Roundtable: Department of Lost-and-Found

Department of Lost-and-Found: a discussion by poets, translators, and publishers Janaka Stucky, Jake Levine, Sue Hyon Bae, Ha Jaeyoun, and Hwang Yuwon on translation. As a character in the Jim Jarmusch film Patterson says, reading poetry in translation is like taking a shower with a raincoat on. Likewise Robert Frost said, "Poetry is what gets lost in translation." So translation is often framed in the narrow terms of what is lost. But translation is also a process where creative possibilities emerge in the chasm between languages, where new meanings and breakthroughs are often found, where authors and their work are discovered by readers in new contexts, speaking in non-native tongues. These poets and translators, working primarily between Korean and English, will discuss the role of creativity in translation, how translation affects their poetic practice, and the pitfalls and pleasures of translating and having their work translated.