Translation as Recontextualization

In absorbing the Japanese poetry assigned today, I noticed a new definition of translation emerging; one that did not involve moving a text from one language to another, but rather moving a literary tradition from one cultural context to the next. The recontextualization of traditional forms of poetry examined in these readings and videos served to highlight new ideas in the same cultural landscape.

The very tradition of hakai "implied the interaction of diverse languages and subcultures, particularly between the new popular culture and the poetic tradition" and also "refamiliarized" traditions within this new context (Basho 180). This is a new understanding of translation to me, one that plays with old ideas and reframes them to highlight social change, provide humor, and generally reframe an understanding of a literary form.

This was particularly interesting to me when it came to the use of this recontextualization in poetry written by women. This practice will always be "defamiliarizing," because women were not always, and still are not always, welcome into literary and poetic spaces. For example, they were not always welcome into the world of haiku because it was believed that women were not capable of brevity. Because of this, hearing Yosano Akiko's poetry was especially moving. In the same hakai way, Akiko utilized traditional tanka forms to write moving feminist and anti-war pieces. More contemporary, Machi Tawara’s “Salad Anniversary” is “modern adaptation of classical verse form." 

More personally, I really enjoyed the imagery of the (language) translations of "Salad Anniversary," specifically the line: "think meltingly of you" (140).

- Lila Baltaxe