Fusion and “contra fusion”

Abstract This article investigates Lawrence Venuti’s English translation of Edward Hopper , a Catalan poetry collection by Ernest Farrés inspired by the American painter’s work. It develops the concept of “contra fusion” to describe a mode of translation that foregrounds interpretive agency, cultural specificity, and polyphonic authorship. Drawing on key theories of poetry translation and ekphrasis, the article situates Venuti’s method within a broader hermeneutic tradition, emphasizing the translator’s creative role in navigating both interlingual and intersemiotic dimensions. Through close readings, it explores how the translation maintains the stylistic and cultural complexity of the Catalan original while incorporating elements of Hopper’s voice and American vernacular. Special attention is given to compound structures, idiomatic shifts, and cultural recoding. The article argues that Edward Hopper functions as a collaborative, transmedial project — where painter, poet, and translator converge in a dynamic interplay of languages, traditions, and aesthetic forms. In doing so, it demonstrates how translation can operate not merely as transfer, but as co-creation and cultural intervention.