I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.
To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.
-Taylor Mali, “Totally like whatever, you know?”
Bad translator will butcher your language.
I know this isn’t a new concept at all, but that doesn’t mean it stopped me from fiddling around with this for a while. My favorite so far: I gave it the first stanza of this iconic Emily Dickinson poem:
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
And, 56 translations later, I got this gem:
I hope to avoid the ball. However, discrimination.
This is why I’m often skeptical of translated works.
Un poema partido vino a rendirse entre nosotros: la carne que tú ardías, el corazón que yo aventaba.
A broken poem came to surrender itself between us: the flesh you burned, the heart I threw.
Graffiti in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina
August 2010
Posted March 3, 2011 at 10:06pm in urban graffiti argentina buenos aires la boca travel poetry photography
