slavic soul party!
The Smelting Process Podcast
dance the dust up
info_outline Is there a ghost?The Smelting Process Podcast
fdkhjssdfjhks
info_outline Jorge Eielson #3 - mutilated bodyThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline Fernando Pessoa #07 - DemogorgonThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline Jorge Eielson #2 - melancholic bodyThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline Jorge Eielson #01 - prior bodyThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline Carlos Drummond #01 - In the Middle of the RoadThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline Fernndo Pessoa #06 - The Chess GameThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline César Vallejo #09 - Individual and SocietyThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline Oliverio Girondo #06 - Ex-votoThe Smelting Process Podcast
...
info_outline
In this poem from dark night of the body, the Peruvian poet,
Jorge Eielson takes his exploration of the physiological to a deeper
level, a level of dissection without disgust, without moral sentiments
of any kind. The poet counts extremities "as were they cherries or
grapes". One problem that arises in the translation of this poem is
located in the first line: "Cuento los dedos de mis manos y mis pies".
In Spanish, "dedo" refers to either "fingers" or "toes"; however, the
line would become quite clumsy if it were "I count the fingers on my
hands & toes on my feet". Due to this, "digits"– both the medical
terms for finger & toes –has been preferred, partly because it
captures this semantic aspect of the line, but also because it plays
off the idea of "counting", albeit this double meaning does not exist
in the "dedos" of the Spanish version. This sheds light on the
translation process in general. While it commonly thought that the
translation of a poem loses poetic elements of the original,
this example shows that a translation can also add poetic elements
without doing harm to the poem itself.