Volume 11, Issue II: Roads

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

In his essay “The Viae: The Roman Roads in Britain”, the British poet and painter David Jones speaks of the importance of roads from a historical and archaeological perspective, observing how they record and layer up the lives and experiences of generation after generation, so that “[w]hen we look down the street we are apt to make a recalling of the people, living and dead, of that street.”

By choosing “Roads” as an editorial theme for this issue, I wanted to encourage a kind of archeological view of translation, as a process in which the translator’s voice, experience, and history are layered unto that of the author, as if the translator walked the path laid down by the author years, decades, centuries ago.

So many literary roads, routes, paths, tracks, journeys, vehicles, and escapes are presented in the pages to come. The variety of languages is as astonishing as ever: Turkish, Chinese, Norwegian, Middle English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Gorani, Hindi, Latin… We are delighted to have included an Irish-Polish and a German-Irish translations. Amongst the authors translated are Eavan Boland, Italo Calvino, Patrick Kavanagh, Paul Éluard, Antonio Machado, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Robert Frost.

The notion of “Roads” reflects the variety of choices — of paths — the translator can take in their work. The techniques and methods of literary translation are endless, providing a range of opportunities to interpret and adjust the original. In this issue, you will find the sound of a Portuguese “Trem de Ferro” domesticated for Irish culture, and a sense of Parisian nostalgia relocated to Dublin. You will also find a translation of Dante that preserves the original syntax and rhythm.

Serendipitously, I received two translations of Mikhail Lermontov’s “Выхожу один я на дорогу…”, a poem that was certainly at the back of my mind when I chose the theme. It thus seems right to begin and conclude this issue with two different versions of the same text, each of high value and an achievement of its own, that also showcase two alternate routes taken by the two translators, routes that start together, but lead to very distinct destinations.

My journey as the Editor-in-Chief of JoLT is coming to an end. It was a wonderful year, and there aren’t enough words to express my gratitude for all the things I’ve learnt and the friendships I’ve made. My sincerest thank you is to my editorial team: Adrianna, Aisling, Alessandra, Jade, Cúán, Eoghan, Caroline, Alexander, Felix, and Jack. I am once again grateful for your enthusiasm, hard work, and love of languages. It has been a pleasure working with you. Together, we’ve travelled from the dreamland into reality. Yet, I know that with this path ending, many more are opening up in front of us.

This issue is for everyone who is currently on the road. Whether you are reaching your destination or have just stepped on a path untrodden, whether you feel there is no light at the end of the tunnel or have every hope and confidence in the success of your journey, your courage to have started and to keep going is to be admired. One step at a time, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.

Editorial

‘I set out alone along the road… ’ trans. by Ailbhe Cannon

When I saw that the theme of this issue of JoLT was “Roads”, this poem by Lermontov immediately came to mind. While the opening line is directly related to the theme, the poet is clearly setting out on a journey of self-discovery and introspection, which can be considered part of the metaphorical road that is life.

‘A Blind Cosmos’s Blinded Roads’ trans. by Alok Debnath

This poem (originally a song) is from the 1953 Indian movie Patita, which follows the story of an impoverished young woman who meets someone who loves her and asks her to take charge of her own destiny. It plays at the movie's tragic climax as the woman's love interest laments his now-wife's unfortunate past, its impact on his social standing, and the future of his married life.

‘Woods and Clearings’ trans. by Greta Chies

The poet walks the winding paths of the ancient Cansiglio forest, deeper and deeper, seeking his own primordial roots. He uses the local archaic dialect, as wild and thick as the forest; the only language which still allows him to find the “lost path [...] that won’t yield to translation”.

‘Dr. Happy’ trans. by Oisín Thomas Morrin

“Roads – in their many forms – appear to unite us; yet, they simultaneously act as the divider between us. This excerpt explores the nature of the boundaries of the links between us.

‘Return Song’ trans. by Ana Olivares Muñoz Ledo

Sagu Palm’s Song by Japanese songwriter Ichiko Aoba is mysterious and magical. I decided to translate this song as Return Song because it invites the listener to wonder where we are going, the origin of life in a seashell or how the road of the dragon looks from space. Who is the dragon? Maybe that is what the song wants us to wonder about.

‘Prázdniny s Tátou Během Rozvodu’ trans. by Michaela Králová

Jessica Traynor’s 2022 collection, Pit Lullabies, contains visceral and intimate poems about motherhood, violence, and in ‘Holidaying With Dad During the Divorce’, about the anxieties which follow us throughout life. The title mirrors the ‘high-road’ taken by the narrator, as well as the literal road travelled with her father.

‘Sessizlikte’ trans. by Mert Moralı

I have always had a deep affinity for being on the road and a peaceful sense of strangeness it wakes up in me. In Gerry Murphy’s “In the Quiet”, I experience this “peaceful strangeness” in a very similar manner. Now, I share this feeling with my translation.

