Translate the following poems into your own language. Focus on translating the meaning, even if the translation is not in the same poetic form as the English version.
As in previous exercises, underline places in your translation where you have used expressions or grammar which are different from the English version. Underline places in your translation where the literary form (rhyme, meter, etc) is different from the English poem. Discuss these with an instructor or colleague. Also, if possible, discuss your translation with other speakers of the language.
from OMEROS by Derek Walcott
The sky cracked asunder
and a forked tree flashed, and suddenly that black rain
which can lose an entire archipelago
in broad daylight was pouring tin nails on the roof,
hammering the balcony. I closed the French window,
and thought of the horses in their stalls with one hoof
tilted, watching the ropes of rain. I lay in bed
with current gone from the bed-lamp and heard the roar
of wind shaking the windows
from SONG OF LAWINO
by Okot p’Bitek
translated by the author from the Acoli-language original Wer pa Lawino
O how young girls
Labour to buy a name!
You break your back
Drawing water
For the wives
Of the teachers,
The skin of your hand
Hardens and peels off
Grinding millet and simsim.
You hoe their fields,
Split firewood,
You cut grass for thatching
And for starting fires,
You smear their floors
With cow dung and black soil
And harvest their crops.
from KRISHNAKALI
by Rabindranath Tagore
Her cows were lowing in the meadow,
when the fading light grew grey.
With hurried steps she came out
from her hut near the bamboo grove.
She raised her quick eyes to the sky,
where the clouds were heavy with rain.
Ah, you call her dark! let that be,
her black gazelle eyes I have seen.
from EVANGELINE
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
from THE BALLAD OF THE WHITE HORSE
by G. K. Chesterton
Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass.
Before the gods that made the gods
Had drunk at dawn their fill,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was hoary on the hill.
Age beyond age on British land,
Aeons on aeons gone,
Was peace and war in western hills,
And the White Horse looked on.
For the White Horse knew England
When there was none to know;
He saw the first oar break or bend,
He saw heaven fall and the world end,
O God, how long ago.
For the end of the world was long ago,
And all we dwell to-day
As children of some second birth,
Like a strange people left on earth
After a judgment day.
REMEMBER:
When checking a translation, ask:
Is it accurate? Is the meaning as nearly as possible the same meaning that the original author intended?
Is it clear? Will people understand the message?
Is it natural? Is this the way that people speak?
Adapted from Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles by Katharine Barnwell, 2017, page 33.