Anika Prakash
on translating Antonio Machado
Antonio Machado’s poetry is rich with imagery, and not all of it is properly expressed through direct translations of each word. For example, in “Varia XCIV,” the phrase confusas calaveras translates literally to “confused skulls,” but I felt as though the image of shadowed heads would be better represented by the phrase “distorted skulls.” In other places, I focused on simplifying the meaning by eliminating extra words; for example, in the same poem, the line “dónde pasea el alma su traza de alma en pena” directly translates to something like “where the soul walks, the soul traces its pain,” but I translated it as “where the soul wanders and traces its pain” for the sake of simplicity. Additionally, in the final poem, I chose to italicize the dialogue instead of putting it in quotation marks and to separate the last line from the rest of the poem to heighten the strength of its emotion and its impact.
about the author
Antonio Machado (1875–1939) was a Spanish poet who was part of the literary movement known as the Generation of ’98. He wrote both Modernist and Romantic poetry, but the vast majority of his work derived from similar themes. His poetry was very well received and over the course of his lifetime, he published several books of poetry, the most notable ones being Soledades, Soledades. Galerias. Otras poemas., and Nuevas Canciones. Each of these books primarily consists of poems that are numbered instead of titled.
about the translator
Anika Prakash is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania and the editor-in-chief of Red Queen Literary Magazine. She was a participant in the 2016 Adroit Journal Mentorship Program, the 2017 Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, and the 2018 Kelly Writers House Summer Workshop. Her poetry has been recognized by the Adroit Journal, Scholastic Art & Writing, and the Writers’ Theatre of New Jersey, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a Platypus Press anthology, Red Paint Hill, Noble Gas Qtrly, Hobart, the Ellis Review, and Glass, among others.
