P
A converter’s reward for a mistake is capital
PUNISHMENT.
Freedom to invent, to stray from the text, even to scratch out
words and passages
is a perfectly good approach in a defined method
such as imitation that Shakespeare boldly practiced,
roving from ancient plot to foreign plot.
But not freedom to make errors?
Such practice puts a poet on the hot seat.
Only a punk sees freedom and error as synonyms.
Q
The writer’s skills, as QUINTILIAN pompously knows
are increased by exercising the act of translation.
Of course QUINTILIAN, being an eloquent
grammarian, suggests the translation of oration, not
the poem.
Even Latin grammarians and orators have troubles
with the poets
and tend to Q them behind the 8-ball.
R
The translator poet is a blatant ROBBER
but should not kill the other author or steal her very
name from her.
And if murder and robbery are necessary, be open.
It can be an admirable crime.
But normally as in music, the translating artist reads,
interprets, but does not fully invent the score.
Yet if you must kill and rob, if you must transform the
past and correct and embellish it for our time,
confess and praise your benefactor.
Then, when you take over, hills of praise will await
your miracles.
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