translation | E. Rowan Mena

Tres Ojos

January 10, 2011 by E. Rowan

Today I did not meet my goal. Today I was not as productive as I intended to be. Today, I went to Los Tres Ojos, an underground cave system in the east part of Santo Domingo. It was amazing. So though no excuse, it did take up the bulk of my day, plus by the time we got back to our neighborhood I was boiling in the heat and humidity. But I did get 1/2 of the way through Praises […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Aida Cartagena Portalatin, Dominican Republic, Judith Kerman, poetry, review, translation

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This is not a translation, or the homophonic fear

December 7, 2010 by E. Rowan

Remember, this is not a translation. So reads the ‘disclaimer’ on a number of phonetically translated music videos, part of a meme explained pretty well here at KnowYourMeme.com. These videos, which subtitle a non-English music video with English lyrics based on the sounds of the words, engage in the experimental literary practice homophonic translation, which translates a text based on sound relationships rather than meaning relationships, mapping a text by sound into a new language. Zukofsky’s Catullus is the oft-cited […]

Categories: Translation • Tags: exchanges, experimental translation, homophonic translation, meme, new media, phonetic translation, Silliman, translation, Zukofsky

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Mis-translated

November 7, 2010 by E. Rowan

Some mistranslations from a recent working session that could make great band-names: Collective Damage (a cuddle-core band) The Damned Automatons (cover-band, in which all members dress as robots. covering only Flight of the Conchords songs.) Labyrinth of Dustbunnies (this might be better as a low-budget horror film. “trapped forever in….the LABYRINTH OF DUSTBUNNIES!) The Devil’s Honda (this actually isn’t a mistranslation, it’s literal. and awesome) Savory Hips (chick-pop, obviously) Cleopatra Jones and the Wobbly Boobs (also not a mistranslation, but […]

Categories: Translation • Tags: mistranslation, translation

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Reading the World 6: Forrest Gander

September 10, 2010 by E. Rowan

The new Reading the World podcast is out! In the first of only a few that we recorded at this year’s AWP convention in Denver, Colorado, Annie Janusch and I talk with Forrest Gander about his upcoming translation of Pura López Colmé’s book Watchword, translating from languages you don’t read, the compulsion to translate and more. You can download it from the ITunes store (and subscribe to the series) or you can listen to it streaming at Three Percent.

Categories: Podcasts • Tags: Annie Janusch, Forrest Gander, prose poetry, Reading the World, Three Percent, translation

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Merwin

July 8, 2010 by E. Rowan

As I’ve mentioned, I’m in Corfu, and so somehow missed the news last week that W.S. Merwin is the new U.S. poet laureate. Merwin is almost solely responsible for the course my life has taken, and since I’m convinced I have few if any readers, I feel no qualms about sharing the story here. I’ve been trying to write a poem for him for years. Maybe someday I’ll get there, but for now, memoir it will be. At fifteen I had very […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: poet laureate, poetry, translation, W.S. Merwin

Reading the World 5: Bill Johnston

July 7, 2010 by E. Rowan

There is an excuse for the irregularity with which I’ve been writing. Several, in fact, the most recent of which is that I’m in Greece attending the University of Iowa’s Overseas Writing Workshop. Corfu, to be precise, and it’s awfully hard to remember there are more important things than talking about translation and poetry in the shade after swimming in the Ionian Sea. But, the new Reading the World Podcast finally made it up! This is the last of the […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Bill Johnston, Chad Post, Reading the World, Three Percent, translation

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Bolaño – A stranger

March 15, 2010 by E. Rowan

Since I won’t have the chance to publish my full translation of Roberto Bolaño’s poem “Tales of the Autumn in Gerona“, which also means I won’t get a forum to talk about the various choices I made, I thought I’d talk a bit about it here. It may be interesting, or it may be self-indulgent. We’ll see. The first section of this poem was actually somewhat problematic. It sets the tone and introduces the ‘characters’ that will appear and reappear […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Bolaño, poetry, translation, Words without Borders

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Language Police on The Second Sex

February 18, 2010 by E. Rowan

It’s great to see works of literary translation carefully reviewed. (And I include philosophy, theory and creative non-fiction in my definition of literary. In fact, I define literary translation as the translation of any text that requires careful attention to style.) But ouch. Following a rather academic summary of de Beauvoir’s seminal The Second Sex, the reviewer of the new translation picks apart the translators’ work. I don’t read French at the level required to engage with de Beauvoir in […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: language police, Lawrence Venuti, reviews, Simone de Beauvoir, translation

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Poets Take the Twenty-First Century

February 17, 2010 by E. Rowan

I’m right now sitting in a cafe in Iowa City reading. There’s not much unusual about this situation. But I’ve finally managed to prioritize reading The Poetry Foundation’s recently released Poetry and New Media User’s Guide. The lovely 74-page pdf is split into two sections: Legal Issues and The Lifeline of Poetry. My husband, a new media and technology educator in Cambridge, MA, is sitting beside me (an unusual situation) reading the first section. I’m focusing on the second. What’s […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: new media, Poetry Foundation, translation

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Best-selling Poets? Apparently, Only in Russia…

February 15, 2010 by E. Rowan

First of all, kudos to Vogue for writing about poetry in translation. It gives me hope to know that a major fashion magazine will, occasionally, deign to engage with literature. Ok, that said, could they have actually gotten someone who knew a little more about poetry (or translation, for that matter) to write the 198 words on the book? With not much space devoted to it, I suppose I shouldn’t complain, but to open with the utterly absurd statement that […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: poetry, translation, Vogue

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E. Rowan Mena

Poet | Book Artist | Translator

Tag: translation

Tres Ojos

This is not a translation, or the homophonic fear

Mis-translated

Reading the World 6: Forrest Gander

Merwin

Reading the World 5: Bill Johnston

Bolaño – A stranger

Language Police on The Second Sex

Poets Take the Twenty-First Century

Best-selling Poets? Apparently, Only in Russia…