REFLECTIONS CONCERNING 
THE TRANSLATION OF POETRY

thinking about various modes of translating poetry it occurs to me that a 
translation that respects the rules of grammar must [inevitably] be a false 
translation of the original [the matter of originality will be discussed 
below]  because a poem a true poem is a poem [the repetitiousness is 
deliberate here] that reflects on poetry as all true poems do while 
pretending to say something important about life love nature mankind death 
religion reality or whatever it pretends to be saying a true poem regardless 
of whether it is ancient classical romantic symbolic modern contemporary 
postmodern or whatever it is or has been made to be a true poem cannot must 
not will not respect the rules of grammar

grammar is the police of poetry
grammar is the IRS of poetry
grammar is the CIA of poetry
grammar is the Gestapo of poetry 
grammar is worse than a concentration camp
grammar dictates and to dictates is to be dictatorial
grammar is the Hitler of poetry
grammar exterminates true poetry
grammar forces the one who translates 
into submission to the rules of grammar
grammar destroys true poetry 
the day grammar was invented poetry was enslaved
only those poets who revolted against this enslavement wrote true poems

[the reader of this reflection concerning the translation of  poetry can make 
their own list mine is already made]

and so to render the grammarlessness [thank you sam] of a true poem one must 
not one cannot be faithful to the original because faithfulness would by 
necessity [and by obligation] introduce grammar into the new version of the 
true poem in whatever language it has been translated 

but there lies the ambiguity the inescapable ambiguity the paradox of 
translating a true poem because a translated poem that rejects the rules of 
grammar can only be a falsification of the original poem it has to be a false 
translation just as a translation that respects the rules of grammar is a 
false translation 

only the original can be a true poem but since poems always borrow steal from 
other poems then since the act of poetry is always a act of plagiarization 
then the true poem or rather the poem that thinks it is true is in fact false

this is why the act of translating poetry is a futile act just as the act of 
writing poetry is a futile act since one cannot never write a true poem 

to write poetry is to lose ground [I stole this from my Roumanian friend 
Emile Cioran]

[when Cioran told me that I replied] why kill oneself to write poetry since 
one always kills oneself too late

yes why write to say exactly what one wanted to say in the first place or 
what others have already said  

[those who disagree with the above reflections can reflect on the subject by 
themselves we merely wanted to share our reflections with those who may not 
have reflected on the question of translating poetry or may not have time to 
do so]

[we thank you for your attention]