Translation of Neruda's Sonnet 88 (LXXXVIII) from 100 Love Sonnets (Cien sonetos de amor)

The following is a translation I did of Neruda's Sonnet 88 (LXXXVIII) from his Cien sonetos de amor (100 Love Sonnets). I've pasted the original below my translation. Please let me know what you think, especially if you are a fellow Spanish speaker/translator!

LXXXVIII (English, My Translation)
The month of March returns with hidden light
and boundless fish slide through the heavens
blurred earthly vapors stealthily progress,
one by one all things fall into silence.

In this crisis of erring atmosphere, through luck,
you collected the lives of the sea with those of the fire;
gray movement of the vessel of wintertime,
the figure that love brought to the guitar.

Oh love, rose soaking from sirens and foam,

the fire dances and ascends unseen stairs
and wakes the blood in insomniatic tunnels

so that waves may consume themselves in the heavens,

the sea forget its riches and its lions,
and the world plummet into dark deceit.

LXXXVIII (Spanish, Original) 
El mes de Marzo vuelve con su luz escondida
y se deslizan peces inmensos por el cielo,
vago vapor terrestre progresa sigiloso,
una por una caen al silencio las cosas.

Por suerte en esta crisis de atmósfera errabunda
reuniste las vidas del mar con las del fuego,
el movimiento gris de la nave de invierno,
la forma que el amor imprimió a la guitarra.

Oh amor, rosa mojada por sirenas y espumas,
fuego que baila y sube la invisible escalera
y despierta en el túnel del insomnio a la sangre

para que se consuman las olas en el cielo,
olvide el mar sus bienes y leones
y caiga el mundo adentro de las redes oscuras 

Check-in 2

This semester is doing its best to crush me, but I won't let it. I was ill last week, leading up to the weekend, and it caused me to get slightly behind on my work. That said, I was a little bit ahead before this, so I suppose things have just evened out. I still need to get caught up in Pragmatics and Love Poetry – those were the two classes I missed last week – and so right now I'm working through our second homework assignment for Pragmatics, which includes some interesting wordplay involving unicorns, and recreating a Sappho poem for my Love Poetry course.

Our assignment for Love Poetry is to take what fragments are left from a Sappho poem of our choosing from the Anne Carson translation I mentioned before, and 'fill in the blanks' as it were, recreating the poem as if it were written in Sappho's time. Currently I am struggling with this as I fight the urge to modernize the poem and as I try to find a voice not my own.

Speaking of poetry, I have recently undertaken a new project. I know, I know, I don't exactly need more things to keep me busy, but I have to have fun sometimes right? This side project can definitely be considered fun. When I was at Bread Loaf early in the summer I had the privilege of attending many panels and talks, as well as individual/small group meetings with various editors and agents. One of the people that I ended up talking to was Chad Post, who was there as a publisher/editor for Open Letter at the University of Rochester. In addition to publishing, Open Letter runs a weblog and international review source called Three Percent. After leaving Bread Loaf, I decided that I would sign up to write occasional reviews for Three Percent, and I received my first book today (October 4th) and so far I love it. It's a book of poetry, but I shan't say more than that here. Once I finish writing the review and it goes through editing I will be sure to post a link to it on this blog.

On the topic of editing, my work in the Student-Scholar Partnership is going well, and I continue to be very happy with this project. To have a paying job, part-time or no, that is in my desired field is an absolute dream for someone my age, and I'm very thankful for the opportunity.

Literary Translation is my dream, as readers of this blog may know, and as readers will also know, my thesis is centered around Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and translations of her poems. At present I have scaled back the active translations as I am focusing a bit more on the content of my secondary source material for the critical introduction, although I of course work on bits and pieces when I have those rare spots of free time. I have an annotated bibliography of sources for my research seminar due next Monday, so I have also been working continuously on that.

Another research project that I am working on this semester is for my Pragmatics course. I'm still not entirely sure what I want to investigate yet; but our initial proposal (topic & research question, methodology idea, list of proposed papers) is due on the eleventh, so I'll have to come up with something soon.

Although I enjoy all of my courses and projects, I am developing a soft spot for my course on Ancient Greek. Learning this new (to me) language is a bit like solving a puzzle and slowly unwrapping a gift, and seeing all the pieces come together and getting a closer look at the prize is very enjoyable to me. When I am stressed out over bibliographies and papers and poems, untangling a sentence is oddly therapeutic.

Getting out all my thoughts on paper (or on screen I suppose) has a similar affect, so in a way I feel indebted to this blog for helping me process my strengths and weaknesses this semester. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my mind.

Cheers,
Talia

Check-in 1

Hi All! I had a really busy weekend and completely forgot to upload this! I've put reminders in my agenda though, so hopefully I'll have something posted on time for the next update (which is currently tentatively scheduled for Sunday October 1st).

This semester I am working on many projects, and trying not to get overwhelmed. In terms of classes, I am taking four this semester, in addition to writing my thesis. One of those is a research seminar, which thankfully has some overlap with my thesis, although they are not exactly the same, since the class is taught in Spanish, and my thesis is being written in English.

I am taking a course on love poetry, which I quite like. We just wrapped up reading some Catullus, and are now continuing on with Ovid. Our first poet was Sappho, whose work I thoroughly enjoyed, although I lament the fact that there is so little left for us. For anyone who wants to read her work (which honestly should be everyone) I recommend the Anne Carson translation If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, which is the one we use in class.

