Fisher&Braslavsky: Translating Female Poets

Fisher worked to translate Joyce Mansour’s poetry, a female surrealist, even recognized by Breton, the founder of surrealist. People categorize her poem to be “Erotic-Macabre poems”, which is extremely fitting. Her tone is rustic and painful, with an almost horrific and obsessive sadistic tendency. The frenzied consumption of sex and death is depicted with intense and passionate imagery of shock and violence. There is the touch of feminism to her poems that showcase women can be violent, destructive and terrible just as man. However, when other people mentioned feminist to Mansour, she asked, what’s that? Her response totally shocked me, because I thought Mansour was definitely a feminist.

During the translation process, Fisher encountered a word that could mean either "girl" or "daughter." With Surrealists, translators cannot rely on the context of their work to understand the controversial meanings. Therefore, instead of making decisions based on one poem, Fisher had to make judgments based on the entire collection. Fisher understood the nuances between Mansour’s attitude toward her mother and how she wrote extensively about that relationship. Thus, Fisher chose to translate the word as "daughter." "Translation is an interpretive act of reading," Fisher commented.

When giving advice to young translators, Fisher emphasized the importance of overcoming the fear of "damaging" the original text. Because the original text always remains unchanged, translators should not hesitate to approach the text in a shocking and innovative manner. Additionally, it is important to be shameless. Translators should not fear reaching out to people for help, but they should also not expect anything from anyone. Fisher gave an example of how she got the opportunity to work with Mansour's text by contacting an editor who was also working on Mansour's works. "Translation is not a competitive sport," Fisher emphasized, stressing the importance of respect and courtesy in the translation world. At the same time, Fisher has overcome many difficulties in translating Mansour's work, such as deciding whether to keep the text foreign or domesticate it, and how to preserve the dreamlike associations and poetic voice.

On the other hand, in translating the poetry of Ginczanka from Polish, Braslavsky was enlightened about age studies in literature. Some writers write rapidly because they are aware that they have limited time. Ginczanka was killed when she was only 28, and by studying her work, readers can see her works leading up to her death. Ginczanka wrote fiercely with poetic explosion, and it is crucial to capture this essence. Therefore, from time to time, Braslavsky had to sacrifice syntax and rhyme to preserve the nuances of Ginczanka's work. She also criticized the act of curation during translation, where some translators want to omit the "bad parts" or "irrelevant parts" of the text to make it appear better. While some translators may do this, I agree with Braslavsky that shaping the original text into a new mold would strip it of its nuance.

--Kerry

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