In Translation

I’ve recognized the value of reading different translations of a work before because each person will interpret a word a little differently but I sometimes wonder how much is lost in the translation. Are we being fair to the poem and its message by translating it and changing it to conform to our cultural references, language and metaphors or are we cheating ourselves by taking it from its originality and its identity. Should to poem be the thing to change and be recreated in translation or should we be the ones to change, should we be the ones who should study a language and culture to fully and more thoroughly understand a work. That is the truest question of translational value in my opinion.

John Felstiner’s translation read:

“You'll have a grave then in the clouds there you won't lie too cramped”

in Jerome Rothenberg's it was translated as:

“then scoop out a grave in the clouds where it’s roomy to lie”

Personally I like the Felstiner translation more. To me the phrase “lie too cramped” is more powerful and resignation personally then “it’s roomy to lie.” Perhaps this is because in my house we tend to use the word cramped over roomy. Felstiener is still giving this negatively connoted word pulling in the dark emotion of the camps that is a major part of this poem where as Rothenberg uses roomy. A word more associated with spaciousness and being well off or having. If you have room and something of yours is roomy it’s large and to own large spaces means wealth. Rothenberg’s motivation may have been that looking forward and associating the roominess to heaven whereas Felstiner was focused on the Earthly condition.