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Translators Worth - Priceless


  • rufina caraid
    Jun 19 6:48 AM 2008
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    I am just so impressed with this man. His wisdom appears to be infinite. I must thank all of the translators as without their sterling efforts I would not be enjoying the poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade at all. Von

  • Yemassee
    June 22, 2008 ↑
    Reply
    I've read a few too, I like him too. MariGoes currently has a contest using one of his poems here on AP. And I'll thank our own MariGoes for her efforts in the translating.

  • Mari Goes
    June 22, 2008 ↑
    Reply
    His work is indeed very impressive, and has been read by students of all grades since forever.
    I'm very happy to have some of my friends liking his work, for he is one of my favourite writers.

  • ea
    July 5 ↑
    Reply
    I would really like to see the original alongside the English translation whenever possible. Even if I don't know the language, it can aid my understanding when I can compare the look of the poems or see that the original contained endline rhyme, as is so often the case in German poetry.

    Since I am beginning to get involved here as a translator, I wonder if we should set up a protocol for how the poems should be added. I don't find it so useful, as it has been suggested to me, to have the original language poem posted as a separate item, even if you provide the link to the English translation.

    I would rather see them posted together, but in that case, we should have a standard way to title and order the poems.

    For instance:

    Questions (Translation of the orginal German, "Fragen")

    I don't really think it is that necessary to also post it in the reverse way again, such as:

    Fragen (Questions, English translation)

    although that is an idea.

    I read some French poems yesterday that are already posted here without their English translations. If I were to add the English, how would you suggest I title these

    and would I keep the original language poem at the top of the page and add the translation below? (Books are nice in that you can see them side by side on the page, so we are a little more limited with a web page, but it doesn't have to be as limiting as having to go to another page to compare the two.)

    I feel very strongly about presenting the original poem together with the translation whenever possible. You can see where many English readers who are reading European poems come to the conclusion that they were originally written in free verse, which is often not the case.


    • I-Like-Rhymes
      July 8 ↑
      Reply

      Should English Dominate?

      It appears that most Oldpoetry readers have a good degree of fluency in English and so perhaps an English version of the title should come first (with the original following) and the poems should be similarily arranged, all on one page. The only drawback is that the first thing the reader sees is not the work of the stated poet but someone else's interpretation.

      However Oldpoetry should also show consideration for readers who are less fluent and who are searching for a poem in its original language version. This is much more easily accomplished if the original title is placed first and the translation following and the poems likewise arranged.

      The idea of dual posting of the poems does overcome this and by putting original and translation on the same page Oldpoetry would be answering the problem of ease of comparison for those who don't like opening two windows on their computer.

      In the cases where translations are available from more than one source things may get much more complicated but by ensuring the poems are available in some format Oldpoetry is doing the best to spread knowledge of the "original" poetry.
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