Like Lee S. Kohman, I especially liked the Adonis poem! This summer, I've gotten into the habit of copying out poems in the original language side-by-side with the translated poem, in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese languages specifically. I was struck by how idiosyncratic the translation of the Juan Gelman poem (in Spanish; 'Preguntas') by Hardie St. Martin is. St. Martin translates it as a single prose paragraph without punctuation or capitalization whereas the original is broken into lines of verse using commas here and there and ending in a period. Also, the first letter of the opening line is capitalized. St. Martin chose to render Gelman's repeated 'y abarcarte, abarcarte' as 'encompass finish you off' and St. Martin's 'mingle with your bones' is in the original 'mezclarme en tus cabellos' (literally translated: 'infiltrate myself in your hair'). These are not criticisms but I'd love to know how St. Martin came to make her choices.
Rachel Richardson's turn is spectacular. With grace, she reminds the reader that amid all the new-tech modernity, age-old concerns of death and loss and grief will always be significant.
I particularly enjoyed being introduced to the Adonis and Rachel Richardson poems. Thanks for this compilation!
Like Lee S. Kohman, I especially liked the Adonis poem! This summer, I've gotten into the habit of copying out poems in the original language side-by-side with the translated poem, in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese languages specifically. I was struck by how idiosyncratic the translation of the Juan Gelman poem (in Spanish; 'Preguntas') by Hardie St. Martin is. St. Martin translates it as a single prose paragraph without punctuation or capitalization whereas the original is broken into lines of verse using commas here and there and ending in a period. Also, the first letter of the opening line is capitalized. St. Martin chose to render Gelman's repeated 'y abarcarte, abarcarte' as 'encompass finish you off' and St. Martin's 'mingle with your bones' is in the original 'mezclarme en tus cabellos' (literally translated: 'infiltrate myself in your hair'). These are not criticisms but I'd love to know how St. Martin came to make her choices.
Oops! for assuming that Hardie St. Martin is a woman
Rachel Richardson's turn is spectacular. With grace, she reminds the reader that amid all the new-tech modernity, age-old concerns of death and loss and grief will always be significant.
Asking why is met with a sigh, questions posed like why does everything ____? there being no true answer to that final goodbye.
sorry for assuming Adonis was from Greek mythology. He's only 93! Kudos to (all) the translators.