Unstressed » translations http://linebreak.org/blog A weblog from the editors of Linebreak Sun, 08 May 2011 07:06:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Opposite Side of the Street Parking http://linebreak.org/blog/2009/02/04/opposite-side-of-the-street-parking/ http://linebreak.org/blog/2009/02/04/opposite-side-of-the-street-parking/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:07:38 +0000 Sarah Sloat http://linebreak.org/blog/?p=642 When I buy a poetry book from a non-English poet, I usually prefer those with the original language on the facing page. This is pretty standard for German and the Romantic languages. It’s almost difficult to find a book of Pablo Neruda, for example, that doesn’t include the Spanish. Although I never learned Spanish, I can decipher some of it via basic Italian and French. Plus growing up in America you couldn’t really avoid acquiring some Spanish, even in deepest New Jersey.

I enjoy scanning the Spanish when reading Neruda or Lorca or whomever. My eyes sometimes jump to the opposite page just to check that this marvelousness is actually happening, as if I could find out how to do it!

If you’re interested in languages, one fun way to waste money is to buy different translations of the same poetry. I have a couple English translations of Wislawa Szymborska, and it’s a very uneven business. In one poem — Contribution to Statistics — the translator resorts to a baseball metaphor, driving me insane. I doubt Szymborska ever used a baseball metaphor. Or maybe she did. Since I don’t understand a word of Polish, how can I know? Since none of the translations I have include the Polish, I can’t set out to try.

At some point, having the original language alongside the translation loses its usefulness for everyone but a handful of readers. I recently got Lidija Dimkovska’s terrific “Do Not Awaken Them with Hammers.” Although only about a million and half people actually speak Macedonian, the publisher provides the original version of the poem. I don’t read the language, but I still looked through the poems for anything recognizable. I can only report back that they use Pantene shampoo in Macedonia.

]]> http://linebreak.org/blog/2009/02/04/opposite-side-of-the-street-parking/feed/ 0 Brock translates Pinocchio http://linebreak.org/blog/2008/10/31/brock-translates-pinocchio/ http://linebreak.org/blog/2008/10/31/brock-translates-pinocchio/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:18:52 +0000 Johnathon Williams http://linebreak.org/blog/2008/10/31/brock-translates-pinocchio/ Poet/translator Geoff Brock (who read D.A. Powell’s poem for Linebreak) has a new translation of Pinocchio coming out from NYRB Classics. NYRB’s book designs are always beautiful, so this one is a definite preorder.

Disclosure: Brock is also my MFA thesis advisor.

(Link via Derek’s Facebook account.)

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