Reminds me of Ted Berrigan's purported translation of Giuseppe Ungaretti's
'untranslatable' "Mattina"
M'illumino
d'immenso
Which Berrigan brought perfectly home as "Morning"
Ripped out of my mind
again
(or something close to it)...
John
On Wed, 6 Dec 2000, Mark Weiss wrote:
> Translating the work of another poet requires the submission of one's own
> ego to the words of another; in this process the translator's intentions,
> spiritual or otherwise, must be subordinate to those of the original
> author. The author's intentions only exist in the manner in which the poem
> unfolds, and they are both conditioned by and expressed through the
> artifacts of the author's cultural environment. The poem exists because of,
> not despite, that environment. That's why it very much matters how we
> translate it.
>
> Following your principles, would this be a goiod translation of "Tintern
> Abbey?"
>
> Went to Tintern Abbey.
> What a rush!
>
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