ALTA38: Translating Poetry From Indigenous Languages, 10/31/2015
Channel: Literary Translation
Date: 2015-11-22

Almost without exception, Mexican indigenous poets who write in Native languages are also translators since that is the only way their work can reach beyond their specific language group. When they translate their poetry to Spanish they risk losing subtleties of sound, imagery and cultural reference. What happens when we take one step further and translate their Spanish texts to English? What are some of the ethical, linguistic and cultural dilemmas that face us in this process? How can we recapture in English some of what was lost in the transformation from the Native language into Spanish?