[Newspoetry] translation problem

[DL Emerick]

Can it stand the test of translation?

 

What test is that, exactly,

And when it is applied?

 

What is a translation?

 

A simple view of a translation is a quid-pro-quo,

A substitution cipher,

As if one symbol set maps completely,

Reversibly upon another symbol set.

 

Unfortunately, that view has many problems!

First, if the symbols were such signs,

languages sharing common alphabets would not be

different and distinct, from each other.

 

So, yes, the seed of the first idea,

Of symbol substitution is just a clue -

For the focus must be symbolic translation,

>From this language to that language,

Where language context defines the symbols.

 

Thus, you arrive at cultural equivalency problems

Of all sort and kinds, diversity,

For languages are always cultures,

Ever culturally speaking,

And no two cultures are ever the same.

 

That's translation, in the macro-view,

Where culture is personified,

And taken as some sort of given,

A given that is common to many here,

And yet another given to many there,

Given differently, but one to each.

 

The microscopic view, a fractal one,

Speaks of people, as the atoms,

And knows a culture is just my way,

Different from you and yours,

In saying my way is your way,

If you want to be one of me.

 

Culture is personified in persons,

There are thus as many cultures as people existing,

Each in his own tongue speaking -

And on my better days,

I am not one culture nor cultured,

But find within me wars and peace,

Where culture is the latter,

A rest away from translations,

The intermediation of words,

Which makes the empty spaces,

The ones where peace can dwell.

 

What's your sign?

Irrelevancy at its peaks!

My symbols are mine -

Up to making or breaking mind.

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