Poetry Translation Refelction -Jaxon

 I think I seldom read translated poetry in my native language, and mostly, the translated fragments appear in situations where one character recalls a fragment of a poem in a literary story. I just realized I almost never pay attention to a song or poem that appears in the literature, since I think they are only some redescription to the thoughts the character is having or to the environment. I didn't know how difficult it is to translate a poem until I saw one of the most famous Chinese poems by Li Bai in MFA with one of my friends, I can see a lot of effort in English translation trying to imitate the structure and tone but it's still very far away from what it conveys in Chinese. I tried to tell my friend how beautifully written that poem was but I failed since it requires a decent amount of knowledge of Chinese to be able to appreciate the poem. At that time I really wish there was a good translation that could make me say "That's what this poem is talking about."

I like the phrase "bring them home" and "recreate." The nature of the poem makes the translation difficult, but it's so amazing to see all the efforts being made since people who translate the poem love the poem and also love their native language. Especially for Haiku and classical Chinese poems, which are strictly structured, lineration in English is almost impossible to resolve, puls in Chinese, there are even rules for the tones of each position in the poems, and obviously, English doesn't have tones for each word. I was still amazed by all the works in "Through a Glass Darkly" since I felt "that's a poem in English" if I wasn't provided with the text in Japanese. Translate poems can be read smoothly with rhythm that's as close to the original as possible. The tone and structure are not perfectly copied, but it still maximizes the author's ideas from their understanding. The translators get so creative in the wording and structures. I never felt the power of spacing was that important when reading poems like Janine Beichman's modification for “五月雨の鐘”.

"The impossibility of translation is precisely what makes it possible to enjoy the pleasures of otherness." reminds me of the tale of George Mallory climbing the Mountain Everest. 

"Why choose such a hard challenge that's impossible so far?"

"Because it's there."