Speaking of Sappho, I'm enrolled in an introductory course of Ancient Greek, which I am enjoying immensely. Declensions aren't as scary as I thought they would be, and finding my way to meaning in this ancient language is like solving the best kind of puzzle. There are a LOT of sentences about Homer's brother, but I can deal. My professor is awesome, and is the same one I had for my Classical Mythology course last semester.

The final class I'm taking this semester is Pragmatics, and it is yet another repeat Professor as I had her for Semantics last semester. This course is much easier than the last, since there is as of yet no set theory, and it plays more with actual language, which is something I missed in Semantics, as we worked more with logical data in that course. I missed in Semantics, as we worked with more logical than raw linguistic data. Both are important to the domain of linguistics studies, and I am glad to have taken Semantics for enriching my general linguistics knowledge, but so far pragmatics has been much more my speed.

Outside of actual class hours I am of course keeping up with my homework assignments, but also working on my thesis, which is official now, and will be concentrated on translations of selected poems of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, accompanied by a critical introduction. Working on those translations is a joy, but hard work. Many of her poems are quite long, and the one that I am currently focusing on is 152 lines and they are tough ones.

I have recently started working with one of the scholars at the Women's Studies Resource Center at Brandeis, Mary Berg, on her translations, which I greatly enjoy. Right now she is working on a bilingual edition of short stories by the Cuban writer Laidi Fernández de Juan. It's an exciting project, and one I am glad to be a part of.

So that's it for now! I just wanted to give you a small taste for the content of the blog this semester, and I will update again soon!

Cheers,
Talia

Why Sor Juana?

One thing I've been struggling with in composing my translations is balancing the tone of the text, because Sor Juana is a poet from the 17th century and her works both reflect that and yet have many undertones that are absolutely relevant to the modern day, and so my issue (or one of them at least) is how much of the modern I should play up, and how much I should stay faithful to the time and place in which Sor Juana wrote. I honestly don't know where to draw the lines between a translation, an adaptation, and a piece that is so far from the original that it is really only a basic influence.

You may ask why  I chose a 17th century poet, and to be honest, it was a happy accident. I was taking a Latin American Literature course (which I actually ended up dropping due to conflicts. Class schedules are a dificult thing after all). Nevertheless, before I dropped the class I stuck to the schedule, where we read a sample from a different author every few days. One of those authors was Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. That same week, we started our practical portion of my Literary Translation course, and so I decided to translate her works on a whim at the time.

It is said that translation is the most intimate form of reading, and I find that to be very true in my case. Once I started translating Sor Juana, I fell in love with her in a way. If this were a purely motivational blog I would say something like "And the rest is history."

But isn't the case here.

Life goes on and sometimes I wonder, about a lot of things really, but I admit that sometimes I wonder if it is worth it all. I wonder if what I do will matter and then of course my thoughts wander towards oblivion and the inevitable heat-death of the universe, so I have to scale things back and think about what mattering means to me. And when I consider that I realize that what I want most is to be happy and bring happiness to others. If I can do that, if my life can make other lives better, then I want to do so. And that is why I want to translate Sor Juana, because I find that with her I am happier, and I want to share that with others.

Cheers,

Talia

Bread Loaf 2017 Part III: Evaluations

I have made a couple posts about the emotional and professional impact that Bread Loaf 2017 has had on me, but I also realize that I have missed out on describing the event in detail. I welcome you to now peruse the responses I put on the official evaluation form last week.

What did you like about the workshop?

I liked that the workshop had a mix of different genres. While I workshopped poetry for this workshop, the fact that other people translated prose had an impact on me, because I can take that back when I translate my own prose. And yet there is more to it than that. I think the fact that we had a mixed genre gave us different views about to approach our translations, and while I say it has been helpful for me, I hope that it was also helpful for others. The group was accepting and warm, but also one that could give meaningful feedback that was carefully construed. The fact that we were a mix of languages too helped us immensely. As a firm believer in the idea that languages teach you how to think in diverse ways, it was a joy to work with people who all had such different thoughts in their heads.

What about the workshop might have been better?

I would have liked to have more time with the people in my workshop. I feel that it is a talented group of people to work with, and yet we had so little time with one another we didn't quite get into the swing of things where we were comfortable enough to express ourselves in a way that I think caused a disadvantage towards the others. I think we could also benefit from something that another workshop group in Orion that I heard about where everyone had to read and comment a minimum of one sentence about each member's piece so that we could be on common ground. Another thing that my workshop and I talked about is the idea of everyone writing an accompaniment to our pieces describing what the touchstones are and what we think about our works and our writers.

• ways for us to articulate what the traction was for the piece
• explain what the project means to the translator, and to the literary world.
• what we are hoping to discuss about the piece
• what we know we don't know.

Which lectures did you attend, and where they useful?

Unfortunately, I was ill for a portion of the conference and the only lecture I attended was Idra Novey's "Writing While Translating." I thought that this lecture was fantastic. After having gone to this lecture I gained a much better sense of self and sense of comfort in the idea that I am both a writer and a translator. Her advice also about switching genres and going from translation to our own work has allowed me to conceptualize the fact that I don't need to compartmentalize the different sides of myself.

Which classes/talks/panels did you attend, and were they useful?

