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april poetry challenge, Miroslav Holub, poem, Poetry, poetry challenge, Poetry International, poetry prompts, translation poems, Writing, writing prompts
Today’s prompt comes from my memory of an excercise used by the poet Christopher Howell in one of his classes. It is a twist on the translation poem. The twist: you shouldn’t know the language. The point is to read/listen to the poem in its original language and, by tone, sound, feel, mood–every way beside knowing what the words mean–translate the poem. As you guessed, this is not about who can translate from one language to another the best.
Poetry International Rotterdam has a smorgasborg of poets writing in a smorgasborg of languages. Some are recorded and you can listen as in these three poems by the Czech poet Miroslav Holub. Other poems appear only in English. Others, in their original language. Remember, the point is to not understand the words, but to feel them.
Napiš to!
Michelle
the poet's billow 
What a wonderful exercise – more of a overlay of things you think you recognize than a translation. And the growing number of poetry audio files available online provides a lot of prompt material…sounds like a plan for the next month-long poetry writing challenge. Thank you!
Great Post 👍
I can’t partake. Connection-Throttle makes it the wrong time for me… Nice idea though, alike a Jedi or Sith trusting that ephemeral Force. Or the Small Prince once again… ‘The really important things in life are invisible to the Eyes, You must perceive them with your Heart (aka feel ’em)’? ;-)