On Wednesday,  October 11, Andrew Zawacki read from various books that he has translated and discussed his experience as a translator. Zawacki stated that “the reason to translate people is so you can cannibalize them”. As a translator, Zawacki explained that he was able to take on the role as a second author to the poems because the original author gave him the freedom to translate the work in a way that would express the true meaning of the poems, rather than strictly stick by the technical translation of the words. Translation can be difficult because of the writing techniques that writers use to shape their work. For example, in Zawacki’s case, there were a set of poems whose titles ended in the letter “o” or the “oh” sound. Translating the titles exactly would change this element, so Zawacki had to navigate the problem by creating new titles with the same meaning, shortening titles to have the “oh” sound, or keeping titles entirely. Zawacki explained that writing techniques such as fake etymologies and alliteration are some of the reasons why English is difficult to translate.

I was unaware that translation could be used as a way to not only physically transcribe the words of a work into a different language, but to transform a work in presented slightly different way so that a new audience could understand its meaning accurately. I also didn’t know how collaborative the process of translation was; often I think of translation as a step that happens after authors are dead, which is why I wasn’t aware that approval from the author even takes place. My favorite part of Zawacki’s presentation was how he compared his translation experience as a “reperforming, remixing or sampling” of the book; this explanation debunks many misconceptions about what translation is and how it is used to tackle literature.

-Sabrina Rodriguez