I attended the panel "On Publishing Literary Translation" with Elaina Ellis, Tynan Kogane, Fiona McCrae, and Michael Z. Wise which I thought gave a great deal of useful advice for the publication of books in translation, but I feel left a gap in terms of what journal publishing is like, which Idra stressed to us as also being equally if not more important.

Contrastively I loved the talk "Contracts and Copyright." with Chad W. Post because I feel that it filled in many of the gaps left by the panel, and the systematic way that he broke everything down for us was both instructive and insightful, and he took to heart what the audience had to say and what they wanted to know, which is the same case with the panel, however that was a little less organized since they thought they would have a moderator and without one everyone in the room was caught a bit off-guard I think, which set the tone a bit lower than it otherwise might have been.

The class I went to, "Translation Heresies" was excellent for many reasons, but mostly because Christopher Merrill has such a vibrant presence it would be hard not to enjoy a class put on by him. The way that he talked about translating languages one does not know was fascinating, and has inspired me to try the same in the future once I have a more stable career and a project that I am truly engaged in.

What did you think of the Bread Loafer Readings?

I absolutely adored these readings. Hearing so many voices, from the translators' conference and Orion both together was an amazing experience because these fields may seem distant, but when 18 people each go up and share what they have to say it both brings in a focus and tells us all that we are much more similar than we might think. I did a reading, and while I do have some experience with public speaking I still found myself shaking and suffering from imposter syndrome something fierce because how could I compare to the amazing things other people have done and said? But after I spoke and the readings that day were done I had people tell me that they liked the job I had done with my translation and poem and throughout the days after people were talking about my work, each time reassuring me that I had a place in this community.

How were your editor meetings?

My editor meetings were excellent! I had an individual meeting with Michael Z. Wise, and while I am early on in my project he gave me a great deal of advice as to how to advance my work on Sor Juana beyond just writing my thesis and how I can build myself up as someone just now starting in the field, and overall, he was very helpful, being that he not only had knowledge but was also supportive and friendly.

My group meeting was with Chad W. Post and he went into much more detail than at the talk (previously discussed above) telling us about his work and how our work can be built up. He showed interest in everyone's projects and in helping us move forward with them, taking time to speak with all of us equally and with sharp ideas.

Please comment on the special programing, such as the bird walks, music night, and Frost picnic.

I did not go to any of these events, because I slept in most days until breakfast, went to bed early the night we had music and since the rescheduled Frost Picnic occurred during one of my editor meetings I did not go.

What did you think about the food, dining room, and kitchen?

Everything about them was fabulous. The food was not only superb, but their willingness to work with dietary restrictions was unparalleled when compared to eating anywhere but my own home, and the cooking was far above my skill level. The staff and chefs were all kind and helpful, and truly delightful people all-around. The dining room was spotless, despite all the people who were there and the kitchen was very sanitary. I thought overall it was the best I have eaten in a while. I also appreciate the ready availability of water and other beverages.

Did the Wi-Fi work for you? If not, what problems did you encounter?

Yes, however as a college student I was using eduroam, as opposed to what the rest of the conference was working with.

Where did you stay, and how were your accommodations?

I stayed in the inn itself, and it was a very convenient and comfortable location, especially since it rained many times and I didn't need to get caught in it to get breakfast. The room was consistently a comfortable temperature, the sheets were clean, blankets and towels were soft, I had no complaints. I additionally found that the key codes on the doors were genius because it meant that if I remembered the numbers I never needed to worry about locking myself out.

Please comment on the stock in the Bread Loaf bookstore. Did you find what you needed? Are there items you would suggest adding?

I only went once, and if was a quick browse. The stock was interesting, but I had very little money so I didn't buy anything but a snicker's bar.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the shared campus. What was your experience like sharing the campus with BL Orion?

I loved the shared campus atmosphere. The back and forth between the two conferences as we explored our similarities and our differences was excellent because the slightly shifted perspective allowed us all to learn from one another.

How was the communication leading up to the conference? Do you have any comments for us on the handbook, editor sign-up, and manuscript packet mailings?

I thought that it all covered things well, apart from the fact that we did not get as detailed instructions about what to present with our works and what the works of others would be like since it was not necessarily standardized. As a tiny detail, I think that when the manuscripts are all complied into one PDF there should be an over-arching set of page numbers beyond the individual pieces to make it easier to get on the same page when discussing a work.

How did you hear about the Bread Loaf Translators' Conference (if you could include some detail here, that would be great)?

I heard about Bread Loaf via a notice in the Comparative Literature and Culture Listserv at Brandeis University. Since I am the Undergraduate Departmental Representative for the program I pay a great deal of attention to everything that gets sent out.

Please list any translation and/or writing groups or organizations in the U.S. or abroad that you belong to or recommend that we get in touch with to help spread the word about the conference.

I am not participating in any other translation writing groups or organizations, it is however my focus of interest at Brandeis University towards both my BA and MA degrees.

What social media do you use most often?

It is a split between Tumblr, blogger, LinkedIn and Facebook. My personal blog is hosted on both Tumblr and blogger. Meanwhile I also use Facebook and LinkedIn regularly, and Instagram and twitter a little less so. I have a snapchat, but I almost never use it.

Would you recommend the conference to a friend?

Yes! I think anyone with an interest in translation would love this conference.

Please take a moment to add any additional comments or suggestions?

