Translation is a vital part of literature, though one that doesn’t get talked about or praised nearly enough. Make sure to pay attention to any work not in your native tongue(s), and appreciate translators! That said, in this experiment, we are not going to translate in a conventional way. We are not after a translation so much as we are after what can be sparked from mistranslation.
Step 1
Find a poem in a foreign language, preferably a language you don’t know well or even recognize.
Here is one you might try:
Spet so Tihe Ceste
Spet so tihe ceste, temni mir
Spet so čebele, med, tiha zelena polja
Vrbe ob rekah, kamni na dnu dolin
Hribi v očeh in v živalih spanje
Spet je v otrocih nemir, v piščalih kri
Spet v zvonovih bron, v jeziku aura
Popotniki se pozdravljajo, kuga je utrdila sklepe
Divji jeleni so na dlani, sneg žari
Vidim jutro, kako hitim
Vidim kožo v pobožnem prahu
Vidim vriskanje, kako se pomikava proti jugu
Toledo fant, mala štoparja
Slike so jasne, rože plahe
Temno zapečateno nebo, slišim krik
Caka čas ljubezni, čas visokih kipov
Tihih čistih srn, zasanjanih lip
Step 2
“Translate” the poem, line by line, simply based on what the words look like or what you think they may sound like in English. This is the “homophonic” aspect. There is no “right” way to translate here, but also notice patterns and variations on patterns in the poem that you may see; for example, repetitions of words or phrases.
Step 3
Go back and make a new translation but do it much faster, and don’t worry about making any so-called mistakes.
Step 4
Take your two translations and conflate them into one text.
Step 5
Now, edit your text into a poem that makes sense, not just a listing of words. You may have to insert words and revise syntax. You may have to do a lot of fashioning and re-fashioning.
Step 6
Alternatively, find a phrase or sentence that you’ve generated in your translation, one that really strikes you for whatever reason, and try to build a poem from it—or incorporate it into one of your old poem drafts.
