I think the untranslatable self is a part of oneself that cannot be expressed on paper. I believe there are certain emotions that we feel, but cannot explain in specific words. I also think there is a mysterious connotation behind the untranslatable self. In Whitman’s, “Song of Myself,” to my understanding Whitman makes the untranslatable self  out to be something that is unknown such as not knowing who you are,  what you are made of, what is a part of you etc. This relates back to my idea of not being able to express one’s self. There is a part of each of us that we cannot put words to and we do not know or understand how to clearly identify it. When Whitman describes himself he uses a lot of characteristics that are given to nature, but he leaves the reader wondering if Whitman is actually born of nature, if he is created by God and if we all are (or are not) created by the same being.

-Jasmine Rodriguez

After reading the poem “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman, I think “self” represents all human beings, in the first three passage, Whitman believe that everyone is the same, no matter what race you are, what religion you believe, what job you are doing, everyone is equal. “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you“，”I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic, and it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, Growing among black folks as among white, Kanuck, Tuckahoe Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive then the same.” After that, he changes his point to everyone is not same, because everyone does not understand anything at a young age, but with the passage of time, under the influence of the environment, everyone has their own ideas, and everyone becomes “untranslatable self.” ” Tenderly will I use you curling grass, It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken, It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, soon out of their mother’s laps, And here you are the mothers’ laps. This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, Darker than the colorless beards of old men, Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.” Since growing up in different environments, everyone will encounter different people, learn different education from different people. They start to use their brains to think different things, said different words and do different things. These experiences belong to their own, and no one can know their thoughts. “untranslatable self”means that everyone is unique, follow your inner’s choice, to pursue your own future, don’t pretend to be someone else，just be true to yourself because there is no one else can replace you,  you are the only one in this world.

-Pingsheng Chen

In my opinion, untranslatable self means that everyone is equal and just be yourself. In “Song of Myself I”, the poet describes that everyone is the same through the first sentence. “And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” (Whitman I) This sentence is like what I should do you shall do, everything belongs to me and it belongs to you too. People have the same thing to do and own the same thing. In “Song of Myself II”, the poet points out that you shall get something by yourself. Look at the last part in “Song of Myself II”, “You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself” (Whitman II) The last part in “Song of Myself II”, especially the last sentence, “You shall listen to all sides and filter from yourself”, these state that you should take things by yourself, don’t get things from others, observe things by using your eyes, ears, hands, etc. You have your own idea, just filter what you observe by yourself. So, just be yourself, don’t follow others. In “Song of Myself VI”, the poet mentions the grass and he give a lot of guess about what the grass it is. Yes, these are the poet’s observations about grass. The poet express these observations about grass through poem. Just express your idea and your observation, this is something you get from yours observe. Just be yourself. In “Song of Myself LII”, the poet wrote “I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable” (Whitman LII). The poet was accused by the hawk because his gab and loitering. But, the poet mentions “untranslatable” to show the himself is different. So, just be yourself.

—- Yu Qing Wu

To me, “untranslatable self,” explains that who we are as persons cannot be explained by the ways we look, the beliefs we hold or even the religions we hold. No matter how one looks externally or  what one believes in, the factor that defines who one is one’s soul. Although “untranslatable self” defines a person through his/her soul, at the same time, I also believe that the soul cannot be explicitly expressed.

I believe that our soul is an indistinct volatile being; it changes throughout one’s life and one’s experiences affects one’s soul either positively or negatively. Just like how the narrator in the poem, “Song of Myself,” could not explain what a grass is more than the child who asked him the question, the soul, I believe, works in a similar way: “How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he.” If someone were to ask me to tell him/her about who I am and my personalities, of course, I am able to explicitly tell him/her about what I believe are my personalities; but, are these personalities truly who I am? I believe not, I believe our soul is our personality and defines who we are. The reason I believe most of us can never truly define ourselves and are “untranslatable” is due to the fact that we have never distinctly felt the separate entity, which is our soul, that resides in ourselves.

Maybe, the only way to truly combat the effect of “untranslatable self” is when one has reached the end of the natural order, death. Just like how the narrator of the poem feels that life and death are all connected to the natural flow of universe, maybe one day, all of us, at the end of our own journeys will be able to finally make sense of the world around us and figure out about our true selves.

-Tun

In the poem “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman, the term “untranslatable” is used to reference that the idea of self-identity can never be fully expressed. The concept of self-identity inherently evolutionary and infinite. In the first section of the poem, the author diminishes the idea of self-identity entirely by alluding to the notion that everything in nature is somehow connected. He says “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Whitman 3) and “Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same” (Whitman 8-9). He is effectively saying that trying to differentiate ourselves from one another is meaningless as we are all intertwined by nature. However, when we transition into the second section, he seems to diverge from that initial idea and bring up the concept of self-identity. The author presents us with sensations that he would like to indulge in. He says “I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it” (Whitman 19) as well as, “It is for my mouth forever…. I am in love with it” (Whitman 23). As we can see, this is a stark contrast to the first section with diminishes the concept of self- identity. The author does this to show that self- identity is in a constant state of evolution. In the sixth section, the concept of self-identity is lost due to its infiniteness. When asked by a child about the nature of grass, the author seems puzzled. He could describe their physical features but there is much than just that. As he remains baffled, an important question arises. If everything in nature is connected as he claims in the first section, and grass is part of nature, if he doesn’t understand the nature of grass then that means he doesn’t understand his own identity. As a result, the term “untranslatable” means everyone is constantly searching for their own identity.

