute illness in the letter and of the wish to see the narrator. $e narrator now finds himself thinking what exactly it was in the letter that made him visit Roderick immediately (Poe 1986, 139): It was the manner in which all this, and much more, was said – it was the apparent heart that went with his request – which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons. In this sentence, too, the repetition pattern is easily noticed. As in the previous example, here, too, the recurrence is formed by the repetition of the same syntactic structure (underline). $e difference between them is that the recurrence is partial in this case. $e structure that repeats is part of the cleft sentence. $e narrator uses it to point out two characteristics of the letter, the “manner” and the “apparent heart” of Roderick’s writing. $e second recurrence is separated from the rest of the sentence by the dashes. Punctuation thus reminds the reader that the second repetition is an inserted item, an additional explanation, which the narrator somewhat eagerly appends to his original proposition, as if in an attempt to describe the characteristics of the letter as accurately as possible. Since the two characteristics are described with the same syntactic structure, this, through parallelism, sets both of the singled-out properties of the letter on the same plane, i.e. it shows that the narrator sees each of them as equally important. It is not coincidental that this figure of repetition involves a cleft sentence. $e narrator employs it to lay additional stress on the two characteristics of the letter. He does so by exploiting the basic function of the cleft sentence. As is known, the cleft sentence, which consists of the semantically “empty” pronoun “it”, the copula, and the nominal phrase, serves to emphasize the meaning of the nominal phrase, since end-focus falls on it (Quirk et al. 1992, 1384). In this case, the two properties are certainly at the centre of the narrator’s and, consequently, the reader’s attention. $e narrator’s preoccupation with the two properties of the letter also appears in the additional stress (italics) he lays on the second. In the translation, however, several translation shifts occur with regard to the properties just mentioned (Poe 1993, 32): S takimi in podobnimi besedami je bilo povedano to in še dosti drugega, iz njih je govorilo potrto, tolažbe potrebno srce, zato se nisem smel obotavljati in sem pri priči ustregel temu zelo čudnemu vabilu. Here, the repetition, at least in the form in which it exists the original, disappears in the translation. $e translation likewise does not contain structures that emphasize the two essential properties of Roderick’s letter in the same way as in the original. Moreover, for no obvious reason, the additional emphasis on the word “heart”, indicated by the italics, disappears in the translation. $e translator also omitted the dashes. $ese microstructural shifts make the translation function slightly differently on the macrostructural level than the original. While in the original the narrator’s explanation appears hasty, even dramatic, in the translation it appears much calmer, balanced, as if the decision following the unusual summons were perfectly normal. $is represents a considerable translation shift compared with the original text. In the original, it is clear why the narrator tries so hastily to justify his decision to visit Roderick: he knows that it – in particular in retrospect – was irrational, more so because he himself admits that the summons was “very singular”. Such a “mistake”, of course, is something the narrator now finds difficult to admit – in the original text, so it seems, even more so. Besides the recurrences of entire syntactic structures, the phenomenon of repetition also shows at the phrase level. $e two most commonly involved types of phrases are the prepositional and the nominal phrase, in particular appositions. Repetition has not gone unnoticed by critics. Scott Peeples (2002), for example, points out strings of prepositional phrases of the same type, which, he says, “abound” in the text (Peeples 2002, 182). He thus draws attention to a sentence with a string of four consecutive prepositional phrases beginning with the preposition “of”, and in particular to the following sentence, where six prepositional phrases of the same type follow each other (Poe 1986, 138): I looked upon the scene before me – upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain – upon the bleak walls – upon the vacant eye-like windows – upon a few rank sedges – and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees – with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium – the bitter lapse into everyday life – the hideous dropping off of the veil. In Peeples’ opinion, such repetitions increase the sense of inertia and textual opacity (2002, 182). $ey make the narrative appear as if at a “standstill”. $eir purpose is to call the readers’ attention to the “words as words”. $e latter is especially interesting from the point of view of some contemporary critical (meta-)readings that see Poe’s story as a hall or house of mirrors, suggesting the way that words