Last Translation Monday (October 1) saw a group of intrepid translators gather in the North Quad gallery for the second issue release party of Canon Translation Review, the UM literary magazine for creative translation.
I say intrepid translators, but I’ll admit that, since I was preparing to read aloud my own piece from Canon, I spent the half-hour before the readings began in a state of acute pre-performance panic. I needn’t have worried. As I sat listening to my fellow Canon writers perform their works, the genuine interest and receptiveness of the audience smoothed away (most of) my fears. I realized that those of us attending the event, whether reading or not, were part of a large and welcoming community of translators that truly wanted to celebrate the art of translation. This feeling of community amongst those who attended persisted whether the works presented were poetry or prose, translated from Spanish, Ancient Greek, Serbian or French; whether the audience were familiar with the original work or not.
I particularly enjoyed listening to members of the audience who had brought translations of their own to read – something I had not been aware would be part of the evening. These translations added even more flavor to the night’s intriguing mix of translation, as several of these translators chose to read some of the source works in the original language. I was especially interested by a homophonic translation of the first lines of John’s Gospel presented by two graduate students – not only did the collaborative effort symbolize the communal feel of the evening, but it made me think about how each translator brings a wealth of their own experiences to the table, which are worth the most when they are shared.
Personally, I got a lot of enjoyment out of the piece because I knew what the original Greek of the Gospel meant – and it definitely wasn’t what the translation sounded like in English, hence the humor. Yet there were probably audience members who laughed along simply because the homophonic translation sounded funny and nonsensical. This made me realize that the different experience each audience member had of each piece added to, rather than detracted from, the enchantment of the evening. All of us had become immersed in the larger community of translation.
Ana Maria Guay