Emily Goedde on “translating the space between subjects”

Emily Goedde writes about Chinese poetry translation–in particular, translating the poetry of 1930s poet Mu Dan 穆旦–at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop:

I think about translation as a kind of listening to the echoes created as meaning moves between languages. I mark a space [ ] in the title of my translation of Chinese WWII era poet Mu Dan’s original “我” and my “I”. I ask: What knowledge is generated by putting languages in relation to one another? What can be gained through a greater attention to the process rather than the product of translation? More specifically, what can be discovered within the movement and change occurring in the act of translation between Mu Dan’s study of the individual in his poem “我” and my translation ”I”?

Click here to read the translation and her explanation of her process and product.