Poetry: theory, practice and feedback to theory

Abstract

It is a tenet in Translation Studies that poems are ‘untranslatable’ or can be translated only by poets. The article challenges this view and holds that if this tenet is proved erroneous, other ‘unquestioned’ assumptions about translation may also be tested. True, no strict ‘equivalence’ is possible in poetry translation, but it is not possible in any type of translation anyway. The author describes classroom work in which students read one another’s poems, have lively discussions and ultimately feel encouraged to do ‘the impossible’, namely poetry translation. Sample student translations between Danish and English are discussed in terms of acceptability and poetic merit. The results indicate that, rather than a general case, André Lefevere dealt with a special one in Translating Poetry(1975). The author holds that poetry must be assessed within the target culture and concludes that poetry translated into Danish employs fairly consistent compensatory strategies by introducing features considered ‘poetic’ in Danish culture.