Does the poetry translator betray to the original poem? : a study on the problems faced by a poetry translator

Abstract

Poetry translation is the most complex area of Literary Translation. If this also fits into the theories in other fields like Science, translating a poem would not be a difficult task. As this is a creative task, the question arises; ?Can the poetry be translated?? The objective of this research is to find out the problems encountered by a poetry translator, and find out whether he could translate every aspect of the relevant poem. However, the translator has to face immense difficulties such as; understanding the meaning conveyed through the original poem properly, preserving the meaning of the original poem, its rhythm and format, mismatch of similes and metaphors of the original poem to the target audience and culture and conveying the idea using limited number of words and translating feelings and underlying meanings. In finding these difficulties a qualitative analysis is done using comparative methodology. At the same time some of the problems are found through self experience and practice. In order to overcome them, the translator has to translate the meaning of the original poem, if possible, while preserving the format. He should have knowledge in Source language, its poetry tradition and poetic techniques. Moreover, he should be a good poet in his mother tongue. Thus, with these solutions a translator could get closer to the original poem. Even though he tries hard, only a part of the poem could be translated. Translating the entire original text and its feelings, cannot be done completely.