Poetry Readings

    I think Pulvers summed up poetry translation pretty well when he said that no matter what, the translation has to be "a poem in its own right". I think that's a vital part of translation that isn't so widely understood, the fact that no matter what, the translation is still a separate work. But then again, it's sort of both. The translation is its own but it also works in tandem with the voice and intent of the original text. A thought crossed my mind when he spoke on Miyazawa. The job of a translator is essentially that of an actor playing several different roles. In order to produce a faithful translation, they need to put themselves in the shoes of the author (much like in the case of Miyazawa), but at the same time produce that work in such a way that is still comprehensible to the target audience. This follows the overarching theme of translation being a balancing act that we've talked about quite a bit so far in class. 

    I heavily agree with Beichman on the weight of punctuation in translation, but especially poetry. Due to the fact that poems are traditionally shorter literary works, the impact of punctuation is amplified, and same goes for word choice. The breakdown of Keene's translation of the Kojiki made me realize how, in order to translate poetry, you have to be both a skilled translator and a poet. That is to say, you can't simply translate a poem like you would a novel and expect the effect to be the same. You need to also be skilled in producing poetry in order to RE-produce someone else's. This also ties back into what Pulvers said about poetry needing to be somewhat independent of its source in order to be more faithful to it.

Madison