TA L K O F T H E T- D O C K translation. Highlighting some of the challenges and nuances in this process, Childers pointed out the translator’s often warring loyalties to meter and meaning. If we focus too much on the literal meaning of a poem, he warned, we may lose much of the music that gives poetry its beauty. Alternately, emphasizing only meter and rhythm may result in a nonsense verse that bears little resemblance to its original. Duly advised, teachers and students set out to experience this business of translation for themselves. Teachers partnered across departments to select poems appropriate for each level of language study, and students began by translating the poems themselves in class, allowing individuals fluent in the foreign language to act as experts and guide the class to understanding. Once the class had created its own translation, students compared their rendition to published versions as a way to consider the importance of imagery, word choice, punctuation and historical context. At times,
students were given a “crib,” or literal translation, to aid in the process. English teacher Gretchen Hurtt and Chinese teacher Chiachyi Chiu led two sections of Chinese 3 students through a discussion of “Jade Flower Palace,” written by Tu Fu in the 8th century. They applauded their students’ willingness to “fumble through difficult passages” and, in the process, develop an authority that made them feel more confident with the poetic form. Students formed strong opinions about which translations they felt were most true to the original. Modern Language Chair Diahann Johnson commented that the translation exercise gave students in her French 5 class, who worked with West African francophone poems, an opportunity to consider the global implications of translation — the ways translating a piece from its original language into English is at times a “microcosm of colonialism,” in which word choice reflects the politics of discourse. The exposure to other cultures was an
added benefit to the more technical virtues of close language study. Chris Childers, in his Latin 4 class, and Sarah Demers, in her English III and IV classes, emphasized the art of writing: both stress the importance of “teaching students to write like writers, cultivating the creative voice” while also acknowledging that writing is work; the “light at the end of the tunnel,” points out Childers, can be a motivating factor through the difficult moments every writer encounters. The Poetry in Translation project offered teachers a chance to collaborate with colleagues in other departments, and students appreciated the flow of ideas between classes and between languages.
Senior Tutorials Push Intellectual Curiosity Frailties of the Mind… Modern Microeconomics: Game Theory… Telling Our Stories… Not Knowing What You Are Thinking, While You Are Thinking… U.S. Foreign Policy toward Latin America: Cuba — A Case Study…
“Up the Stork Tower” by Wang Zhi-Huan, 688-742 AD, China Various translations: “Climbing White Stork Tower” (tr. by Bill Porter) The midday sun slips behind mountains The Yellow River turns for the sea Trying to see for a thousand miles I climb one more story “Up the Stork Tower” (Wang Zhi-Huan, 688-742 AD, China) Literal translation: White sun lean against mountain; end/over Yellow River enter sea flow Desire; want; exhaust/finish thousand li (miles) eyes More up one story floor
Ying Sun © 2008 By the hills the sun loses its glows. Into the sea the Yellow River flows. To gain a three-hundred-mile view, Keep climbing up a floor or few.
Spring/Summer Issue 2012 u 23