Welcome to Translation

Desireé Jung

Many critics, theorists and artists have written about the importance, as well as the difficulty, of carrying on with the process of translation. It is, indeed, not only an intellectual and creative activity, but also a physical and arduous journey.

If you were to watch a translator at work, you would not see a peaceful being staring at a white page. Instead, you would watch a frantic soul in action, maneuvering two, if not twenty, dictionaries at once, searching, and losing, meaning as each minute passes by. And what’s worst, sometimes—or most of the time—dictionaries are not enough. And that’s when the real translator is born, out of nothing, crude, alone with a word and its image.

So after all that is said, it is my honour to introduce you to this edition of Poet’s Corner’s translation section: Eva Passerova, a Czech-Canadian writer, translated from Czech into English by Tony Liman; and Ana Istaru a Costa Rican poet translated by Diane Sutherland from Spanish into English.

If we were to find a connection between the works presented in this edition, we would say that all of them attempt to bring light into the hidden, obscure images of our lives—the feelings and impressions that we take for granted, either for lack of attention or for hectic lifestyles. They are a whisper, a cry for help—to see, to understand, to be heard. Eva Passerova presents us with the magical story of a boy and his birthday present, his wish to grow up to be a butterfly, in “Land of Opportunity.” And lastly, Ana Istaru, with her inflamed and lively voice, claiming for “my America of rage,” shouts “of a virginal and long lasting peace.”