Welcome! This is a workshop course in the translation of poetry.*
The semester will be organized in two-week segments. For each segment, the class will be assigned a reading in translation scholarship and/or practice, and given an original text for translation. Students will establish and utilize appropriate resources for translation work, and frame questions about what information is relevant to translation work. Students will submit word-for-word versions, works in literary translation, as well as creative and/or critical essays written during and after the translation process.
The class proceeds like a writing workshop. Students present their work, discuss the challenges and successes of moving between languages, and give each other feedback. In addition to bi-weekly assignments, students will compose a final manuscript of poems that includes an analysis of translation or writing processes.
While a bulk of the coursework will involve translating poems from other languages into English, students may or may not have an intimate knowledge of the other languages to take this course. Ethical concerns raised by this practice will be considered.
Please feel free to contact the instructor (j.vera.lee@hawaii.edu) with questions or concerns about taking this course.
(*Ideas for course content were inspired and shaped by poetry translation workshops taught by Robert Hass and Arthur Sze.)