What use of language did you enjoy in this week's poems?
Did you like Howard Moss' interpretation?
Was anything lost in translation?
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About Me
- Olivier P.
- I am an English teacher at Collège Édouard Monpetit in Longueuil Québec. I am currently working on a Student project that will allow a group of Language Arts students to visit Lowell Massachussetts during the Jack Kerouac Literary Festival. I created this Blog to encourage a discussion on Jack Kerouac and the students` adventures "On the Road".
*effort*
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of the poems were completely lost in the 3 translations. With the disappearance of the figures of speech in the translation from old to modern english, the poem lost all of it's beauty and even its meaning in some places.
ReplyDeleteSpanish to english, well, you first lose the beauty of the language itself because even if "The Guitar" was well translated, it had lost a certain rhythm given by the Spanish language. "Guitar" in itself was a bad translation, too "word by word".
For the Garcia Lorca poem... Even if "Guitar" was translated too "word by word" as Katherine says, I prefered it, even if it lost some of the rythm given by the spanish original. I didn't like "The Guitar" at all, it's not "flowing", it doesn't do justice to the original one.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Shakespeare/Moss poems, I liked Moss's simple explanation, but it lost its "epic" style, the original has nice figures of speech, rythm and vocabulary, while the other was.. Ordinary. I like the idea of the "translation" in modern english, but I would like to see other examples.
Valérie G.Talbot
I liked to compare the Shakespeares' poem with the Moss one. Its evident that the meaning is conserved from a poem to the other but its not written likewise. Both describe summer but the Shakespeare poem in old english and the other in modern english...
ReplyDeleteI like the Moss interpretation. I find that the way this poem is written is most enthusiastic and expressive. The reader feels more concern in this reading. Moss interprets well the Shakespeares' poem but he wrote it in its own way...The old english,( the old vocabulary) isn't in the new one, and it's easier to understand !
The two other poems (La Guitarra, The Guitar)
are similar because of the meaning but also different because of the poems' ton. When you read it aloud in spanish, it's similar as a song... in english, I personally find that it is more like a story which is told...I prefer it in spanish!
-Catherine Lacroix
I believe that "La Guitarra" has a more musical sound than "The Guitar" or "Guitar". Even if I prefer "Guitar" to "The Guitar", there is something missing in the translation. Maybe it is more difficult to translate the sound of a spanish poem into an english one because english is a germanic language and spanish is a latin language.
ReplyDeleteAccording to me, Howard Moss' interpretation is not as good as Shakespeare's sonnet. The figures of speech are almost all lost in the translation.
The poem I enjoyed the most was ''La Guitarra''. It sounded a lot more musical to my ears, more fluid. I liked the two others but they were not as good as the one in spanish. There were not much rhymes, but some repetitions that, according to me, makes the poem dull.
ReplyDeleteThe translation made between Shakespeare poem's and Howard Moss's one is not very different. The words are just modernized and it makes it easier to understand nowadays. In some parts, the meaning is different, but it is mainly the same message. Moss is less poetic, less rich in his writing. For the quality I would choose Shakespeare poem's but for simplicity I rather choose Howard Moss's poem. One describes(Shakespeare) and one summarize(Moss).
Marie-Philippe Busque
I prefer to read a poem in his original language, but some have better translations thant others. As long as the musicality is kept in the poem... it's still good but when we lose this.. we lose the main idea of the poem.
ReplyDeleteMarie-Eve Pilote
I personaly prefer Shakespeare's poem. Howard Moss's version losed is musicality and the choice of words. Maybe in some way the message is the same but Shakespeare's poeme is more accurate and reach us with more impact with then Howard Moss's poem. I agree that Shakespear use a language harder to understand but it gives it a certain mystery and is a sort of challenge to read.
ReplyDeleteFrancis Goyer
I prefered the poem "La Guitarra", than the translation "The guitar". As many students said, there is really something lost in translation. The meaning is the same of course, but the well chosen vocabulary and the figures of speech don't appear in "The guitar" as an asset of the poem. Furthermore, "La guitarra" sounds a lot more musical than its translation. I really like the fact that we explored more that one side of a poem and to read the translation was really interesting, it proves that nothing can return better justice to a text than the language in which it has been written, otherwise, the essence and the slightest nuances of the text are lost.
ReplyDeleteVanessa Lavoie
I agree with Marie-ève, «the guitara» (or «the guitar»), was better in his original language.
ReplyDeleteI prefered Howard Moss's poem than the Shakespeare one at first because it was easier to understand but after the explanation of the teacher, I loved both of them. But I have to say that it was nice to discover Shakespeare through his poems.
I think that, even if the translation is perfect, there will still miss something that English can bring compared to spanish.... the culture and the interpretation will be different.
ReplyDeletepersonnaly, I like shakespeare... he kind of expresss himself in a smooth but hard way. He is my favorite author of all so of course I enjoyed it more...
to conclude, the translation are good...the essential is kept but, the essence is lost. I prefered it in spanish... spanish as a musical voice that English doesn't
Marilyn Quessy