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Guidelines for writing Poems, Stories and Tales

How can I translate my poems in English that it doesn’t sound odd/non poetic for English speaker audiences?

Asked by: Crystal Washington

How do you translate a poem into another language?

I mean that there are some rules to respect when you translate a poem:

  1. Stay Close to the Poem. Read the poem again and again until the words become second nature on your tongue. …
  2. Know the poet. If you are lucky enough to pick a living poet to translate, write to him or her. …
  3. Go for Grace. …
  4. Be Wary. …
  5. Take a Deep Breath.

Why is it hard to translate a poem?

Specifically, poems are even harder to translate for so many reasons. There are a lot of factors to be considered including the choices of words, figurative languages used and metaphors. At the same time, the translator must also be able to transfer the emotions and thoughts of the poet.

What strategy would you use to translate a poem?

A summary of these seven strategies of poetry translation is as follows: 1) Phonemic Translation reproduces the source language (SL) sound in the target language (TL); 2) Literal Translation is similar to word-for-word translation; 3) Metrical Translation reproduces the SL meter; 4) Poetry into Prose distorts the sense …

Can we translate poems?

Poetry can certainly be translated, and it is, but an authentic translation cannot exist if the poet himself does not translate his own work. As for the translations that we do read in literary journals or in translated collections, it’s important to remember that the translation is the creative work of the translator.

What makes a good poem translation?

A good translation is that in which the text in the target language accurately expresses the meaning, sense and intention of the writer of the source text in such a way that it sounds natural to the reader.

What are the problems faced by a translator while translating poetry?

The translator may face the linguistic, literary and aesthetic, and socio-cultural problems in translating it. The linguistic problems include the collocation and obscured syntactic structure. The aesthetic and literary problems are related with poetic structure, metaphorical expressions, and sounds.

What are the translation problems?

Common Challenges of Translation

  • Check Out Smartling’s Complete Guide to Translation Services. Comments. …
  • Translating Language Structure. …
  • Translating Idioms and Expressions. …
  • Translating Compound Words. …
  • Missing Names In Translation. …
  • Two-Word Verbs. …
  • Multiple Meanings In Translation. …
  • Translating Sarcasm.

What types of translation are there?

The 4 Most Common Different Types of Translation

  • Literary translation.
  • Professional translation.
  • Technical Translation.
  • Administrative translation.



Can translation be both loyal and beautiful at the same time?

Drawing from the theories of eminent translators George Steiner and Susan Basnett, Mohanty said translation cannot be both faithful and beautiful at the same time. “There should be diversity in translation. We must get rid of prototypes and texts which are mechanically replicated,” he said.

Is translating poetry easy?

Translation of poetry is by no means a straightforward task, and is certainly not as easy as many people might think. All types of translation can be tricky, but translation of poetry proves even more exacting due to all the stylistic features that come together to make up its beauty.

What is the difference between official translation and translating poetry?

Official translation is translation done by the government while translating poet is to translate poems which is done by the poets.

How do you translate rhyming poems?

translate the poem’s lines, conveying their word-by-word meaning; what the poem talks about. convey the poem’s affect, attempting to interpret and replicate the poet’s intended emotional response. maintain the poem’s meter (if it is metered). maintain the poem’s rhyme (if it is rhymed).

How do you translate a poem into prose?

How to Convert a Poem Into Prose



  1. Break the poem into manageable sections, making sure that the sections are made up of complete sentences. …
  2. Eliminate the line breaks from your first section, turning it into a paragraph.
  3. Study each sentence in your paragraph to determine whether it is a run-on sentence.

What is considered translating poetry?

Poetry’s features can be sound-based, syntactic or structural or pragmatic in nature. Apart from transforming text, poetry translation also involves cognition, discourse, and action by and between human and textual actors in a physical and social setting.

What is prose translation?

Evidently, ‘prose-translation’ is the translation of novels, essays, fiction, short stories, comedy, folk tale, hagiography, works of criticism, science fiction etc. It is a type of literary creativeness where the written-work of one language is re-created in another.

What is a literary translator?

Literary translators convert journal articles, books, poetry, and short stories from one language into another language. They work to keep the tone, style, and meaning of the authors work.

What are the problems involved in translating literary text?

At work translators typically have to deal with six different issues, whether they are translating technical documents or sworn statements. These issues belong to lexical-semantic problems; grammar; syntax; rhetoric; practical problems; and cultural issues.

What is transliteration in translation?

Transliteration involves changing the script used to write words in one language to the script of another; taking the letters or characters from a word and changing them into the equivalent characters in another language. This process is concerned with the spelling and not the sound.



What is the difference between a translation and transliteration?

A: A translation tells you the meaning of words in another language. A transliteration doesn’t tell you the meaning of the words, but it helps you pronounce them. Transliteration changes the letters from one alphabet or language into the corresponding, similar-sounding characters of another alphabet.

What is difference between transcribe and translation?

The translation is the process of converting a text file from one language to another language. Transcription is the process of listening to audio, video, live speech, etc., and writing into text form in the exact wording that the original speaker used. Translation works with a text document.