Some notes on translating poetry This is a subject for an entire book, and entire books have been devoted to it, but in the interest of keeping this guide to manageable lengths I'll try to give here the executive summary. And asa translator primarily of fiction, I must defer to more expert minds in the poetry genre. More extensive hints can be found in many sources. including the works mentioned in the Bibliography. Translating poetry well is so difficult as to be called impossible by most experts; the late John Ciardi referred to translation as ‘the art of failure And yet we go on trying, sometimes with remarkably reduced degrees of non-success. If literary translation itself is a leap of faith, poetic translation puts that faith to the severest of all tests. As one who has seldom had the temerity to venture inte the poetic arena, I do not conceal my admiration for the brave men and women who specialize in bringing into English the loftiest thoughts expressed im languages other than ow own. Poetry has been defined in many ways: by the Random House Unabridged Dictionary as ‘the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts’; as ‘memorable speech’; as ‘what is lost im translation’ (Robert Frost's famous put-down of our art). Whatever the definition, the soul of poetry lies in the use of language in a figurative, metaphorical mode of expression that tran- seends traditional semantic limitations of language. The embracing of ambiguity and polysemy is one of the hallmarks of literature, and it is here. more than any problem: of scansion or rhyme, that the challenge of tran:- lating poetry manifests itself in the most unmistakable fashion. Clement Wood, editor of The Complete Riyming Dictionary, haz stated flatly, "Poetry carmot be translated; it can only be recreated in the new language.’ He gives as illustration two lines from Keats's ‘Ode to 2 Nightingale’ Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. It is hard to argue with his contention: ‘These two lines cannot be said differently in English without wrecking the magic’ A trot might read ‘Enchanted supernatural windows, unclosing on the bubble: / Of dangerous oceans, in unreal romantic countries dejected.’ The result, says a798, Liverary manciation Wood, is that ‘There is no poetry here now. Translate it with absolute fidelity into another language, and the poetry is dead. It must be recreated by-a post of like emotional power in the other language, if itis to survive as poetry.’ Small wonder, then, that before attempting translation of poetry a proper attitude of humility is called for. An issue that must be considered before beginning to translate poetry is: what does the target audience regard as a ‘poem’? Must it be rhymed? What memical pattern best conveys the feel of the original and can an English perceptual equivalent be found? English-speaking readers usually consider iambic pentameter as the most ‘poetic’ versification (see Shake- speare, smong others), bur unrhymed iambic pentameter, known as blank verse, is an acceptable altemative for many. The trend these days is to unrhymed but metric verse in various metrical schemes. Go with whatever works, provided that the final product stands as an English-language poem in its own right. Always, though, bear in mind this admonition by Jorge Islesias: ‘A translator isn't more important than the poem he's trans- lating.’ To rhyme or not to rhyme? Like the rest of this guide, the following discussion assumes translation into English, which immediately poses special difficulties. English is a notoriously rhyme-poor language, hi Romance languages ir's almost a challenge not to rhyme, and it's no exazgeration to say that in Romance the poet's problem is not one of finding « rhyme but rather of avoiding hack- ueyed rhymes. For all its versatility and inventiveness, English boasts few rhymes for some of the most crucial words around which much of human experience, and therefore poetry, revolves. Love - four rhymes, one of which shove) is a mon-starter. Children. Happiness. Friendship. Have. Monality. Woman. True, we encounter the occasional lucky bappenstance— death Breath, youthviruth, ijfe‘sirife - but these can quickly wear out their welcome. In English there are few such fortunate coincidences of thyme as the Sparush padremadre (father/mother), the Italian amare/odiare (to love/to hate), the French dmeidame (soul/lady), the Pormguese corte’morte (fate/desth). To cite only a few examples, the English verbs hope, sin, decire, dill, sing. find, save, help, and ancgress all rhyme in several Romance languages, in both the infinitive and in most of their conjugated forms. So from the outset the poetic translator into English is working at a serious disadvantage In all faimess, my view of English ar rhyme-poor is not imiversal. No less a figure than Norman F. Shapiro, a masterly practitioner whoSome notes on translating poetry 99 produces award-winning metrical and rhymed translations of French poetry, expressed an opposing outlook im a letter to Source (Summer/Fall 2000): True, the Romance languages have a certain natural advantage, butit is more than compensated by English’s vast lexicon, considerably larger than that of its rivals... English has a number of rhyme-potentials that other common Western languages enjoy to a lesser desree, if at all. One of them is the easy rhymability of plural nouns ... with verb forms... For example, qpplesidapples. sexexihexes, fascts/act.. Italian and Portu- guese are poor relations in this regard, and Spanish, poorer still... [T]he aspiring translator of poetry should not be put off from attempting formal renderings by the too-facile claim that English is rhyme-deprived. Granted, it's often a challenge. But that's where the feeling of accom- plishment, and the fim of it, come in. Even in rhyme-friendly Spanish the best writers may rankle at the tyranny of thyme. The Spanish Golden Age poet Francisco Quevedo (2580-1645) voiced his sentiments thus: ‘Pues porque en um someto dije que una senora era absoluta, y siendo mas bonesta que Lucrecia, por dar fin al cuarteto la hice puta. (Because in a sormet / I said a lady was absolute, | and mote honest than Lucretia, / to end the quatrain I made her a whore.) Just how critical is rhyme to poetry? Time was, the unquestioned rule was ‘iranslate prose as prose, verse as verse.’ To the best ofmy knowledge, recently no one has seriously proposed rendering a prose work into verse, but over the centuries many have felt that only a translation in verse can do justice toa poetic work. It should be noted that ‘verse’ is not synonymous with rhyme; classical Greek and Roman poewy was warhymed, just as ‘verses’ in the Bible did not rhyme in their original Hebrew and Greek Must one be a poet to do poetic translation? No, though I am convinced that the translator must possess a poetic sensitivity. even if he or she has never written a line of original poetry. A poetic sensitivity encompasses. but is not limited to, am appreciation for nuance, sonority, metaphor and simile, allusion; the ability 10 read between and above the lines; flexibility: and ultimately, humility. In fine (2 crib fom E.A. Robinson's ‘Richard Cory’; notice the poet didn't say ‘in short), anyone who can't read an English-language poem with feeling and more than surface comprehen- sion is an imlikely candidate for poetic translation.