Translation has changed the world, and the world is beginning to respond to the changes. For many years, translators in the academic world lived under a dark cloud. Their work was not taken seriously, and many of the translation faculty had to hide their book publications, whether they were translations or studies of translation theory. The practice of translation in the academic world was not considered to be an acceptable scholarly activity. However, the negative atmosphere has undergone some remarkable changes! Recently, a well-established translator informed the publisher that the name of the translator must appear on the front cover page of the translated book. If not, the translator would withdraw the translated manuscript.
The general attitude toward the act of interpretation was normally guided by reducing a poem or a short story to a specific meaning, often reduced to one single meaning. That activity creates a certain feeling of comfort but does not lead the reader to live inside the work. The practice of translation and the thinking about the process of translation places the interpretation into a different position.
Translation practice makes it clear that no text can be reduced to only one meaning or one translation. The nature of translation thinking and the practice of translation are anchored in establishing associations between words. The pianist listens to the same note ten or twenty times to begin to understand the nature of the sound. The translator must develop the skill to explore all the possible sounds and meanings that speak from a word. The associations inherent in the foreign word must establish a link to a corresponding word in the new language. Translation thinking begins to train the reader to investigate the various associations created in the writer’s mind. That is of particular importance for the translation of poems. One of the characteristics of a well-written poem is the recognition that visualizations of words used by the poet move in the same direction to create a coherent atmosphere of the poem. To demonstrate that technique, I have chosen W.S. Merwin’s poem “In Autumn,” one of the best constructed poems. What intrigued me was the title “In Autumn” rather than just “Autumn.” The poet wants to show what is happening “In Autumn.” Most of the images show movement: “the lights are going on in the leaves,” “the animals are still looking” “moving on without memory,” “still looking,” “never arrive,” “moving without memory,” and “light is going on in the evening.” The movement of the poem is further strengthened by stating that the lines of the poem move from the beginning to the end without punctuation. Therefore, the title has to be “In Autumn,” and not simply “Autumn.” The poet underlines the movement of the activities. The act of the visualization of relationships between words can be learned from the practice of translation. In transferring a word from the foreign language into English, the translator engages in the activity of clearly articulating the various possible associations coming from the word. The poet must choose words and expressions that create similar associations in meaning and sound. The success of a poem can be assessed by whether the choices of words and their associations move in the same direction. “In Autumn” by W.S. Merwin confirms that practice.
At a time when the arts and humanities are undergoing major changes that are leading to the discontinuation of the Humanities at various colleges and universities, it might be appropriate to rethink the function and practice of interpretation. The main guideline for interpretation of verbal, visual, and musical texts was anchored in the question: “What does a work mean?” That attitude was guided by defining the meaning of a text. However, no work can be reduced to one meaning, as no single translation can totally reconstruct a foreign text. We need to focus on the question “How does a work come to mean?” Recreating the atmosphere of a work! The reader has to be guided to discover and visualize the various associations that come to life in a work. The practice of translation can facilitate the various interactions and associations that live in a work. “What does it mean” will be replaced by the constant exploration of associations alive in a word. The interpreter does not describe the word, but lives inside the associations that emanate from a word. Translation practice can enable and strengthen this practice!
Coming from this angle of approach, the experience of a written work can also be intensified by approaching a text, especially a poem, in the context of visual and musical works. We have tried to illustrate this approach by recreating the atmosphere of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Vowels.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN9chheMfsE)
Translation practice changes the way a work can be brought to life through the act of interpretation.