There are a few things I would like to suggest for the future:

1. more people who work with Asian languages, as well as more people who work with indigenous languages to widen the discussion of translation between differing languages and cultures beyond the western world. There were a fair few at this conference, however not as many as those who worked with French or Spanish (including myself). The amount of people working with Spanish outnumbered Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Czech, Danish, Galician, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Norwegian, Russian, Urdu and Yiddish combined. Note that some of those people were in both that language and Spanish, but I am trying to prove a point here. Not that I want you to stop admitting people for Spanish, because that's my language, but I'm just putting it out there.
2. Have people who are editors for journals just as represented and advertised as those for book publishing, as well as similar events.
3. A bigger window for breakfast, at least in terms of continental bagels or cereal.
4. Less exclusively late-night events. Some people must retire earlier than others, especially those with medical issues.
5. An informal yet scheduled time for peer workshopping, possibly by language and cross-workshops.
6. It seems short to only have 4 days of workshop to get to know and share with the group, so a longer time frame for the conference would be advantageous.
7. Some light classes or talks about translation theory for those in manuscript workshops who are doing less theoretical work as compared to the introductory workshops.
8. Discussions of how to choose a good writer and how to identify a project worth publishing. 

So there you have it, my full evaluation of Bread Loaf. I hope that you enjoyed my critique of this awesome place. 

Cheers,

Talia

Bread Loaf 2017 Part II

I meant to have this post out last Friday, but since I spent most of Friday morning in a car, and my posts now come out at noon, that seemed a little impractical. And I didn't want to rush this. Last Friday was the last day of the Bread Loaf Translators' Conference. Even so, I wrote the beginning of this post on Thursday night, which was the last full day of the conference.

As I wrote the original beginning of this post, I sat in the Barn, which has been the main social location for the conference. True, I probably should've been socializing instead of writing, but as far as things typical to my life go, I have much more experience with the latter than the former, but I try to overcome that tendency

Socializing went reasonably well, and when the time came to have dinner I wasn't exactly sure what I could eat, so I sat down with a glass of wine and my notebook until I found some people to sit with. That said, you don't want a blow by blow, so I'll just say we had peanut butter chocolate pie and it was good.

The dinner was a bit fancier than our others, what with the wine and all, but as our last one together it was nice. We've built a great community here at Bread Loaf, and I feel greatly connected to all the friends I have made, and thanks to social media it seems I'll even be able to stay connected.

From Bread Loaf I have gotten more than just book recommendations and publishing tips, I've made friendships and gotten life advice and generally have had a grand old time. This was a great learning experience for me, and I'm so glad that I made such meaningful connections.

I've learned what it means to have found my narrative twin, learned more about my work, seen the great work of others, and heard beautiful poetry and prose that has made me understand that there is suffering, but also beauty in the world and I truly feel that together we can make a change. But this blog isn’t a soap box, and I don't want to get too emotional, so here are the top 5 things I have learned and had reinforced over the course of this conference.

1. Understand the emotional heartbeat of your piece
2. Translate the author that is right for you
3. Create a dialogue between translator/author/work
4. Tell the stories you want told
5. Translate for the love of translating

As two bonus economical tips, 1. make sure you know who has the rights to your piece and 2. don't sign a work-for-hire contract. I've gotten much more out of this conference than I could put in a single post, but I don't want this to go too long. Thanks to everyone who was at the conference who made it such a great atmosphere, and thanks especially to my workshop leader Idra Novey for guiding us all so well!

Cheers,
Talia

P.S. It rained for most of the conference, but we had a couple days where we workshopped in the sun when it finally came out!

#selfie with my workshop group!

A post shared by Talia Fluff (@taliafluff) on Jun 7, 2017 at 10:20am PDT

Bread Loaf 2017 Part I

Hi All! This week I am at the Bread Loaf Translators' Conference, and it has been great so far. The workshops have been quite fruitful, as there is so much talent among the people I have worked with, and as is the nature of workshops I have learned as much from working with others on their texts as I have when getting feedback on my own work. Seeing the scope of approaches that others take has been an eye opener for me.

As an additional bonus that we have in the translators' conference is that the Bread Loaf Orion Conference is being held co-currently, and so we are getting to hear from other people in an adjacent field. There are Bread Loafer readings every few days, and they are great because we are getting to hear from not only people reading translations, but the original works of people from the Orion conference. I myself read one of my poems at a reading yesterday.

I admit that I was scared to go up to that podium. Not so much because of the public speaking, which I've had some experience with, so the nerves weren't too bad on that front. No, my issue was with what I was saying. My translations of Sor Juana's work are like my babies. I've put a strong effort into every one of them, and I'm proud of how far they have come. That said, a workshop is a workshop and 90% of the time that one gets workshopped they end up wanting to spend the next few hours gutting everything. A translation workshop is a bit different than an original writing workshop, because I can't gut a translation like I can gut a short story that has an over-extended peanut metaphor. So seeing as how I finished getting workshopped at 12:30, immediately went to lunch and then attended a lecture, I actually only had an hour and a half.

