STV - L̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶T̶o̶ Content is not the same as Intent
I am so easily triggered.
This is great as it allows me to find the inspiration in HIVE posts every week to write an awesome #SpreadTheVibes rant.
This week, I was captured by the title but got lost when I read the post. Which always happens when I read poetry and I think I can consider the post poetry. Even though ´based on the Title it should be a letter:
[Letters to Loreena] ❖ I choose not to know you but it's insane, and I forgive me ❖
It made me think of that sweet song by Belle & Sebastian
And about all the awesome songs Loreena made of course.
I am A Poet and I Know It
Back in the days when I was still doing drugs other than Alcohol and Cafeïne I used to write poetry only.Partly because it was what came to me, and partly because I did not have the attention span to sit and write longer stories.
And I wrote amazing stuff...I thought myself back then.
Stuff that I still have a hard time comprehending nowadays and most of it in Dutch.
Example
Let me give you some examples:
De Verneukte Verheerlijking Van Het Bestaan
Het bestaan is als een banaan,
Zij zal nooit recht gaan.
Ze is vroegtijdig rijp en daarna snel onsmakelijk.
Even lijkt ze aantrekkelijk net als een vrouw tot een bepaalde leeftijd.
Daarna vervaagd die schoonheid snel, net als een vrouw van een bepaalde leeftijd.
Wat overblijft van de banaan is bruin en zompig.
Laten we hopen dat er van de vrouw iets langer, iets beters overblijft al geldt dat niet for alle.
Echter wel voor het bestaan,
Zodra de aantrekkelijke schil verdwenen is blijft er voor velen niks dan bruine zompigheid
Wasn´t that wonderful?
How do you mean you didn´t get a word of it, you don´t read Dutch?
Okay well this is how it translates:
The Fucked Glory Of Existence
Existence is like a banana,
She will never straighten out.
She ripens prematurely and quickly becomes unsavory afterward.
For a moment she seems attractive just like a woman up to a certain age.
After that, that beauty fades quickly, just like a woman of a certain age.
What remains of the banana is brown and soggy.
Let's hope that something longer, something better remains of the woman, although that does not apply to all.
However, for existence
Once the attractive skin is gone, for many, nothing but brown mushiness remains
Now you got it?
Did that help, did you get it?
No. You didn´t get it unless you understand Dutch.
You might have understood the content but not the intent, not the flow and its essence. Which is perfectly normal btw.
(Keep this one playing while reading it´s so relaxing)
Translations ruin poems in general and especially if they are done by a machine. Machines don´t feel the intent the other tries to convey.
And that is often the essence of a poem, contrary to a story where it´s more about long lines and direction a poem uses words to aim at the head and heart directly.
I knew this already but it became extra clear reading the post by @nanixxx . Now I was not there when she wrote it, I was there to read it...the English version and I was wondering why she had chosen certain words and phrases.
Until I saw the sign:
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes, again.
Of course, this is why I was feeling more lost than normal. This was the translation, human or machine I don´t know I wasn´t there. But I am quite sure the original version was written in Espanol first.
I am so lucky to be able to read about 4 languages because I did not need that translation and all of a sudden the Letter(s) made sense. The flow was wonderful, I felt the intent while reading the content.
The Problem With This World Today
It might of course be me, I was not there when this Letter to that lovely Loreena was written. But I clearly preferred the Spanish version. And I fully get the fact that if you write in Spanish you will do an English translation.
I am actually very happy that many do that @freakshow s post always provides me with a lovely Spanish lesson. And an English cheatsheet for when I am in doubt.
But even when we try really hard, and are very much multilingual we can express intent best in our mother tongue, at least that is my opinion based on years of experience.
Now I would not translate any of my poems, for multiple reasons but quality is probably the biggest one. Secondly that it´s freaking hard to translate intent.
I have tried and even succeeded...I have come up with translations that actually made me proud. But it´s just a lot of work and the end result often does not resemble the original.
But I found it´s different for stories.
Beyond Doubt
Maybe I am wrong but I think it´s a little different for stories. In essence, it´s the same, a one-on-one translation from your mother tongue to English by a machine does more harm than good.
But, and this is again a big BUTT:
I think drafting the story in your mother tongue and then translating it by a machine does not do the same damage to a story as it does to a poem.
Like I said, editing a translated poem can give a great result but often needs a lot of work to capture the same intent if at all possible.
Lately, wile editing a translation of a story I noticed that it´s the other way around. The edited translation became more robust. It used words that describe the situation better than when I would have written it in English from the start.
I noticed that even though I use English at least 50% of my day, and it´s been my preferred language since I was sixteen still lacks the vocabulary expression that I have in Dutch.
Hence the editing I do when turning my Dutch draft into English gives me the best of both worlds. It allows me to correct the awful direct translations that Google Translate did. While it enables me to keep those words that describe the situation best but that I would never have used.
BTW I do my own translations for two reasons, first of all because I can´t pay someone, and secondly because I don´t think anyone can do it better than the author....if the author has a decent knowledge of the language and the right tools to translate.
Why do you translate my story?
Why Do I
Thanks for asking because that is a nice segway to the actual post I was planning to write. The post that was triggered initially just by the title.
[Letters to Loreena] ❖ I choose not to know you but it's insane, and I forgive me ❖
Because I was triggered by Loreena and writing Letters?
How long has it been that you wrote an actual letter Dear Reader?
Do you remember to whom you send it and what it said?
An actual letter, with a pen, on paper, that goes into an envelope?
It was such a gift to receive, it does not compare to the virtual trash I receive today in my (e)mailbox.
My last letter, my last actual letter I do remember...but it was nothing fancy. It was twenty-something years ago that I wrote a handwritten letter to a debt collector.
But I wanted this post to be about whom I would want to write an actual old-fashioned letter to if I would do so today. That was the thought that this post triggered....before it triggered this rant.
Guess after 1300 words this #STV post meets its bottom line, but I still owe you that letter Dear reader and it might be an interesting one so keep your eyes open for it, as I will write it as soon as life allows me.
Thank goodness you made it till the end peace, love and I am out of here!
[Source Pic](All pictures are by MyI & AI)
