Theme: Human Desire

Is happiness enough to satisfy
Or is there something that we crave more
The feeling of temptation is intensified
The more that we are ignored

Humans tend to want what they cannot have
Instead of being grateful for God’s plan
We allow greed to split us into halves
Because we believe another human can make us glad

But happiness can only come from within
And no person or money will allow that
You must search deep within yourself and skin
To see that this artificial joy is an act

A self-defense mechanism to justify
You must right your wrongs in order to rectify

• Julienne Guzman

The passage that I selected that was difficult to understand was the passage on page 27. The reason why I selected this is that it was difficult to comprehend what the author was trying to say. As well, the language used made it confusing to understand what was going on. For example, “one night, flittering my eyes, I saw one with a red carnation in his buttonhole.” this sentence made no sense to me because it just appeared out of the blue. To me, this had no correlation to the previous sentence before it. In addition, the text was random in its word choice, for instance, it compared his bowels to a turtle. These comparisons are very abstract and not commonly compared to one another. Although, I knew that the overlining theme was supposed to be the prosses of beheading it was unclear to see this while reading. There were various topics discussed within the passage that did not relate to the message that the author was trying to portray. The way I dealt with this passage was through rereading it multiple times in order to improve my comprehension. Also, I read the text aloud which made it easier to understand because I was able to pause at the commas and properly follow the punctuations.

– Julienne Guzman

What I learned about translation from Zawacki’s event is that translation is the art of interpreting the message of the author while also adding your own perspective. Zawacki explained this multiple times in between his reading that bits in pieces of the poems were translated from his point of view. Sometimes in translation, especially if the original author is no longer living it is on the translator to interpret the poem/ story to the best of their abilities since there is no one to ask for advice. For example, he mentioned that sometimes in translations he adds current events such as Tina Turner or the World Cup. Zawacki also explained the difficulties of translating such as finding English words that correlate with French terms. For instance in the “Glow Worm” the second poem “Word for Word” in French had to be translated to “Word to Moe” in order to fit the theme of the other poems that ended with”-oe”. Another complication faced by Zawacki while translating Sébastien Smirou poems was how strict the requirements were. Zawacki had to follow specific guidelines set by the author such as having the identical font, space, and format to the original French poem. Although, these tasks were difficult Zawacki expressed that he felt that this, later on, benefited him and helped him become a better translator. Overall, Zawacki addressed that translating from French to English can be hard at times due to French being a romantic language and English being harsh. As well, what he values most when translating is the flow of the poems and the sound of the text rather than translating the text word for word.

– Julienne Guzman

The stories within the film Ugetsu and Akinari’s “Bewitched” are very similar because they both share a similar storyline of a man falling in love with a mysterious Woman who turns out to be the devil/ghost. This story seems to be enchanting because the stories resonates with people’s desire to have beautiful things and live an easy life. The girls represent this because of their extreme wealth and beauty that is generally seen as unattainable to the men in the movie and short story.  When finally obtaining her the man seem to be living in a dream until they realize that the girl is actually the devil/ghost attaching themselves to them. This shows us that not everything that’s appealing to the eye is good for the soul. As well, that the men should be content with the simple lives they live instead of desiring a fantasy life. Relatable to the real world because in life people focus on beauty and things they don’t have, when they should be focusing on living a simple life and being content.

-Julienne Guzman

Matsuo Basho creates differences within “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” through his use of both prose and poetry. One of the differences between Basho use of prose and poetry is the number of details provided. When Basho uses prose, he is more descriptive and detailed about his adventures. When using prose, he describes the process of his journey, the individuals that he encounters, and the conversations that he has. When he was using poetry in his travel notebook, Basho wrote short summaries of his experiences making his poetry less detailed and vague in comparison to his prose. Another difference is that when Basho uses poetry, he tends to focus on the beauty of the locations that he visits and highlights the important parts of his trip. For example, when he talks about the Nikko mountains, he describes the green leaves and the sunlight focusing on the mountain’s natural beauty. While in the prose, he talks about the history of the mountain and how it got its name.

I believe that Basho chose to write in prose and poetry during separate moments of his experiences because each serves him a specific purpose. When Basho uses prose, he does this to document his experiences and to be more detailed about his travel journey and adventures. He also does this to keep a record of his trips and separate the different locations. In contrast, when Basho uses poetry, I believe that he does this as a creative release. This is because Basho generally focuses on the most memorable experiences when using poetry that had a lasting impact on him.