ASYNCHRONOUS with LIVE ELEMENTS

Has it been hard for you to write in the past year or so? Me too—the blank page has gotten even more daunting than before. Let’s get to new poems another way. Many of us read translations or, ourselves, translate, because we love the original, and want to spread the word about a writer in another language. Or we translate because we think a writer hasn’t been served well by previous translators. But what if also serve ourselves and our own creative practice by borrowing, by adapting from other languages? In this course we’ll consider the basic translation issues (what do we care about most as we create a good poem in English out of a poem in another language? tone? imagery? meter and rhyme? diction? structure? thematic content? and what do we jettison to make a good poem in English?) But our main goal will be to create dynamic versions of old work that reflect our own 21st Century values, emotions, troubles, joys and idiom. You’ll leave class with 3-4 drafts of your own poem-adaptations—and perhaps with a way forward in hard times. You do not need to know another language. Literal and other translations will be supplied to those who want them; Google translate and a dictionary are central tools.

OPTIONAL LIVE ELEMENTS: We will hold an optional meet & greet at the beginning of class, and I’ll schedule zoom one-on-ones at the end of the session.