| = that lonesome being | Anca Anghel Novac [07.Sep.07 14:27] |
| I like your poem, love this part: "self-made treachery for that lonesome being who never stands still " When you know many languages wonder how you do when you write poetry? You translate from German or you originally create in each language that you know? | |
| = Thank you, I return the favour! | Sydney Krivenko [11.Sep.07 11:48] |
I thoroughly studied several languages, amongst them English at school, later at University, and learned from my early days to think in those languages. I travelled to the respective countries and practised speaking English, for example, living amongst Britons of all shapes and sizes and from all shires, including Scotland and Wales, accents which are very hard to understand until you have got used to them. Anyway, the secret is to think in the other language, to make it your own until you dream in English. I do not translate, especially not from German, as this is a very different language from English and the Roman languages I speak. I sometimes translate from English, but never post a text unless I am absolutely sure that it is grammatically correct and has been checked and read by a native speaker in the case of languages I am not totally fluent in. So, yes, all my work is originally created in one language and that is why the texts with the same title are often different in different languages as poetry has to be adapted to one language in order to be poetry and not a mere translation. | |
| = Language | John Willy Kopperud [15.Sep.07 15:36] |
I like the poem too, Sydney! Your response to Ancas comment offers the reader a large degree of insight as to how you develop poetical skills in other tongues than your mother's. In a philological sense you seem to have undergone a bit more studying than yours truly. My experience with writing poetry in English is this: Agonia is the opportunity I have had to get started. Writing in another language made it necessary for me to stretch my imagination and my skills in putting words together. "Taking a plunge," so to speak. The philological challenge was a remedy that helped me move on to a higher level. In the eighties I was a translator for a number of years and I also studied literature. This helps, of course, but to me it would never be sufficient. Like you I have to take on "the feel" of the language and likewise I'd find it absolutely unnatural to write poems in Norwegian first and then translate them into English. Have a nice weekend! Willy | |
| = sydney, willy | Anca Anghel Novac [16.Sep.07 23:55] |
| Sydney interesting and elaborate answers to my question. Thank you so much. Thank you Willy for you comment. Very deep indeed. Both of you seem to have a lot o experience by “playing” in different languages for the purpose of the same catch. Poetry by itself. In my opinion as an author, you have to have the urge, the compulsion to scream in a particular language, no matter if it’s your mother’s or not, in order to perform at that high altitude of the poetic message and to express YOUR touch. Translators will never ever be able to mimic that compulsion. They eventually will have the urge of high quality readers that felt in love with a particular piece of poetry and will want to translate it by using words that match THEIR comprehension, THEIR pattern of feelings and THEIR ways to perspire words. | |