‘An Bóthar Síoraí’ trans. by Seathrún Sardina

The poem, sung by Bilbo Baggins at the end of The Hobbit, represents the completion of his journey and arrival, at least, to a place where he is safe. At both the literal level of travelling on a road, and the allegorical one of the paths his life took,it represents an end of a journey and a return to peace.

‘Spojrzenie na morze’ trans. by Kinga Jurkiewicz

This poem urges the addressee to choose a path on the crossroads of life. It employs ample seafaring metaphors and imagery, and is permeated with a sense of urgency.

‘No Trem ’ trans. by Isabela Facci Torezan

In this short story Lydia Davis describes part of a train journey, but we can also read it as a metaphor to the common journey, the common road of life, that we are all on. We may be very different people, or have just a few similarities, but we are heading towards the same direction.

‘Horse’ trans. by Adrianna Rokita

Paul Éluard's poem alludes to the expectations and pressures that our environments place on us in terms of the paths we take in life. Remaining true to ourselves while accepting the responsibilities that come with each new journey is one of life's greatest challenges.

‘En Calle Raglan’ trans. by Eoghan Conway

Kavanagh’s poem charts the course of a love affair from its inception to its ultimate acknowledged resignation. The physical streets of Dublin and the journey they facilitate depicts the pursuit of love from its fruition to failure.

‘Road or life on foot’ trans. by Arno Bohlmeijer

Some roads require slow going with patience and reflection, because they cross bumps, a tough country or state of mind. Mental and physical migration can take years or a lifetime.

‘Whole words’ trans. by Arno Bohlmeijer

Taking courage, roads may be chosen, or we’re dragged along despite ourselves, trying to find a purpose or destiny as we go.

‘Beyond the bridge’ trans. by Ilaria Lico

Calvino is striving to narrate through a fictional young lady the events, feelings, and emotions shared by those Italians who, like him, fought against the Nazi fascists during the Second World War. The author describes the tortuous path that leads “beyond the bridge”, metaphorically the long-desired “fair, free, and cheerful world”.

‘The Migration Road’ trans. by Aysel K. Basci

“The Migration Roads” is a poem I translated from the Turkish. It is written by the renowned, contemporary Turkish poet and author, Murathan Mungan about the plight of the involuntary immigrants in the Middle East and elsewhere, most notably, the Syrians. The relationship between the poem and the ROADS theme is quite direct and obvious.

‘Wunderblume’ trans. by Maeve Carolan

This text comes from an anthology of folk stories about a mountain in Thuringia. All describe the road leading to and from the mountain, as the characters undergo dramatic change in their lives. Here, a shepherd takes his usual road, unaware that his life is about to change forever.

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‘Vision from the Afterlife’ trans. by Octavio Pérez Sánchez

Charon embodies multiple aspects of roads. We come to him at the end of life's road, but it is also through him that souls find their way to peace. He is the guide that leads across the rivers of the underworld, but, as arbiter and toll collector, Charon is also the obstacle that disallows passage. A disallowance that, as is hinted at in Perelló's "Visión de Ultratumba", can lead to a new, terrible road: that of a restless spirit.

JoLT Gallery

‘Rut. Nam. I, 183-194, 197-204 ’ trans. by Alessandro Bonvini

The passage marks Rutilius’ farewell to his beloved Rome. He has to come back to his native land, Gaul, hit by the Vandals. From the harbor he looks back at the Urbs. Among the shimmering seven hills and people’s noise, Rutilius hears the voice of his familiar place: dream or reality?

‘墙与窗’ trans. by Chaomei Chen

Such themes as “roads” and “travelling” remind me of Walls and Windows, a play about the Irish Travellers, a traditionally peripatetic indigenous ethno-cultural group. Representing the sufferings of contemporary Travellers, literally living “on the road”, on a trailer or a caravan, Rosaleen McDonagh confronts social issues like racism and ableism.

קוריה ריבאהו ןיוואג רס’ trans. by Itamar Shalev

The four stanzas given here make that first part of every story where everything is perfect as it is - that moment just before a magical green entity crashes your banquet and challenges you to go on a perilous journey, by the end of which you will find who you truly are and have been all along.

‘A Lad on the Road’ trans. by Denis

Ferhatović

It is a folk song or a poem (pesne means both) from the Gorani people, a South Slavic Muslim ethnic group in Kosovo and the surroundings. It belongs to the subgenre of migrant worker songs. Men worked abroad while their wives waited at home. The longing and anxiety are palpable.

‘Tell me, when will you be back?’ trans. by Aoife Dalton

This is a verse from a song by the French singer Barbara in which she alludes to the streets of Paris. Similar to many of the singer’s songs, the verse laments a lost love. I chose to be quite liberal with my translation. I strayed away from the exact vocabulary in the original text in order to keep the lyrical value of the piece. I also decided to experiment with the method of domestication.

