Dante / Neruda 3b - Found in Translation - Translating The Inferno
"A translation is no translation, he said, unless it will give you the music of a poem along
with the words of it." John Millington Synge
Dante / Neruda 3b -Found in Translation - A Project for Translating "The Inferno" : This was the original project that students did for Dante's Inferno - before they started doing their Creative Performance Projects. While I really like that latter project better - I know that something was lost when we stopped doing this. Too often in World Literature the works that we read that were written in a language other than English - are assumed by the students (and sometimes the teacher) to have been written in English (and probably by Americans at that). This project gave the students the original Italian for what we had read - and asked them to first transliterate (a word-for-word reckoning) the passage they were responsible for and then to turn that nonsensical collection of words into something resembling poetry. A very tall order in deed - and I will admit I was very generous with the grading. Just as not everyone, with the other Performance Project, is an actor - not everyone for this project is poetic. And yet (as Leo would say), it was - as most of my lessons and projects are, all about the process. Just getting them to try - and to see what translators do - not only gives them a project that draws a deeper meaning out of the text (The Inferno), it also gives them an opportunity to see the importance of translation and the effect it has on all of the works that we read in this class (that were not written initially in English).
Lesson Overview
The Translation Project
Please see the handout. The students will work with partners and will be given a section of one of the Cantos that we've gone over in class. Each set of partners will have two stanzas. Here are the directions from the handout:
Begin this assignment by choosing a partner; by now you should know how important it is to find someone who will work as hard as you – with you – and in a way that you compliment each other. You and your partner are to translate a small part of Dante’s Inferno (2 stanzas). You are not to consult your book or any other translation, but you are to talk to, email, and otherwise confer with your classmates.
Signing Up
The second page of the handout is a sign-up sheet. The teacher will either assign or let students choose (more difficult but gives more ownership) on which two stanzas (they need to be consecutive) they will do. After they sign up they are given further directions:
The first step is to be assigned two stanzas. After you get your assignment, you are to transliterate every word in your section. That means you are going to find what every word in Italian (in your two stanzas) literally means in English. See the illustration below and the worksheet. You will find Italian dictionaries useful, but you will run into problems when you get to verbs (remember they have all those conjugated forms). There are massive dictionaries that contain all the various verb forms – you will have to seek them out. You can also find Italian dictionaries online (go to google – type Italian English dictionary). Do not look up your lines on the Internet – this will only lead to plagiarism – inadvertent or not. You may find the internet a good source for Italian Dictionaries – but remember you must translate each word – not phrases or sentences.
Angry Italian teachers
At our school we had Italian classes and the students are warned in the handout not to go bothering those teachers. I wanted the students to do the footwork, the research, the finding and understanding dictionaries themselves - so that they could get a small taste of what translating was like.
Turning nonsense into Poetry
Once they have a transliteration - they need to turn that into Poetry. Here are some of those instructions: Now the fun part – You will take what will probably look like a bunch of nonsense, and turn it into a poem. How do you do this? Well, first play with the English words until you and your partner can come up with some possible meanings of the line(s). This would also be a good time (before you get too involved in the actual writing of the poetry – the translation) to consult with the partners that have the lines before yours and the partners that have the lines after yours. This is without a doubt, the hardest but also the most rewarding part of this assignment. Concentrate on the transliteration at this point – it is up to you and the those that precede and follow you. Find the poet in you.
Meaning in Translation - Translating The Inferno Handout
Two Examples of Translations done by classes
Remote Enhancements
I did this before Remote Learning was a thing - But, I think it'd be great remote. Partners could research and do the transliterating remotely - and there could be a Google Doc to put it all together on. And then of course the class could view together what they'd done!
It Came for Me - The Poems of Pablo Neruda: The students read these poems cold - which is a great thing to do every once in a while (like when we read poetry before each novel). We read the poems as a class - asking for volunteers - and after each poem - and sometimes after each stanza - we talk about what they mean and we talk about how the move us. We are able to do seven of his poems - and sometimes a song about Pablo Neruda by Patty Larkin. In our mix, there are love poems, political poems, poems about masculinity, poems about finding one's calling. They are all beautiful. I was blessed when I taught to have at least one fluent Spanish-Speaking student in each class. That meant we were also able to listen to a few of these poems in their native tongue
Thoughts on the Lesson
I haven't looked at these translations that the students did and I have to say that I am so impressed by what they accomplished. Such an assignment - must, at first glance - seem out of reach of high school students - but as they did time and time again, they showed they were not only capable - they were expert.