in this story give the illusion of depth while actually keeping readers focused on the mirror-like surface of words (ibid.). Strings of prepositional phrases (together with dashes) also serve as a formal means of locating the entities described in the phrases at the same level. $is phenomenon is similar to the one mentioned with regard to the repetitions of syntactic structures. In the sentence above, for example, the narrator employs the same type of prepositional phrase to emphasize that each of the items described contributed to his uneasiness to the same extent. At the same time, the string apparently recreates the movement of his gaze. All this makes it essential that the translator pay attention to these features of the discourse in the original. $is is not always easy to do. $e problem the translator faces is that they must not only consider the formal, but also the functional and pragmatic differences between the two language codes. A prepositional phrase in the source code thus cannot always be mechanically translated with a prepositional phrase in the target code. In our case, the narrator faces yet another problem. $e original sentence contains a combination of the verb “look” and the preposition “upon”. $is makes the structure grammatically ambiguous, since it can be interpreted either as a combination of an intransitive verb, followed by a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial, or, alternatively, the two can be seen as one semantic unit, followed by the prepositional object. In our example we can easily establish that it is the former case, since an adverb can be inserted between the verb and the prepositional phrase (otherwise that is not possible [Quirk et al. 1992, 1167]). At this stage, the translation solution appears at hand: the translator need only find an appropriate (intransitive) equivalent for the verb “look”, and then use a string of prepositional phrases of the same type to describe the situation analogously with the original. In this way, the repetitive pattern could be easily retained. It turns out, however, that this is only one possible solution. $e verb “look” can also be translated with a transitive verb. In this case the items from the prepositional phrases find themselves in the position of the direct object, which automatically means that the formal repetitive pattern of the prepositions is lost. $is is exactly the solution that Jože Udovič chose in his translation (Poe 1993, 31): Gledal sem pred seboj tisti kraj – samotno hišo in puščobno pokrajino okoli nje, mrzle zidove, votla okna, podobna očesnim duplinam, nekaj stebel bičja, nekaj belih debel posušenih dreves, – gledal sem vse to s tako potrto dušo, da tega ne morem primerjati nobenemu drugemu človeškemu občutku kakor tisti še megleni, vračajoči se zavesti, ko se človek prebuja iz opijske pijanosti, grenkemu pogrezanju v vsakdanje življenje, ko se prijetna tančica opoja žalostno gubi. Several shifts can be noticed in the translation. $e obvious one is the loss of the repetitive pattern formed by the prepositional phrases in the original. Just as evident is the difference in the use of the dash; while eight of these appear in the original, the translator used only two. $e loss of the repetitive pattern is connected with the introduction of the transitive verb. While the intransitive verb in the original allows the narrator to string together several prepositional phrases of the same type, the translator chose a different solution. Building on the transitive verb “gledati”, the narrator describes the phenomena in the world he is observing with the help of nominal phrases. $is, of course, automatically deprives him of the possibility of preserving the original repetition paradigm in the translation. At the same time, however, the translator paid at least some attention to the notion of repetition. He did so by repeating the verbal combination “gledal sem”. $e latter thus functions as partial compensation for the loss. A much less understandable interference with the original, however, occurs with the use of the dash. $ese are dropped in the translation and are replaced by commas. It seems there exists no particular reason for such a decision. In contrast, Poe used dashes because they mark longer pauses in the narrative current than do commas. $is allows him to recreate even more effectively the effect of an intermittent, apparently somewhat nervous narrative, so as to better emphasise the depth and intensity of the experience. For this reason, the narrator in the original, when compared with the “same” narrator in the translation, appears to perceive the scene he encounters, less dramatically. Some of the possible deficiencies of the translation have been noted by the critics. Raša Šuklje (1961), for example, who wrote one of the first reviews of Udovič’s translations, paid special attention to his use of the dash. As she pointed out correctly, “the secret of a style lies not in counting full-stops and commas; however, it is not insignificant that Poe (…) in the first paragraph of ‘Usherjeva hiša’ used […] no fewer than fourteen [dashes], while the translator got along with two altogether” (Šuklje 1961, 