The Challenges Inherent in Poetic Translation: Lexical, Semiotic, Syntactic, and Prosodic Challenges

The word “poetry” stems from the Greek verb “ποιέω” “poiein” which means “to create”, not in the sense of “making ex nihilo”, but by using the powerful and priceless resources of one’s imagination. This cursory etymological background undergirds the outstanding ability for the poet and poetry to conceive a unique art made up of special techniques, stylistic devices, and coin special words and constructions to express the ineffable by thinking outside the box. It follows that poetry can be conceived as a special genre that utilizes an eminently creative language to express a particular vision of the world to sublimate nature. That is precisely why scholars consider it a metalanguage, that is, a language formalized from and beyond the ordinary language (“meta” means “beyond”, “above”, “on the other side”) used as a heuristic prop/stepping-stone for such formalization. Then, linguists subsequently formalize it as well. Therefore, poetry as a meta-language, is designed in such a way that it factually superimposes two types of language: The common language and, at a higher level, a formal language. All these considerations attest to the fact that poetry is such a highly sophisticated art that it becomes very challenging to translate. As a matter of fact, one can translate a prose text from one language to another. However, it can be very difficult to do likewise with a poetic text. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to reflect on the appropriate strategy or approach that can be utilized to translate poetry.