The translated text is a kind of clock conflating time and space in the poetic universe.
The varied ways in which different languages return to a text at different moments in their history makes them ventures into the meaning of the text itself; it is in this sense that translation is a type of writing that can be considered as a form of memory.[i]
The meaning of a text is not exhausted upon its first publication and so an original piece holds only a part of the potential meaning the text can have. The interpretation of a text involves a process of remembrance and translation is one form of writing with which to expand a text’s meaning through time.
In addition, not only translation but literature in general are complex recursive circuits which negate the concept of linearity and predictability since they are caught in several recursive loops. [ii] A translated piece of work is given to the target audience coloured by the translator’s personal memories and culture, which are in turn shaped by the culture itself and collective memory; the target culture receives a piece stamped by the culture of the author at the time of its creation but also by the time in between the moment of its creation and the moment of its translation as well as by the translator’s personal choices and perspective on the work; the piece has an impact on the target culture and literature and returns as memory back to the culture that bred it.
Measuring life one poem at a time. The journey begins here.
On this website, you may find material on Greek poetry translated into English including poems, book reviews, essays on translation and a library with a list of available books.
The aim is to gather all material in one place so that Greek poetry may become available to an international audience.
This is a sister website to athensinapoem.com.
Read about the two websites in an interview given to Greek News Agenda.
[i] George J. Varsos, «Η μεταφραστική γραφή ως ανάμνηση και το παράδειγμα των Ομηρικών κειμένων» (‘Translation as memory and the example of Homeric texts’), Σύγκριση (Comparαison) 22 (February 2011): 7-27.
[ii] Titika Dimitroulia, «Μετάφραση-Χρονικότητα-Μνήμη» (‘Translation-Temporality-Memory’), in Γραφές της Μνήμης (Writings of Memory), edited by Zacharias Siaflekēs (Athens: Gutenberg, 2011): 136-152.