669). Of even more interest from our point of view is her comment on the effect of the microstructural shifts on the macrostructural level of the text. Among other things, she writes that the omission of the dashes contributes to the loss of (ibid.): the nervous narrative style, which Poe uses to achieve the effect of an impromptu, intermittent narrative, of improvisation. […] $is way, what in Poe is palpably rhythmic, musical and spontaneous, received a much more definite, incomparably massive form in Slovene; a quick succession of ideas thus turned into a well-conceived programme. At the level of the phrase, appositions are another category where a number of translation shifts can be noticed. $ese are particularly interesting, since the inner elements of repetition in some cases appear on two different planes at the same time, semantic and lexical. $is is related to the basic properties of appositions. By definition, appositions represent combinations of two co-referential nominal phrases that stand side by side. Since they both have the same referent (semantically), repetition occurs with the double emergence of the same item. At the same time, elements of repetition can also occur simultaneously at the lexical level. $at happens when the same lexical item occurs at the head of each phrase, and the two only have different modifiers. In the original text, strings of two, three, four or even more nominal phrases in apposition are used. $e narrator most often has recourse to these when he has difficulty naming or describing a particular phenomenon; appositions allow him to at least try to describe the item as precisely as possible. However, significant discrepancies between the translation and the original occur occasionally. $e first example of the kind is the sentence in which the narrator describes his first meeting with Roderick. He reports that Roderick was a victim of phobophobia, fear of fear itself. According to Roderick’s vague explanations, it was the unusual influence of the house that contributed to the fear (Poe 1986, 144): He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth – in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here to be re- stated – an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion, had, by ding of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit – an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence. $e underlining reveals three appositions in the sentence: the first two have the noun “influence” at their head, and the third, “effect”. Elements of repetition thus occur at both the semantic and the lexical level. $e phrases are divided by dashes. $e appositions constitute the part of the text in which the narrator is describing the unusual influence to which Roderick has supposedly been exposed. $e narrator uses this part of the sentence to describe the details of the influence as precisely as possible. Each nominal phrase describes one particular feature of this influence. Since they all refer practically to the same phenomenon, this indicates the narrator’s hyper- concentration, and the intensity of his effort to describe it appropriately. $e dashes make the situation even more dramatic. $ey mark short breaks in the narrator’s stream of thoughts, they even make it into a kind of staccato. $e effect is further intensified with the repetition of the same word in the first two appositions. Several translation shifts can be detected in this part of the target text (Poe 1993, 38): Bil je v oblasti nekakih praznovernih predstav o hiši, ki je živel v nji in ki si že več let ni upal iz nje, to pa zaradi nekega vpliva, ki mi je njegovo namišljeno moč orisal s pretemnimi besedami, da bi jih lahko tu ponovil. Rekel je: nekatere posebnosti v obliki in gradivu domačega dvorca so zaradi njegove dolge bolezni dobile tako moč nad njegovim duhom, da je snovna narava sivih zidov in stolpov in pa motnega ribnika, ki so se gledali v njem, naposled vplivala na njegovo duhovno naravo. $e first evident change is the loss of the appositions. $e translator did preserve the general contents of the original text; however, since the formal structure of the original sentence has been changed, that makes the target text function slightly differently from the original. While the narrator uses exactly the appositions and the staccato to make the original text function more dramatically on the macrostructural level, this effect gets weakened in the translation. $e changes in the syntactic relations between the individual nominal phrases are particularly noticeable. While the narrator uses the appositions in the original to keep each of the nominal phrases at the same syntactic level, not hierarchising them, that changes in the translation. $e second and the third nominal phrase (“an influence which some peculiarities…” and “an effect which the physique…”), which are in apposition in the original, i.e. syntactically at the same level, suddenly find themselves in a causal-consecutive relation, in which the narrator explains directly that some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion obtained such power over his spirit, that the physique of the gray walls changed the morale