I think I made it work. This certainly isn't the best I have ever done, but I'm proud of myself for having done so. In fact, as I had a little extra time left, once I finished reading the translation I read a short original poem that I wrote for a workshop a few years ago. I won't share it here, because I hope to have it published in a poem collection someday. If it ever is, I'll update this post with a link. 😘

Cheers,
Talia

On Poetry and Translation

I think that poetry is a beautiful and important part of our history. Poetry allows us to express our thoughts and feelings in a therapeutic and elegant way. Poetry is important because it presents a way for people to connect with one another in with deeper expression than with prose. For me, the most important part of the poem is the flow. The form of expression can be just as important as the content when considering a poem whether you are writing it yourself or it is a work of translation. The form should match the content, because the tonality of the work can be utterly changed with format.

Take for example, the Irish folk  song Green Fields of France. I am a firm believer that music is a vivid form of poetry, and this song is no exception. There are many versions, but my two favorites are both by The High Kings. In one, the song has a slow and graceful melody, that makes it a quite beautiful and meaningful song. The other version is no less meaningful, but has an upbeat tempo that makes the song bigger and more enthusiastic. Both takes on the poetry of this song are quite lovely, but the first time I heard them I didn’t even realize they were the same song until I examined the lyrics.

From this we can understand that tone and flow are some of the most important parts of a poem, and yet they are also malleable, depending on who composes the piece. Everyone writes poetry differently because poetry is a reflection. For some that means a reflection of the self, or of an experience, or of knowledge that the poet is comfortable with. My poetry contains my thoughts and hopes and dreams, and I make my own mark with everything I write.

Here is when I fully turn to translation, that delicate art. Aside from authors and poets who translate their own works, the translator is taking up someone else's voice, and changing it into another tongue. The translation is a different entity from the original, because it requires a leap of faith towards oneself and one's abilities to reimagine the work in a new context. In his essay An Act of Imagination Philip Boehm notes that "what allows us to summon a new creation from the original and give it a life of its own is our empathetic imagination."* So when I translate a poem, I am not only shaping the words through varying amounts of linguistic prowess, but also putting myself and my imagined consciousness into the poem.

That said, every time I look at a poem that I have translated, or even more so poems I have written myself, there is always something I want to change. The poem is always forming itself, even as I go back to it again and again. During my independent study last semester I was hesitant to share my poems with the professor because I never felt like what I had done was enough, and I was revising right up until hours before my selected poems were due. Maybe I was overdoing it a wee bit, but honestly, I don't feel like I was.

Tomorrow I head off to Middlebury's 3rd Annual Bread Loaf Translators' conference, and I couldn't be more excited. In preparation for my workshop I have been reading through The Art of Empathy: Celebrating Language in Translation as was directed by my workshop leader, Idra Novey. We only had to read part I, but I read all four because I'm a nerd and translation is my passion. Also because I read ahead whenever possible, and sometimes even when it shouldn't be. I already quoted one of the essays, but let me quote another. In Pierre Joris' A More Complex Occasion he speaks quite a bit about poetry and translation, and one quote speaks out to me:

[W]hat many years of practicing (and thinking about) poetry and translation have lead me to is a sense that the often-stated difference in nature between the supposedly pure and unalterable 'original' poem and an always secondary 'impure' poem is much exaggerated. […] A poem is […] a variable thing: the poet's hand-written poem is not the 'same' poem when first published in a magazine, which in turn is ever slightly different when published in a volume, then a selected collection, and later in a posthumous collected volume. The poet's public readings of the poem, its being set to music by a composer, its translation into one or ten or however many languages ― all these events do change a poem, enriching it, making it into a more complex occasion.

 If we acknowledge the poem to be such a mutable complex of occasions, then nothing is more translatable, nothing demands multiple translations more than a poem ― and nothing enriches the poem more than being translated.⁰

I realize that is a very long quote, so I'm going to stop this post here, giving you just a little food for thought.

Cheers,

Talia

*Boehm, Philip. "An Act of Imagination." In The Art of Empathy: Celebrating Language in Translation, 27. Washington DC: National Endowment for the Arts, 2014. https://www.arts.gov/publications/art-empathy-celebrating-literature-translation

⁰Joris, Pierre. "A More Complex Occasion." In The Art of Empathy: Celebrating Language in Translation, 68-69. Washington DC: National Endowment for the Arts, 2014. https://www.arts.gov/publications/art-empathy-celebrating-literature-translation

Slower version: Green Fields of France

Fast-paced version: The Green Fields Of France

Semester Wrap Up

Well it's been a while hasn't it? Finals week managed to chase me off the internet for a fleeting time. I was up at 6 every day to go to the library and complete work in my carrel. I had a bunch of meetings too, but at the end of the semester what it boils down to is just concentrating and getting sh*t done. I'm not even that upset by it, because finals are the culmination of all that we have achieved over the past semester, and I am proud of all that I have accomplished. This was a great semester for me.

My Creative Nonfiction course taught me much about my writing and my personhood. My Classical Mythology course was fascinating because the class taught me how to look at the world within the context of myth and storytelling and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. For all that I might have complained about how difficult Semantics was, I appreciated the challenge, and I gained a set of skills that I do not find trivial.

That said, my favorite part of the semester was working on my independent study. By virtue of it being a course I created for my goals, it was everything I had wanted. I learned about translation, I learned about Sor Juana, and I learned more about myself along the way. This semester was a growing experience for me, and I feel like a new and better person for of it.

Cheers,
Talia

Stand Up

One method of translation that I particularly like was introduced to me by my Creative Writing advisor. We took one of my translations and taped it to the wall, original Spanish on the left, and my English translation on the right. Something about having to stand up changed my perspective of the poem.