-Benny Chan

As I was reading the poem “Song of Myself” two things came to my mind: the importance of having an identity and the appreciation about nature and the universe. Having an identity in the meaning being unique and loving every part of yourself. And, appreciation about nature and the universe because part of who I am is because of the way nature and the universe function. Each part of nature and the universe is connected to each other and plays an equally important role to bring together the pieces and create the journey which we call life.

Our understanding of life is achieved when we will have understood ourselves first. I believe this is what the author Walt Whitman was trying to transmit to the reader besides appreciation for nature and the universe. When he says “untranslatable self” he means the one and only you, the unique you, the confident you. He believes that everybody is different and there is no other one like you. Whitman in this poem wants us to appreciate the fact that we are given a life by nature, a chance to exist. He’s saying that nature made us unique and we should love ourselves for who we are and we should believe in our potential. When he says “untranslatable self” it also means that we have only one chance to live this life and make good use of it.

“Untranslatable self” is a line which gives meaning and better understanding to the whole poem because it focuses on the concept of identity and the importance of getting to know ourselves in order to have a better understanding of the world and life. If we accept ourselves for who we are and how we are then the process of understanding ourselves will be easier and once we learn more about what is happening within us we can comprehend better the world and universe.

In my opinion, the untranslatable person should love themselves, one could be confident, from internal to external. He believes himself. He will never be a clinging trumpet creeper, suing the high boughs to show off his height. Untranslatable person should be a spring, bringing cool solace all year long to friends, family and colleagues. I will describe “untranslatable self” as a tree, standing straightly in the world, make my roots entwined underground. I have my own crimson flowers, to resist cold spells, storms and thunder. I love my self, I love the world, and I want to be a true man to fight for my dream. No matter what the others think about me, I will be a man that I want to be. I am responsible to my family, my love, and myself. For the society, I contribute my effort to make it better. Regardless the negative attitude around me or inside me, I am always positive. That is difficult, but I will keep my words.

Everyone could be untranslatable, because no one can understand you better than yourself. The more you are confidence and insistent about being yourself, the more untranslatable you are.

–Can Wang

Whitman makes many references to the “untranslatable self” throughout his poem, often drawing upon many factors that impact individuals on a societal level. To me, this idea of the untranslatable self is derived from notions of contentedness in a world that is forged on the interactions of people, whether they are living or dead. When we think about our thoughts, beliefs, desires, hopes, aspirations, etc., we only think about how these things relate to us on a personal level. However, what we fail to realize is that all of these factors do not arise as a result of our individual mentalities, but rather, they are a product of constant interaction with people of both like, and unlike mentalities that make up individual mindsets. Whitman even begins him poem out by saying “what I assume you shall assume.” This is not to say that all people have the same assumptions about a certain subject matter. It is to say that we as human beings are constantly shaping each others ideologies, consciously and subconsciously.

This notion of the “untranslatable self” is not frigid in its manner either – it is constantly evolving as an individual goes on with his/her life. Even at the end of one’s life, another is impacted as a result of the death, and so, this notion of an endless cycle is present. It is completely logical to assume the end of one’s life would mark the end of the “self.” However, death is a tragedy, and tragedies have the tendency to impact people- especially after an individual is gone. And so yet again, the phrase “what I assume you shall assume” is etched within each of us; probably in ways we may not have previously imagined.

From the reading, I think the untranslatable self-refers to how Walt Whitman sees himself. Whitman poem suggests that like him, everyone else exists and that everyone continues to go on with the cycle of their lives. But no one questions their reason for existing, their reason for being, their purpose or even significance. As Whitman observed and analyze his surrounding he questioned everyone’s appearance or thought or reason for being. He perceived that man existence, along with nature and the universe is an unpredictable glitch that was created to let the world be a place where things will happen that will not be viable to changes. Whitman is determined not to follow society and not contaminate his mind with the taunts of gossips.

In the poem, he focused on nature and places, people and diversity and how the identity of self-consciousness and self-awareness is important. Whitman wanted to convey the connection between nature and all mankind. I think he used the term “grass” a lot to connect to his everyday life because like the abundance of grass so are people.

D.Ramratan

After reading Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, I feel like, to my understanding, one’s untranslatable self is the aspect of not knowing where you came from or how you’ve come into existence.  Whitman describes his physical features as if they have been born from nature, for example, “[his] tongue, every atom of [his] blood, from’d from this soil, this air”.  I believe this is the essence of the untranslatable self, we come from nature, we come from soil, we come from air, we come from grass, but what really even is air, what is soil, what is grass?  Did it come from God, does it belong to God?  Or perhaps it is “uniform hieroglyphic” where it grows for everyone no matter color, gender, profession.  Has it come from the breasts from young men, the white heads of old mothers, the colorless beards of old men, the roof of our mouths?  We don’t know.  Later in the poem, Whitman describes a spotted hawk who “accuses” him of his mindless chatter, and idle waiting.  Whitman responds to the bird,” I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable” and here I believe is where Whitman reveals his definition of the untranslatable self.  The rawness, and the wildness of one’s being.  Maybe he means untranslatable in the most literal sense where it is the part of us we don’t know how to describe, it is part of us and we don’t know why it is the way it is, why we are the way we are.