Poetry's "parasitical in-law, translation"

Clare Cavanagh's "The Art of Losing" is a beautiful ode to translation as a process of trying. She reminds us that there is a lot to be gained, in addition to lost, when translating poetry. So what if it's impossible?

Her final analogy of her son's game of running around covered in a blanket, laughing when he hits a wall, as a lesson about enjoying the failures as much as the process, reminds us of the poetic nature of translation, and existing within and outside of its confines.

Cavanagh's writing is light, and it is enjoyable, so it reflects her ideas of what translation should be. It seems that in these theories we read, the translators who write about translation as a more strict process, lose this lightness, and perhaps lose the image of translation as art. However, as Cavanagh would remind us, those translators would have also gained other aspects to their writing in the process.

- Lila