Usually I translate sitting down. Now I know I have claimed before that my physicality while translating is something decidedly lacking in consistency, but the unifying characteristic of it is definitely the sitting. Whether in a chair, on my bed, on the floor, I am always sitting, hunched over my work.

Standing, having the pages taped to the wall, equalized something I had not realized was disproportionate. Instead of my protective, possibly stifling hover over the words as I wrote, the physical change opened up a mental one, and I could feel myself enabled to interact with the text as though it were more malleable than before. I realize that this sounds bizarre, but these are true observations of my behavior. I looked at my work with new and fresh eyes.

I'm not having you on when I say that I truly feel the text came even more fully alive to me that day, and it was in those fresh moments that I found new words. I've tested since, and it works for writing original poetry too. So if anyone out there struggles with writer's block, here is my suggestion – stand up. It'll make you think.

Cheers,
Talia

Rant on Technique

Finding a way to translate has been difficult for me. Leaving aside all the theory of it ― metalanguage, ethics, religion, the hermeneutic motion, politics, feminism, gender, eurocentrism, questions of fidelity, identity, foreignization, word-for-word, sense-for-sense ― I could go on, but I won't because that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about where and how I do my translations. I know it might seem strange, but harder than grasping theory or prioritizing source text vs. target text or wrapping my mind around the idea of rights towards an author I struggle with finding a method towards the physicality. It took me far more time than I wanted to spend to discover whether I preferred typing my translations directly, or writing them by hand. Over the course of a semester and a quarter I realized I preferred by hand ― at least at the outset. Following this, I had to discover what type of by hand I wanted, and honestly, I'm still not sure.

Currently all I have really established is that I prefer writing the base translation in some sort of notebook, typing that by hand, printing it out, and writing on it again. Here is where it gets messy though, because after a while I run out of space on the page and transition to writing it by hand, but I can't decide whether writing in a journal or on a legal pad is better, and then I struggle with at what point do I type things up again, because typos are really annoying and cause mistranslations on a scale that is quite frankly covered in malignant slime. I once negated a positive and somehow wrote 'perfection' for 'copia' which is just flat out wrong. Turns out I wrote 'reflection' and misspelled it and autocorrect took things into its own hands.

Speaking of autocorrect, until I learned how to turn off the auto-capitalization function on OneNote and Word, every time I tried to write a poem, or even just type a completed poem up, resulted in auto-capitalizing every enjambment and while I love my computer I tended to get the urge to throw it against the wall. Fortunately, I restrained myself, and dug deep into settings to root out the source of the problem. OneNote Options → Proofing → Autocorrect Options, you're my fav.

I digress, my point is that before I can even process what I'm doing, I need to find a process. The way things are going tends to work, but it also tends to make me want to light my papers on fire when I can't find the right one. Luckily, I don't actually have anger issues, I just like euphemisms. Even if this isn't the most efficient way, I'm still producing content, so I'm just gonna keep going the way I'm going until I find a better way.

Cheers,
Talia

My relationship with Spanish

I wish I were more fluent in Spanish. Not only am I in love with the language, but it would make translation so much easier. Yet can you ever be fluent in a language other than your native tongue?

For example: the word 'dichoso' I found defined as 'happy' and 'dammed' I was confused, but assumed it was an auto-antonym. I thought this for months, until I finally got around to talking to a native speaker, and within a minute of explaining my perceived definition it was explained that the word meant 'fortunate' and the definition meaning damned was actually not in there as the speaker being subject to some sort of curse, but in the sense of 'that damned book!' Unfortunately I did not know this and have undoubtedly made a fool of myself in front of anyone who reads those older translations. Not my best move.

It's not that I'm terrible at Spanish, but I can sense the gaps in vocabulary like a child can sense they're being left out while adults spell out words. I have never liked that feeling, hence why I learned how to spell P I Z Z A early on in my youth. (Incidentally, that word is spelled the same in both English and Spanish. The more you know).

I started learning Spanish when I was only 5. My elementary school used to have weekly Spanish classes for every grade, and while that was nice while it lasted, it stopped after my year in kindergarten. I had the option to be put in the two-way program, but I was passed up because I had 'no aptitude for the language'. In reality, I had no aptitude for that teacher. I thought she was annoying, so I failed on purpose. What can I say? 5-year-old me was petty and had no concept of consequences.

It wasn't until the 6th grade that I started another Spanish class, and at that point I had forgotten almost everything except how to make a trill. We don't have them in English, but trills are awesome. One of my favorite party tricks is to trill while humming 'Hedwig's Theme.' That and chest isolations while dancing are my best selling points while trying to convince people of my awesomeness.

After 6th grade and memorizing Ciega, Sordomuda I went to the Middlebury Monterey Language Academy (now called Middlebury Interactive Languages) and did 4 weeks of language immersion. My Spanish skills went up, and up again when I returned to Middlebury after 7th grade. In high school I skipped a year in Spanish and my junior year I was slated to take the AP course for Spanish, only to switch to a school that had no Spanish classes. In college I started at a fairly low level because I had the hubris to take the exam at 2am. In any case, my Spanish skills have taken a while to catch up because I was starting at such a low level again. I've finally worked my way back to the top, but vocabulary gets me every time.

