[Ttha-potm] Poetry in Translation

[segrmusic]

It's very fascinating to attempt a translation of a foreign language poem
into your own language.
I suppose that, unless you are a very confident and experienced scholar of
the foreign tongue you
are never quite sure you have captured all of the true sense of the target
verse.

But that doesn't mean you don't have fun constantly going back over your
efforts to try to refine,
even totally alter, them!
I have wondered what it is about my own version of Goethe's "Erlenkoenig"
that concerns the German
visitors (schoolkids perhaps?) to the SEGR Music website. The music can't be
wrong because Schubert
wrote that!

Roy.

(P.S.And look at the trouble some of us POTM-ers get into with reading Hardy
in the English tongue.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Betty Cortus [mailto:bcortus at hardy-l.com]
  Sent: 14 April 2009 16:42
  To: POTM
  Subject: [Ttha-potm] Poetry in Translation






  To diverge from this month's POTM for a moment. This is today's "A Thought
for Today" from the "A Word a Day" (AWAD) site.


  Poetry, indeed, cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that
preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a
language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a
translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any
language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the
language. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)


  As poetry lovers do you think it true that poetry in translation is never
successful at capturing the true essence of the original? If so is it then
ever a worthwhile occupation to even attempt the task of translating it?


  Just Pondering,
  Betty


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