Tension and Approximation in Poetic Translation

Abstract

Simple observation reveals that each language and each culture enjoys specific linguistic features and rhetorical traditions. In poetry translation difference and the resultant linguistic tension create a gap between Source Language and Target language, a gap that needs to be bridged by creating an approximation processed through the translator’s interpretation. The existentialist thrust behind this position supersedes equivalence and disallows “intervention”, since in producing his/her pre-dictionary self-attributed translation, the poetry translator works from within the first person domain, a theoretical construct which is assumed to handle Davidson’s first person authority and more. Translating Herbert’s “Even-Song” requires knowledge of Arabic Islamic discourse and the ability to create, via interpretation, the right angle that allows Herbert’s deep religious experience and voice to be heard in a discourse that relates Arab audience to English religious devotion to God, a devotion which lies well beyond tension and cultural difference.

Keywords: Interpretation, Translational tension, Difference in translation, Poetry translation