Our task today was to take a look around Poetry International for a poem in a language we don’t know, then read the poem to ourselves thinking about the sound and shape of the words, and the degree to which they remind us of words in our own language, then use those correspondences as the basis for a new poem.
I used Part 3 of the poem Photographs by Mária Ferenčuhová. The poem was written in Slovak and I first "translated" it to Serbian, then translated it (this time really) to English. The result is a very raw draft (especially the Serbian version), but it is the beginning of something that can be worked on.
.jpeg)
Strava
Nikada, na rubu vremena.
Sa tektonske ploče
u trenutku prhne
par crnih krila.
Sve se rasprskava.
Posrnuli, ustaje.
Veliki odron tutnji.
A šta joj to kida utrobu?
To strava uzima svoj prvi dah.
Something Monstrous
Once, on the edge of time
something dark flaps its wings,
the tectonic plates crack,
the Fallen stands up again,
the great landslide rumbles.
What is it that's tearing her insides?
Something monstrous takes its first breath.
Interesting to choose a language which you don't speak as such but can work with. Your end product is not far from the truth.
ReplyDeleteYes, sadly, I believe it isn't. I always struggle with this particular prompt and I can only make it work if I understand a little bit of the language.
Delete