The poet, translator, and translation theorist Mireile Gansel has said that “no word that speaks of what is human is untranslatable.” On the other end of the spectrum, we have the observation, attributed to Robert Frost, that “poetry is what gets lost in translation.”
In this three-part workshop, we’ll explore a range of approaches to translation and translability, and create new translations both individually and collaboratively. Keeping in mind Walter Benjamin’s insistence that “all great writings [ . . . ] contain their potential translation between the lines,” we’ll consider what translation makes possible in the world, how it not only serves new readers in a target language but also enriches the original text, pushing language against its own limits to expand meaning in new and unexpected ways.
Readings may include poems by Almog Behar, Paul Celan, Celia Dropkin, Dan Pagis, Esther Raab, and Avrom Sutzkever, among others.
Second language not required.