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Printer-Friendly ModeProfessor’s translations break language barrier
November 23, 2009 —
When Judith Kerman first traveled to study in Mexico, she didn’t know she would later travel to the Dominican Republic as a Fulbright Scholar to translate poetry from three women to complete a book.
In her book Praises and Offenses: Three Women Poets from the Dominican Republic, the poetry’s theme mainly deals with political- and gender-based voices regarding the struggling life under a dictatorship, which all three women experienced at one point.
The book collects the Spanish works of the three women and translates them to English. Kerman recited excerpts from the book during a campus poetry reading last week.
“You are doing violence to the original, but the people who don’t know the original language can’t get anything from it, so you translate,” she said.
This is what drives her to author such pieces. To give people who are unable to read other languages the chance to read their work, despite the language barrier.
“I was interested in learning Spanish,” Kerman said.
When she first studied in Mexico, she stumbled upon a poetry workshop. This got her more interested, and she later traveled to Cuba, where she created her first work of translation. From there, the hobby turned into a passion. She started traveling to the Dominican Republic to complete her next project.
Kerman now has a pending reading in West Virginia and she says she hopes for Washington, D.C.
“It was interesting hearing it in poem form,” said creative writing senior Elizabeth Detloff, referring to the anecdotes of the hard times the poets endured.
“There is emotion and feelings in poetry.”