of his spirit (“nekatere posebnosti v obliki in gradivu ... dobile tako moč nad njegovim duhom, da je snovna narava sivih zidov in stolpov ... naposled vplivala na njegovo duhovno naravo”). $is represents a considerable translation shift. In the original text the narrator is not convinced about the correctness of his speculations about the reasons for Roderick’s irrational fears. $is is also why he makes no additional comment on their (inter)relationships. Since this is exactly what the “same” narrator does in the translation, a translation shift has occurred with regard to his perception of the situation, because the translation suggests the narrator is capable of rationally explaining the background and interrelationship of the unusual events. $us these microstructural shifts not only change the translation formally, but also modify its macrostructural meaning potential by mediating for the reader a slightly different perception of the situation by the narrator. $e introductory part of the narrative includes yet another similar example. $is time, the narrator is describing Roderick’s letter, explaining why he decided to visit him immediately (Poe 1986, 139). A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country – a letter from him – which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no other than a personal reply. Repetition involves the nominal phrases “a letter” and “a letter from him”, since both have the same lexeme at their head. Since their referent is the same, too, the phrases form an apposition. $e apposition, however, is to some extent atypical, as the phrases do not follow each other, but are divided by the predicate. $is gap is related to the effect the narrative is supposed to achieve at this point. $e narrator begins the sentence by developing a proposition about the letter, and he actually develops it to some extent (“a letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country”). However, the narrative is then suddenly interrupted, and the narrator once more returns to the thematic point of departure – the letter. At that point, separated from the rest of the sentence by the dashes, he then adds additional information about the letter, explaining and emphasizing at the same time that the letter had come from Roderick. $e fact that he interrupts the stream of his own narration in order to add this particular piece of information shows that the narrator finds it important. $e narrator’s eagerness becomes easier to understand if we think that the letter itself was directly “responsible” for the narrator’s departure for the House of Usher and the series of unusual incidents. A small microstructural feature thus once more plays an important role at the macrostructural level of the text. In the translation, however, the repetitive pattern undergoes considerable change (Poe 1993, 32): Pred kratkim pa me je v nekem oddaljenem kraju našlo pismo, in bilo je napisano s tako čudno nezadržanostjo, da sem nanj lahko odgovoril samo osebno. $e translation shift occurs with the nominal phrase “pismo”. $e translator elided the second instance of the noun “letter”, which in the original functions as an apposition to the first. $e word letter (“pismo”), with the exception of pronominal structures, is mentioned only once. Consequently, punctuation changes, too, since both dashes are omitted. $ese microstructural shifts result in several changes on the text’s macrostructural level. While the insertion in the original, which the narrator uses to add information about the letter, emphasizes the fact that the letter came from Roderick, that does not happen in the translation. Instead, the narrator’s wording suggests he ascribes much less importance to the fact that the letter came from Roderick. $e change in punctuation, by which the effect of an impromptu insertion disappears, also makes the sentence sound less dramatic. Consequently, the narrator in the translation, compared to his counterpart in the original text, appears to perceive the entire incident more calmly, as if he were completely reconciled to the whole experience as such. We have examined some examples of translation shifts that occur in repetitive patterns in the Slovene translation of E. A. Poe’s short story “$e Fall of the House of Usher”. $e study focused on different types of repetition: repetitions of syntactic patterns at the sentence level and repetitions at the phrase level, in particular with regard to prepositional phrases and appositions. As the analysis of individual examples has shown, microstructural shifts in repetitive patterns oftentimes considerably alter the way the translated text functions at the macrostructural level, compared to the original text. $e analysis, above all, revealed repetitive patterns at different levels to be more than a mere formal property of the original text; rather, repetitions play an important role with regard to some of the story’s effects: intensity, emphasis, focalization, dramatic effect, tension, and the like. Since the translator paid insufficient attention to repetitive patterns, some of these have disappeared in the translation, which weakens some of the effects mentioned previously.