This summer I am going to the Middlebury Language Schools, so I will hopefully learn more there. That said, it will be 7 weeks of no English, so I will most likely be creating posts in advance, or just writing them in Spanish and translating them back to English once the 7 weeks are up.

In the meantime, classes are done at Brandeis, so finals are about to hit me hard. I'll make a new post as soon as I finish and/or when I get stressed out from working on things and want to use this blog as a pre-draft of my reflection papers.

Cheers,
Talia

Scribbles

When I find I have written something I am very proud of and have worked very hard on, my immediate impulse is to let someone scribble all over it. If there is anything I have learned in my 21 years of life, it is that the best things always come from collaboration.

In the past this has mostly been on resumes and essays, correcting grammar and formatting and things I may have missed. Where to expand, where to cut down, and here I should put a semicolon. With a creative process, it is something altogether different.

Some people might see scribbles on a page as a challenge, as something to fight against, that you have failed. But for me that is simply not true. Scribbles on the page are the secret ingredient to writing a good poem, essay or short story, or a translation of any of the above. Scribbles on the page show dedication to the topic. For me scribbles on a page are not a symbol of failure but a symbol of success. When I'm working on a project and someone takes the time out of their day to scribble all over my writing or translations I am so, so happy because it's a sign of care and dedication. It's recognition of the fact that what I am doing is hard, but I have people to support me in what I do, and for that I am very thankful.

I could have never gotten to where I am today without the assistance of the many people who have shaped my life, especially the ones that did so with scribbles.

Thoughts on Translation

When working on my translations I had trouble with the translation in terms of how to convey both the beauty and the message of the poem, which was difficult for me at first just from reading the Spanish, as Sor Juana uses syntax in ways that, as someone who is very familiar with, but not fluent in the language I struggle. It makes sense of course, because in English we also use complex syntax in poetry, but the difference here I feel is that the languages change syntax in slightly different ways. Sor Juana's poetry contains many reflexive verbs, and because the third person and formal second person overlap greatly, I have to make judgement calls on who the poem is referring to in the context of the sentence. The verb forms are difficult because of this, and I have always had trouble with reflexive verbs, which compounds the problem. Furthermore, the poems often leave out a subject, or reference a subject that was in a previous line or stanza, and so keeping track of the persons can be difficult for me, especially since I am not a native speaker.

Another struggle I have with this poetry is that the poems do not have titles, and so I am in an ambiguous position in terms of creating one or sticking with just a number. The question of whether or not to title the poems is a conflict for me, because while I may wish to title the poems as my own, I wonder whether doing so would be claiming too much of what isn't necessarily mine.

This of course comes back to the question of whether the translated work belongs to the translator, or the original creator. Then I wonder what Sor Juana would think about my translations, and I wonder again whether it is fair to change the words of someone long-dead.

Where is the line? Have I crossed it or am I just not there yet? Will I ever get there?

Or is it a line that doesn't exist except in my mind?

These are questions that I think deserve further thought. I hesitate to say that the author is dead - especially as I am a creator of original works in addition to being a translator. So basically I'm not even sure what I think. I just have a lot of thoughts in a lot of places, and grappling with them is probably something I will be doing for a long time.

Failure

Like most people, I make commitments that I don't always follow through on. If you have followed through with every single thing you have committed to do over the entirety of your life then congratulations, you are not like most people, are you even human because I think that failure is an intrinsic trait of humanity. No one is perfect, and as my favorite JK Rowling quote goes

"You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all―in which case, you fail by default."*

Not posting on the first Sunday after I said I would post every Sunday probably counts as a failure, but not as much as it would be if I failed Semantics for example. Which it is quite possible I could do considering I understand type theory about as much as I understand what it would be like to hate chocolate. All things considered I'm lactose intolerant and dark chocolate is definitely my least favorite desert, so there is some understanding, but mostly confusion. I'm being over dramatic of course, it is highly unlikely that I will fail Semantics. I do think my GPA might take a hit, but not an irreparable one.

To be honest, I spent most of my break reading. I read Swing Time by Zadie Smith, Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, The Grownup by Gillian Flynn and am halfway through The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. I'd like to think I could have read more books, but I was actually working throughout the break too.

Mostly I focused on my translations, because I have been struggling with them throughout the semester. At the beginning, it really was like pulling teeth, because for some reason the words just wouldn't flow. Now that we are closer to the end however, I feel like I am closer to the text, and one night mid semester I actually woke up wide awake at half past midnight only to start translating. I would have thought it was just a bizarre dream, but in the morning, I had 100 new lines of poetry. It was a distinctly unpolished work in the light of day, but I have been pecking at what I have translated ever since and now I think it is starting to be more cohesive.

Translating poetry is difficult, because on the one hand I feel like I am betraying the words, but on the other hand English isn't formed in the same way. I suppose this is something I will struggle with for the entirety of my life, but that prospect doesn't make it any better. I am very excited for this summer though because I will be going to Middlebury's Bread Loaf Translator's Conference, and that is something to get really excited over. You can bet I will make a blog post or two about that. I’ll also just write lots of posts about translation in general though, because that’s kind of the point of this blog.

Cheers,
Talia

*This quote is now the end quote for all my emails. Previously it was “We often just accept the things that we like and complain a lot about the things that we don’t like. But if we could, like, intensely dwell on the really great things in life the way we intensely dwell on the negative things in life. I think that would be fantastic.” ― Hank Green
But the aesthetic I am going for fits better with the JKR Quote, which is from her 2008 Commencement Address at Harvard. The printed version is called Very Good Lives and sales benefit her charity Lumos, as well as university-wide financial aid at Harvard.

