THE MUSIC OF POETRY IN TRANSLATION: 3-DAY PRACTICAL WORKSHOP WITH KEITH PAYNE
From March 9th to 11th the Translator's House organized the workshop I am content to know the air.
The purpose of this workshop was to focus the ear on the rhythm and inherent musicality of a poem when approaching a translation. We analysed translations of contemporary Irish, Spanish and American poets. Poems that, sometimes by their very titles (Vals en las ramas, Weary Blues…), demand to be translated first with the ear to the poem rather than the eye on the dictionary.
We also looked at examples of poems that have been set to music: selections from Now and in Time to be by W.B. Yeats and versions of poems by contemporary Irish and Spanish poets set to music.
It was a practical workshop which trained the students in how to deal with the musicality, rhythm and metre of a poem and how to sound these elements out in another language. It equiped the students with the necessary tools for their translation practice and highlighted both their strengths and weaknesses in their practice.
