Translation as Performance

Innovative Approaches to the Act of Interpretation

One of the major innovations introduced by the Center is the redirection and revitalization of the art of interpretation. To approach the interpretation of a poem, the question should not be “What does it mean” but “how does it come to mean?”  That method has been successfully demonstrated with the interpretation of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem, “Voyelles” and Paul Celan’s “Death Fugue.” The reaction of students and faculty has been remarkably positive.

John Biguenet and Logan Skelton: Not What it Means, but How it Comes to Mean

New Poetic Horizon: “Voyelles” Arthur Rimbaud

Paul Celan “Todesfuge” Multimodal Translation

Felicity Mazur, Poetry Translated into Music: “Le don de soi même,” by Valery Larbaud

Katie Fisher, Poetry in Visual Translation of “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its Human Feet,” by Joy Harjo

Harjo, Joy. For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet. Translated into Animated Wavelengths by Katie Fisher, For Finding the Way in the Dark, 2022.