{"id":40034,"date":"2020-06-05T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T16:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=40034"},"modified":"2020-06-05T12:30:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T16:30:12","slug":"speaking-of-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2020\/06\/speaking-of-translation.html","title":{"rendered":"Speaking of Translation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

News of the upcoming Cold Turkey Press publication<\/a> of the last words of Arthur Rimbaud as imagined by the late Carl Weissner\u2014which required translating Carl’s German text into English\u2014drew this reply from a poet friend in Berlin. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE TRANSLATOR\u2019S COPY<\/strong>\nby William 'Cody' Maher<\/em>\n \nTranslators have given up on my work \nIs it simply because they can't find the originals\nFootsteps cast in doubt leave no prints behind\nEyes cast down in shame can't see the road again\nArms extended in vain are soon cast aside\nThreats in the dark are now cast in the light of day\nFlames on the horizon wait for a strong wind \nA soul casts a shadow that is mistaken for a man\nTake me in your arms at the risk of being seen\nKeep the distance we agreed upon and now give me your tongue\nWhat could he possibly mean says one?\nHe's just playing with words says another\nHe's playing with himself says one\nYou can only have your guts kicked out once in a lifetime\nAnd still stomach the pain\nAfter that you're just vomiting up thin air\nWe looked through his childhood records and we can't\nFind the evidence that excuses this language\nThe important thing is we translate to the best of our knowledge\nOf our ability \nWith all of our cunning deceptively displayed\nTranslators meet over coffee and a shortage of breath\nAre they trying to intimidate me with their threadbare clothes?\nThe wind is kicking up dust in the square\nAnother source of inspiration for the town\nTranslators down to my last crust of bread\nSuitcases packed and prepared to flee\nI love my translators \nFor not waiting for the originals \nThe work must begin\nLet's make no bones about it\nMy texts belong to the world\nEven when they are forged copies\nMy translators complain of climbing steps to attics\nThey complain of sifting through the debris in basements\nThey complain over the endless boxes stored\nIn countries that don't even allow them entry\nA watchdog guards a box somewhere in Moscow\nAn irate lover protects another box\nMy translators complain of bad backs and dust\nOne translator complained because of the food\nI understand the Russian translation is superior to the original\nThe German translation however \nHas not lived up to the Polish translation\nAnd though attempts have been made at a Spanish translation\nThere are claims that the original is actually\nFrom a Mexican author\nAnd that my texts aren't in fact my texts at all\nYou just have to look at the lines on my forehead and you\nCan have no doubt that I am the author\nYet there are experts that say these lines are forged as well\nSpies who have traced my lines to a plastic surgeon in Berlin \nI offer my back bent in vain as evidence \nExperts claim that a back chasing its tale is no proof of origin\nDo you think I got weak knees from standing on them I say?\nI have been leaping over borders since the day I was born\nOne more claim that is widely disputed by the authorities\nMy translators are sometimes overzealous\nThey work on what I haven't yet written\nIs this some kind of intimidation?\nThat I have to try and keep step\nMost of my translators have all of their teeth\nSome of my translators have varicose veins\nOne of my translators had his eyes blinded by light\nOne had his eyes blinded by sorrow\nOne laughed herself to death\nOne buried her head in my arms an fell silent\nOne claims to have witnessed something between us that never happened\nThere are currently no official translators working on my behalf\nAnd I can't get the words out of my mouth fast enough to please the censors.\n <\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“My texts belong to the world \/ Even when they are forged copies \/ My translators complain of climbing  steps to attics \/ They complain of sifting through the debris in basements \/ They complain over the endless boxes stored \/ In countries that don’t even allow them entry \/ A watchdog guards a box somewhere in Moscow \/ An irate lover protects another box \/ My translators complain of bad backs and dust  \/ One translator complained because of the food …” \u2014William ‘Cody’ Maher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,18,4,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"category-literature","9":"category-main","10":"category-news","11":"category-political-culture","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Willam-Cody-Mahler.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-apI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40034"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40048,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40034\/revisions\/40048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}