I’m always fascinated by different translations—how they can make a book better or worse. However, I’ve never really thought about the translations of poetry…until now.
After coming across a word with which I was unfamiliar (“chuntering” which apparently means “complaining”), I was astonished to find that the version of a Dutch poem I adored was a Scottish translation—not Scots Gaelic, but Scottish English. (Apparently, I hadn’t even noticed the Scottish word of “smirr” since I knew the term. A smirr is a fine, drifting rain so light it seems like a mist or smoke—makes sense the Scots have their own word for it since they’re so much smirr in Scotland.)
After reading a more common translation of the poem, I like the Scottish version far more.
Which do you prefer?
Memories of Holland by Hendrik Marsman
“Thinking of Holland
I see broad rivers
slowly chuntering
through endless lowlands,
rows of implausibly
airy poplars
standing like tall plumes
against the horizon;
and sunk in the
unbounded vastness of space,
homesteads and boweries
dotted across the land,
copses, villages,
couchant towers,
churches and elm-trees,
bound in one great unity.
There the sky hangs low,
and steadily the sun is smothered in a greyly
iridescent smirr,
and in every province
the voice of water
with its lapping disasters
is feared and hearkened. ”
“Thinking about Holland,
I see broad rivers
moving slowly
through endless lowlands.
rows of unthinkably
thin poplars
standing as high plumes
one above the other;
and sunken within
wonderful space,
farm houses
scattered throughout the land,
clusters of trees, villages,
cropped towers,
churches and elms
in one great association.
The air hangs low
and the sun is slowly muffled
in a gray
mottled fog,
and in the many provinces
the voice of the water
with its eternal calamities
is feared and heard.”
Isn’t it interesting to compare them?
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