Andrew Zawacki’s translation was an insightful event which gave me an idea of how translation can sometimes change meaning of the original piece. Zawacki presents translation as a form of great art work. His experience on meeting the original French authors and getting the real taste of these poems is amazing. The most significant lesson was for me that no matter how closely he worked with the authors and the poems themselves, translation will never be the same as the original poems. For instance, Zawaki mentioned that the French version of the poems are read really fast however with the English version he was reading it slowly. This gives me an insight that even in reading it out loud has a big difference in tone due to the differences of two languages. Also another great thing I learned since there are not always the exact words available the translators different literary tools to cope with the meaning of the poem in order to keep the meaning as authentic as possible. Although it is not possible to keep the meaning of the poem word by word in all of his poem Zawacki kept the meaning alive as well as its poetic vibe.

Although literature can lose meaning during the process of translation, ultimately, I think that translation of literature beautiful because it opens doors for diversity as people of different languages and cultures can get ideas about each other. This is a great way to learn about the different cultures around the world.

— Farzana