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My Recommendations
“Archaic Torso of Apollo,” by Rainer
Maria Rilke, translated from the
German by Stephen Mitchell.
Rilke’s original sonnet is densely layered
and very difficult to render in English
without radically changing one or
more of the poem’s primary images.
For example, a phrase like “wherein
the eye-apples ripen” simply refers
to a dilating pupil. But its closest colloquial
match in English might call to
mind “the apple of my eye” which, of
course, is trite and schmaltzy. Mitchell
foregoes the apple altogether and
gives us “eyes like ripening fruit.”
“I, too, Sing America” by Langston
Hughes, translated from the English
into Spanish by Fernández de Castro.
De Castro subtly, but radically,
challenges Hughes’ original intention.
As literary scholar Vera Kutzinsky
points out, simply by adding an
accent—changing “America” to
“América,”—de Castro prevents us
from associating America with the
United States alone. While Hughes’
poem already challenges Walt Whitman’s
earlier poem, “I Hear America
Singing,” with an appeal to include
African Americans, de Castro’s translation
of Hughes extends that effort
even further to include all within “the
Americas.”
I am indebted to Eastern European
poetry of the second half of the 20th
century because reading the translated
work of Tomaž Šalamun, Czesław
Miłosz, or Wisław Szymborska, for
example, continues to broaden my
understanding of U.S. poetry of the
same period. It wasn’t until I began
exploring the Eastern European poets
that I was able to come back to the
poetry I had been reading my whole
life with new eyes.
translations as a way to
massage my brain out of
those ruts where one idea
predictably leads to another.
Translating helps me in this
very practical sense. It is the
mental yoga that clears the
mind and makes way for my
own creativity.
In his essay, “A Few Don’ts,”
Ezra Pound wrote, “Let the
[novice poet] fill his mind
with the finest cadences he
can discover, preferably in a
foreign language so that the
meaning of the words may
be less likely to divert his
attention.” Pound was not
talking about translation here.
He was talking about a poet’s
apprenticeship in the art, but
his advice has implications for
translators. He recommended
poets listen deeply to poems
written in languages they may
not comprehend, because
that way it is easier to study
the musical effects of a
composition without being
distracted by the poem’s
meaning or content.
*
*
Translating the meanings of
words is the least difficult
task a poetry translator faces;
it’s the proverbial tip of the
iceberg. The unique musicality
each poet has—let’s call it
style—is just as, if not more,
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National Endowment for the Arts