Reflections

 Reflections 02/21

The first short story by Ersi Sotiropoulos felt enjoyable to read and had a distinct foreign and at the same time harmonious feeling to it, in my opinion. It felt comparable to reading a story from a Northern country like Denmark - not in the sense that the story seemed Danish but that it matched its level of "foreignness". To me, it was simple and unusual, and unusual not in the realm where unusual is commonly sought - or rather where we are used to seeing it being sought by various writers. The weather, the male perspective of the tendency to read words and expression for their literal rather than emotional meaning, and the sharp needles as if falling through the canvas of love - these components created unique and memorable combination. There was also a sense of "what will happen next?" that got gratified with new interesting details being introduced, the details that pained a bigger picture bit by bit. The "so what?" question was answered, too.. I saw these two aspects lacking in other works that we were assigned to read by this author. At the same time, after waking up and looking back on them, they no longer felt as difficult to process and digest. Perhaps, it is the fact that I am not used to this kind of literature that played the role in my perception of it. 

Tracy Smith's passion felt in some ways abstracted into passion not for language or other structural and expressive tools but rather for the feeling itself and its strength especially, thereby measuring poetry by as if putting it inside a room and looking at how much it makes the temperature rise - in my opinion. The way I see it, Yi Lei produced an impact through her own way, through a subtle conglomeration of various aspects and timings and circumstances. It seemed like Tracy Smith wished to replicate that impact by "chaoticizing" the same poems in English, which I believe is interesting to think about. 

Previous week's reflections:

Jeremy Tiang's presentation of different translations of the opening lines to Chekhov's "Chaika" left a strong impression of me - first words of an artistic work set the tone for the rest of the story, perhaps even more so for something as expressive in real time as a play. Choices made by various translators and play directors regarding the first lines would therefore have an impact on the entire the play - this was not a question of how to best translate a couple of ambiguous phrases but rather deciding on what feeling the play could inspire altogether, in what light the viewer is to perceive the plot and its characters. The sweeping sequence of versions felt like seeing the play reflected in many mirrors positioned from different angles. The sensation was that of expansion - the more planes were added, the bigger it grew what the planes were meant to outline. In a way, the idea of Chaika grew and propagated through its translations. 

I find Tracy Smith's innovative approach of intending to make the reader feel more at ease with the poem to be a sword that is sharp at both edges. For me, Changtai Bi's literal translation felt easier to understand and left a more profound impression on me. It felt easier to comprehend reason turning "black" than a woman ostensibly not wishing to return to reason, for example. In the literal translation, it seemed more clear what connected to what and why, what flowed from where. Its organized structure did not take away the feeling but rather facilitated "picking it up"; I personally do not see emotionality as a force of its own - I believe it is deeply interconnected with other aspects of our psyche and functions by laws like anything else. Thus I believe Tracy Smith's works are not really the translations of the poems but their re-imaginations. I think they deserve to stand alone as poetry of her own, rather than Yi Lei's. 

Ksenia