Translating Poetry is Possible

 The question "is translating poetry possible," is an infantile way of asking the question for the sake of asking for the reader's attention. Better yet is the question "is translation itself possible?" My answer is yes, but never perfectly. Additionally, the more creative, poetic, or artistic the translated text is, the more "liberties" must be taken (measured by strict prose vs. metaphor usage).

Languages are like games, and meaning is woven between each word not strictly, but purely in relation to each other word. If you asked me to replicate a building with its blueprint but different material and tools than what was said to have been used in the original, I can perhaps build you a house that provides a feel similar and hopefully indistinguishable from the emotion evoked by the original.

It is for this reason why in translation, less is more. Use less words and you may find that more people can derive similar meaning. If you instead attempt to "add context," you run the risk of striking at the wrong hyper-specific meaning which only may have worked for you. The game is played by us all but we all imagine the rules in our own unique way.