‘Carbon compounds’ trans. by Vilde Bjerke Torset and Harry Man

Jon Ståle Ritland is an ophthalmologist and being close to a laser, inscribing corrections into the lens of the eye, and carbon as something that acts as a universal point of connection between all life on earth. It’s both the basis for all life and its greatest adversary. Here the poem moves between its conception as lines appearing on the white, electric document, to the physical action of reading and meaning forming a new connection, a new route between the poet in one time period in the past and the reader in the present.

‘Black holes’ trans. by Vilde Bjerke Torset and Harry Man

Here the black hole is both the pupil of the eye and cave-mouth at the entrance to a mine. The poem acts stereoscopically, finding a way to work both down and across the page, reflecting the subject in the experience.

‘Runnin' Train’ trans. by Julia Álvares

This 1936 poem is meant to be read aloud. It mimics the sound of a train, its engines picking up speed, the whistles. A passenger reminisces as the train cuts through a rural landscape. My translation sets the train and the passenger in the countryside of Ireland.

‘Il Sentiero Della Carestia’ trans. by Liam Frabetti

In this poem, Boland makes an analogy between the tone her doctor uses to announce her infertility and the tone of 19th century British officials discussing the Great Irish Famine. His condescending and dispassionate tone leads her to feel that her infertile body is as pointless as a famine road.

‘A Day ’ trans. by Reyzl Grace

In much American writing, the road means (middle-class) freedom. Veprinski, who grew up poor in Ukraine and worked in New York sweatshops, sharply boundaries earth and sky and forces our attention to those who have not been birds – those for whom the road has been the symbol of things unreachable.

‘An bóthar, nár tógadh’ trans. by Gráinne Caulfield

Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken was written as a joke for a friend as they could never pick a trail when out for their walks. Frost is quoted as saying about this poem, “I’m never more serious than when joking.”

‘Cisa’s Highway’ trans. by Elena Poletto

The poem, from Stella variabile, Vittorio Sereni (1979), addresses the enigma of death and the impalpable (but real) presence of emptiness.The highway in the background is dazzling and flourishing, full of mythological figures and omens, however they only represent a cruel hope in the void of existence, on the road-life that lead to death...

‘The First Girls’ trans. by Lucile Brenon

I chose the first excerpt, “Les premières filles” (“The First Girls”) in relation to this issue's theme because it depicts two women having a conversation about their teenage days. They are looking back on the roads they have already traveled.

‘I Go by Dreaming Roads’ trans. by Ana Orbegozo

Antonio Machado (1875-1939) is best known for his lyrics about countryside roads in Castille. But his observations about ‘the road’ are really meditations on the nature of life. This poem focuses on a traveller who cannot see where his road goes and yet seems to be reaching the end of his journey.

‘Féile Chorp Chríost i “Máirseáil Radetzky’’’ trans. by Aoibh Ní Chroimín

On a literal level, the extract depicts roads as places of public gatherings and pageantry. On a more metaphorical level, the novel traces the paths of Lieutenant Trotta, his family, and the Empire in which he lives in the lead up to the First World War.

‘My Destination’ trans. by Breno Moura Motta

In this poem Cora Coralina depicts life as a journey along a road, and her loved one as a companion that she stumbles upon unintentionally. The “white stone from a fish’s head” is a reference to otoliths, stones that grow in the heads of all fish.

‘Inferno, Canto I, 1 - 60.’ trans. by Martha Giambanco

The Divine Comedy is the allegorical tale of the journey all men must undertake on earth to achieve truth and salvation, forfeiting the road of sin. In his path of atonement and moral purification, Dante is antagonised by three beasts, symbolising lust, pride and avarice. Thus, having reached the middle of his life, Dante now finds himself at the ultimate crossroad.

‘Trans-European Express ’ trans. by Greta Chies

Trieste is a crossroads of languages and cultures, a border-town suspended between East and West, “a wonderful rift between worlds”. Standing on its pier, one can imagine endless roads leading far away. The author, a travel writer, knows this well: Trieste is the shore where he has “dreamt every departure”.

‘The Farewell’ trans. by Rachele Faggiani

We pass through several roads, when proceeding in life. Should we go back or move forward? The poem expresses the feeling of having to literally retrace our steps and decide what’s the next path we’re going to take.

‘I go out on the road alone… ’ trans. by Cian Dunne

Lermontov’s use of trochaic pentameter in this longer-line, lyric poem was unusual, therefore more commonly associated with short-line folk poetry and song. Work by later poets written in similar metrical and stanza form was subsequently assumed to be in dialogue with Lermontov’s precedent. Thus, this romantic, meditative poem, as well as outlining the onset of its speaker’s journey, sets a poetic path for Lermontov’s imitators to follow.