Transliteration is the process of selecting a text in a language you don’t know and then doing a faux translation of the work based on what you think the words mean. The key is not knowing the language you are translating from so that your faux translation won’t be sullied by knowing what the words actually mean.
I chose Homesick for the Dark by Robert Anker, The Netherlands poet, from Poetry International Web
Rising Yen
in the wildest of times
he spoke of the dark and
the doom nibbling at his marrow
near the forests and brooks,
he spoke of joining rivulets to brook,
brooks to river, rivers to the sea
in the calmest of times
he spoke of light, the crags
and sea, the endless glide of tides
and in all those times, he knew
a growing kinship with the dark
and a heady ache for friendly death
♥ ♥ ♥
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23 comments:
Oh, this is great. I love the "kinship with the dark" and the metaphor of running water. Great stuff!
A fascinating idea - I like your poem. :)
Did Robert Anker put it so well?
This is wonderful! What a fascinating challenge.
Those last three lines are marvellous.
I've just come from Dana's transliteration, which (to me, anyway) evokes images of imminent death. Your piece could almost form a prequel, providing the human context. Whilst entirely different in style, this is equally powerful and atmospheric. Great use made of this excellent prompt. Another keeper, I'd say.
Well, this is a beautiful poem however you created it - and having seen the Dutch, that was a challenge!
You did a wonderful job with this... so many lines just mesmerized me. The "doom nibbling at his marrow" is just one of many. Plus, I loved the gloomy, depressing theme...I can't seem to write anything else lately! (must be the low sun and wet weather)!
"heady ache for friendly death" is a lovely way of putting it, and a true expression.
from Therese Broderick -- Lovely sounds in this! Very nice poetic strategies: the contrast of wildest/calmest, the anadiplosis (repetition from one line to the next)of "brook,/brooks" ; and the graceful interlacing of "brooks to river, river to the sea." I like how in the poem, the "he" is not named, but is kept at a distance.
This is lovely - I especially love the opening stanza, and '...doom nibbling at his marrow' is just spectacular.
I've never done transliterations before, but have done a lot of homophonic translation, where the poem is 'translated' to similar sounding words in english (or how one imagines the words sound). btw -the current poem on the front page of my website came from a homophonic translation of a Rilke poem.
Thanks a lot for posting the explanation,etc. for the transliteration - I'll have to give this a try :-)
This is wonderful... I like how the second half echoes the first with the back and forth interplay of light and dark. Much more wistful and pensive than the original, I think. :)
What caught my eye especially was the line: "the doom nibbling at his marrow". The whole poem was lovely and yet sorrowful, reminding me of
someone I used to know. I also like how you played light against dark in this piece. Well done.
-Nicole
I like the repetition, how it builds sympathetic reverberating meaning as the poem spreads out. Thanks for visiting my site.
I love what you did with this tough prompt. The second stanza with the joinings really resonates for me. Great Job.
This is a very moving poem; I really felt connected to the "he" the poem describes, and it has a lovely sound.
Amazing! Love these lines
and in all those times, he knew
a growing kinship with the dark
and a heady ache for friendly death
Very interesting, your faux translation certainly did well. You got the inspiration from the original characters or you guess what they sounds like. If the poem is written in Chinese, do you have to hear how it sounds, before you can compose your faux translation.
I really like the image of nibbling doom. Well done!
I'm with Nathan, that line sings... wow. Love what you did with this!
I'm with everyone else on the nibbling at his marrow line - whew! I loved though, how he tried to join water to water, as though he was trying to preserve the flow. I could hear it all in my head.
great job with this ...especially like doom nibbling at his marrow...thanks for sharing this
This is quite, quite beautiful.
Fascinating process
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