Is translating poems easy?

by Target Language Translation Services

- November 26 2021

Literary works are, perhaps, always more difficult for a translation professional to work on than other types of text because. Literary works have specific values called the aesthetic and expressive values. The aesthetic function of the work shall highlight the beauty of the words, figurative language, metaphors and so on. While the expressive functions shall put forwards the writer's thought or process of thought, emotion and so on. And the translator should try, at his best, to transfer these specific values into the target language. As one genre of literature, poetry has something special compared to the others. In a poem, the beauty is not only achieved with the choice of words and figurative language like in novels and short stories, but also with the creation of rhythm, and rhyme scheme, meter, and specific expressions and structures that may not conform to the ones of the daily language. In short, the translation of poetry needs 'something more' than translating other genres of literature.

Main challenges in translating poems

Linguistic issues

There might be some issues about how to choose the appropriate words to be used when translating certain words from one language to another. In some situations, some words simply don’t have literal translation in another language. There are even some languages in which one short word in English is equivalent to 3 or more words in another language. It could be the other way around. An entire verse in an English poem could be just a single word in another language. The differences in the choice of words not only make it difficult for the poem to be translated, it could also destroy the other elements in a poem.

Literal versus figurative translation

Poems contain deeper meanings. There are words used as symbolisms or metaphors only. The underlying thought behind those words is what makes the entire poem beautiful. Thus, translators now have the dilemma of whether or not they are to translate the verse literally and make everything sound or awkward, or translate the figurative meaning and limit the readers’ opportunity to be more critical in reading the verses.

Socio-cultural issues

There are also some words in a poem that may not sound good when translated to another language. The words could also be very offensive or inappropriate. They might be seen as vulgar even if in the original language, the word used is just right. Thus, the translator now has to choose the more appropriate word to use or find a more culturally sensitive equivalent of the word used in the original text.

Sound

This is another element of poetry that makes it beautiful and engaging. Because of these rhyming words or attractive sounds, readers are glued to the poem. Sadly, there might be no word in another language that could retain these sounds. The translation of the words might have extremely different sounds that don’t make sense when forced to sound alike.

Methods of translating poems

Here we present in brief the eight-stage procedure to translate a poem. In general, there are a lot of methods in translating a text, but not all of them are appropriate to use in translating a poem. Andre Lafevere noted seven methods adopted by English translators in translating Catullus's poems: phonemic translation, literal translation, metrical translation, verse-to-prose translation, rhymed translation, free verse translation, and interpretation.

These methods reemphasize the opinion which was put forward by Cluysenar that the weaknesses of the poetry translation methods are due to the emphasis given to one or some of the poetic components in the process of translating. The literal, metrical, and rhymed translation seem to emphasize the "form" or "poetic structure" of the poem; while the rest emphasize on the transferring of the precise meaning into the target language. It seems no methods described above will cater the poetry translators' needs appropriately.

According to Suryawinata, among several translation methods proposed by experts the communicative and semantic translation are worth noting. The two are even said to be the only methods that fulfill the two main aims of translation: accuracy and economy.

The term communicative and semantic translation themselves are proposed by Newmark. Communicative translation attempts to render the exact meaning of the original in such a way that the readers may not find difficulties in understanding the message of the translated text. The semantic translation, on the other hand, attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original by taking more account of the aesthetic values and expressive component of the original poem.

Suryawinata stated that a poetry translator, in fact, frequently functions as the mediator of the communication between the poet and the reader. Therefore, the translator should take the readership into account. In short, he should try to make the content and the beauty of the original poem ready for readership.

Conclusion

In short, there are a lot of things to be considered when translating poems. They might just be a few lines or stanzas, but it could take an even longer time for poems to be translated.

If you are interested in having a poem translated, get in touch for more information.

This article is reprinted from Day Translations and Translation Directory.

If there is a copyright, please inform us in time, we will delete it right the first time.