Wednesday, April 22, 2009

My translation of "Ars Poetica"

I only got through about 2/3 of the poem but I wanted to show you what my idea was anyway.

You can read across the lines or down the columns.




Method: took every other line, starting with first ("Between shadow and space, between trimmings and damsels") and split them in half. The left halves, translated, became the little trios down the left side; the right half became the bits on the right side. Took the other lines (beginning with "endowed with a singular heart and sorrowful dreams") and translated them down the middle, in sets of four lines. Got the idea from the "betweens" in the first line of the poem.

That was an awesome in class exercise and I will try it on other stuff I think!

P.S. Just realized I accidentally reversed the "sides" for the last bit (drunkeness and guest translations).

2 comments:

  1. I like the way this reads as reverberations of the original. Captured the "form fitting content" part of the assignment, too.

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