Word-for-Sense

The title for this blog is based on a classic and basic issue in translation: word-for-word or sense-for-sense. That said, even though the very name of this blog is based on translation, I haven't really been talking about translation on here. I suppose that is because for me, translation is an intimate process, and I don't always feel comfortable talking about it. It’s probably because of the imposter syndrome I tend to feel about anything and everything I've ever done or do. The feeling is an uncomfortable one, but confidence doesn't come easy for me.

My translations themselves, well, I don't particularly like sharing. I'm always terrified that I have mistranslated something, or that something is somehow 'not right' in ways I'm not fully sure I can explain. I worry that my fluency in Spanish is not good enough for proper translation and find myself hounding down words in dictionaries, picking at the poem until it is nothing but words. I tend to go for very literal translations, keeping faithful to the word, and yet my heart longs for giving instead the sense that comes from such rich poetry. Translating is maddening and sometimes I wonder why I ever thought I could do it, and others I wonder how I could possibly do anything else.

I'm doing an independent study on translation this semester and even though there are only five weeks left of class I haven't sent my professor any poems because I am terrified he will hate them. That said if I don't send him something soon he will probably fail me, so I have resolved to send him at least two poems by Friday, no matter how much I dislike the verse. (My translation I mean, the original poems are gorgeous). The only way I can improve is if I get feedback, but like most people, I am scared of rejection. Everyone fails sometimes, it's a fact of life, but that doesn't make it comfortable.

End of Translation

From Jacques Lezra's End of Translation: "The question of how humanists  make the case for the value of  their disciplines to others […] is a  matter, it is understood, of  translation." Translation and politics are intimately linked in the view of this paper and he notes that translation is a "master term" when discussing the understanding of the Humanities and their current state, and the place they hold in a society in which they are dwindling.

I am a Comparative Literature major, and our program is very small. In addition to the fact that the humanities are dwindling, we have a firm requirement of taking upper level courses in a language other than English. This tends to scare people away from the program, which is unfortunate because it is a great one (I'll admit, I'm biased as the Undergraduate Departmental Representative of the major!)

As someone who is very passionate about language, culture and communication I am always startled when I come across people who aren't because to me language is one of, if not the most essential ways that we communicate with one another and I believe that we should be encouraging multilingualism because with different languages come different ways of thinking, and everyone can benefit from that. I'm not saying that language learning is something that everyone needs to do (I know that for some people it is an impossibility) but rather that widening our gazes into other ways of life is essential towards looking at each other deeply and complexly, and being multilingual can help with that.

At the very least, I believe that one should study other cultures and traditions, even if only from a monolingual standpoint, in order to gain a mutual understanding with others on this earth. In the wake of this, translation, in all its complexity, is made even more necessary. Not only do we have to translate the words, but sometimes even concepts.

People sometimes argue nature vs. nurture. Whatever one might believe, it is undoubtable that where we grow affects how we do so. There is no denying there is inequality in this world, and as my Mythology Professor pointed said the other day in class - despite what we tell our children not everyone can do everything they set out to in life, and many people are born into this world who are at a crippling disadvantage. Some crosses are too hard to bear. Looking at the world like this can be bleak, but it is a reality. And I seriously doubt that we can ever fully grasp the realities of others without humanities and without translation. 

In the same essay referenced before, End of Translation, Lezra speaks about rights and asks whether they are "translatable across cultures, languages, races, religions  in the name, or under the aegis, of a purportedly universal  standard which is also a universal  translating machine: 'Human'  rights?" This is a startling question, and one I cannot possibly answer in a blog post. I will leave you with this question and encourage you to read the essay in full. (Linked below)

I hope that readers of this blog enjoy my musings, because while I'll write them anyway, it's fun to see what other people think.

Cheers,
Talia

Jacques Lezra, End of Translation: https://humanitiesfutures.org/papers/end-of-translation/

Tests

I just finished my placement test to ascertain my academic level in Spanish for when I go to Middlebury this summer. I've been accepted to go to the 7-week Spanish program at Middlebury Language Schools. (More information below) I'm not sure how I did, because there were a lot of questions having to do with Ser/Estar and also the subjunctive, which are things I'm a bit shaky on.

I am fairly fluent when reading Spanish, but when it comes to minute details in grammar I am sorely lacking. This is not to say that I don't understand or can't create the verb forms; I'm just not always completely grammatically correct when I say them. People can understand me when I speak Spanish, and I can understand them, but I have slight issues with grammar. A comparable English mistake would be mispronunciation or "I were going to the store" or "I go to class yesterday." 

Going to Middlebury is going to be a great way to improve my Spanish, and I am very much looking forward to it. I enjoy translating and I know for certain that the more proficient I become in Spanish the better those translations will be. I often have to look up a word or two in a dictionary while working on a translation project, but that could also be linked to the fact that I am translating out of 17th century early modern Spanish and that is not easy for many people, let alone someone like me who is not fully fluent. I intend for these translations to be my thesis project, so it is important that I get them right so that once I have finished my work. Poetry in translation is immensely difficult, but I believe it to be worthwhile.

Cheers,
Talia


Information on the Middlebury Language Schools: http://www.middlebury.edu/ls