Madam, - I was interested to read Fiona Sampson's review of the Cork-based project to produce translations of a number of European poets (Books, April 22nd). The project is highly praiseworthy, for the more we look at European poetry and other literature the better our own will be. We need more of this sort of commitment.
However, as a writer who translates other writers from a language he knows something of, I must take issue with the looseness with which the terms "translator" and "translation" are applied. It is not Fiona Sampson's fault - this sort of thing has gone on for some time. But she talks, for example, about "Theo Dorgan's delicate translations of the Slovene poet Barbara Korun's [ poems] . . ."
Now unless Mr Dorgan speaks and writes Slovenian - and it would be edifying to know that he does - he has not produced translations but "reworkings", the real translator being the person who provided the English cribs. Similarly, unless (for instance) Bernard O'Donoghue speaks and writes Czech, he too is providing "reworkings" or "reinterpretations" of the Hejda poems, not translations. And so on.
This itself may be a genuine poetic exercise; but let us not fall into the heady trap of allocating ability or praise where it is not due.
- Yours, etc,
FRED JOHNSTON, Carn Ard, Circular Road, Galway.