Pablo Abrante

on translating Zoraida Armengol

i adore formal poetry.

this poem was tough to translate without sacrificing the rhyme — i’m very thankful for my friend Olive’s help here! i like to say that, when translating, something has to go, be it tone, literalness, or rhyme. i think that translation means composing a poem like a native speaker of another language, but if you keep the form, you usually sacrifice literal meaning.

take alas vistiendo: a native speaker might compose that flourish as “dressed in wings,” but then how do we rhyme that with “existing”? arrepientan doesn’t have an object in the Spanish… what exactly would the dim lights regret?

de pie, erguida means “on my feet, standing straight,” but that’s so many words and the tone is all formal. the expression is physical, but the poet clearly uses it symbolically as well.

i took advantage of those ambiguous moments and a little enjambment to preserve the rhyme. the rhythm is light in spanish, whereas my translation stretches and crunches back and forth. something had to go, i think.

the repetition of para was another obstacle, since most literally that’s “for” or at least “in order to.” even my choice to go with “so” is more formal than the relatively neutral register para, but it keeps the motif without taking up too much space. i knew i wanted to translate this poem as soon as i read it. the more i sat with this piece, the more it grew on me. hopefully it’s a reminder to keep me writing; i, too, am keeping alive.

but who are these avenue muses?