By Ella Karoline Hendricks

Translation is often overlooked as a literary medium. Without the work of translators, beautiful stories and verses that immerse us in another culture – or time would be lost to us forever. Stories are thus able to transcend the bounds of language and instead become available to different areas of the world, creating a melting pot of ideals and elevating the commonalities between us all. 

Dr. Geoff Brock, who has been teaching at the University of Arkansas since 2006, has been a writer and translator long before.

“A translation inscribes a particular reading of a text from one language into another language – it is reading and writing at the same time,” Brock said. “That’s what drew me to it and what keeps me at it.”

Brock primarily teaches courses for master’s students in the poetry track and the translation track, such as poetry workshops, translation workshops, and reading-intensive craft or literature courses.This Master of Fine Arts degree is unique as it is a four-year program and has a track in literary translation as well as poetry and fiction tracks. “It’s the latter element – the translation track, and the ability for me to teach both poetry and translation courses – that drew me to Arkansas,” Brock states.

One such student in the translation track is Colleen Noland; she is pursuing her master’s in creative writing and translation. Noland was drawn to translation from her love of Spanish; she began learning Spanish in public schools as it was mandatory in my school district. It was her first exposure to Spanish and she hasn’t stopped learning the language yet. 

While translators work with many languages, the one language that connects them is English.  

“We focus on English,” Brock said. “Of course, we think about and ask questions about whatever languages the students in the class happen to be working from that semester (Spanish! French! Arabic! Bengali! Tagalog!), but the one language we have in common, and the one all of the students are translating into is English, so each translator focuses on making an English text that embodies whatever elements – meaning, style, tone, form, etc. – they find most salient in their original texts.”

Noland works with mainly contemporary works and authors; she chooses a translation project based on what she herself would like to read and is able to connect with through deep, close reading so that she can see “the meaning running under the page.”

Noland is currently working on translating a collection of short stories in Madrid about romantic relationships. When translating, she said she believes “the words themselves are not as important; it’s the emotions they are trying to convey or leave the reader with. I think if you translate a word literally exactly every time from one language to the target language, you are going to get a text that is way different and conveys way different emotions because we just have cultural associations and baggage with different words. Being creative with how you translate emotions is something I think about a lot.”

Students in the master’s program typically take six to nine hours a semester and teach two undergraduate classes, mainly in the English department. One of Noland’s favorite classes she took was on 12th-century Celtic literature and translation. She says the course was challenging yet rewarding as it worked with authors who are no longer living, so the authors true intentions cannot be known. It allows for more interpretation as you don’t necessarily know the full meaning of the piece. 

When examining texts from long ago, how do we as a reader choose which translation to go off of? Professor Nicole Clowney teaches classical studies in both the undergraduate program and law program here at the U of A. 

“I have always loved the humanities,” Clowney said. “Now more than ever, they can teach us so much, particularly about what humans have in common across cultures and time periods and how other cultures have contended with the big human questions we all ask ourselves.”

Clowney is currently teaching third-semester Latin, a class based on reading Gaius Petronius’ “Satyricon.” Students read and translate directly from the Latin text, as well as reading a translation to better understand and appreciate the story as a whole. Clowney chose the translation of the “Satyricon” by Sarah Ruden. 

She said she believes that while there is nothing like reading the text in its original language, she tends to gravitate towards works that are true to the original spirit the original was written rather than exact words. 

Brock has similar sentiments surrounding whether translations should focus on strict adherence to the text or solely on the essence of the story. 

“Your binary – strictness versus essence – is a version of the old ‘letter versus spirit’ duality, and for me a translation is always a dance between the two,” Brock said. “In general, you can’t be slavishly strict to literal meaning without losing some of the spirit, and you can’t capture the spirit without a nuanced sense of the literal meaning. No literary text – think of the complex pleasures of an Emily Dickinson poem – can be reduced to the literal meaning of its words.”

The question remains: is translation, in essence, adaptation? 

Noland said she believes that every translation is an adaptation and that there is no such thing as a perfect translation. 

“No, of course, the translation will not be a perfect carrying of that text into a new language,” Noland states. “With any translation there’s going to be loss, there’s going to be additions, in order to try and bring it authentically. Does a perfect translation exist? No. Do we do it anyway because it would be sad if we only had literature isolated to one language. We do it anyway.”

So why do we keep returning to stories, both ancient and modern, that span cultural differences and norms? 

“These were civilizations honestly contending with questions all humans ask: Why are we here? What do we owe each other? What is justice? What is beauty?” Clowney said. “There’s never an expiration date on discussions on those questions because there are never really any answers.”

Translation, at its core, reminds us of our similarities across cultures, time periods and geography. Reading these works remind us of our humanity and how integral our connection to others truly is.