I guess that the "not-for-everybody" thing also applies for translating poetry, if such a thing is possible (Borges said it wasn't).
Cheers.
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humbird United States Local time: 14:47 Member (2004) English to Japanese + ...
Like any other translations ........
Nov 23, 2009
First, you must be a linguist, then a language scientist, and artist of bilingualism, not necessarily in this order of importance, before and foremost a poet.:)
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Marlene Blanshay Canada Local time: 17:47 Member (2009) French to English + ...
and there's so much to take into account...
Nov 23, 2009
i remember reading a translation of Phaedre (back in university for a class in drama)...it was a fine translation but the original french had these beautiful rhyming couplets which the english just couldn't quite replicate... they were still rhyming couplets but there's still something lost. No, i think i'll just stick to reading poetry and translating the stuff I translate....
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Wordeffect France Local time: 23:47 Member (2009) French to English + ...
Where angels fear to tread...
Nov 23, 2009
Just because it's impossible, doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. Poetry is always best read in the original, but I'm sure many of us would say we appreciate haiku, even though we don't read Japanese. I take my hat off to anyone who can come up with such a condensed form in another language and make it (appear to) work!
For any poem there will always be room for many translations, some more literal and explanatory, some more poetic paraphrases. I am a poet and these days I write as much in French as in English. But I find even my own poems almost impossible to translate; a couple I've almost given up on after 5 years! Some I construct as parallel texts, throwing ideas between the 2 languages until I find imagery, sonorities, rhythms that work in both. Whatever the end result, it's the process and what I learn along the way that is important, like a martial art of the intellect. I really feel the "burn" in the little grey cells.
Doing this as a paid project is another matter, but I see it as rather like trying to capture the essence of a face in a painted portrait, and most famous people (or places) have been painted many times. No one version can claim to match the original, but any may shed some interesting light on the subject. It's the search for understanding that counts. Passion helps.
In reaching for the stars we might occasionally succeed in catching the moon. So sharpen your pencils, keep translating - and reading and writing - those poems!
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Henry Schroeder United States Local time: 17:47 Member (2002) Russian to English + ...
Poetry and success are absurd in the same sentence...
Nov 23, 2009
There is no such thing as being a "successful" translator or writer of poetry or literature. Success is for business, the attainment of material objectives! In writing and the translation of writing there is never success!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ildiko Santana United States Local time: 14:47 Member (2002) English to Hungarian + ...
to translate poetry WELL...
Mar 20, 2010
humbird wrote:
First, you must be a linguist, then a language scientist, and artist of bilingualism, not necessarily in this order of importance, before and foremost a poet.:)
Exactly. Anybody can translate poetry and sell it, IF he/she is a good salesperson. But to create *quality* translation of poems, one would need ALL of what Humbird listed, although probably in reverse order... : ) I believe that in all art forms talent is the number one ingredient, knowledge is secondary. The latter can be gained over time and through hard work, while you have to be born with that *special gift* that is not attainable from the outside world.
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