By: Megan Clark Campus Life Editor
Peter Sears, Oregon Poet Laureate, introduced Dr. David Hargreaves and Dr. David Lewis, who presented about endangered poetics in the Werner University Center on Nov. 2.
Endangered poetics is a term for the disappearance of a language due to colonialism or hostility toward a home language.
Dr. Hargreaves is a linguistic professor at Western. His presentation focused on his translations of poetry written in Nepal Bhasa, a language that is in the process of dying out.
The Blossoms of Sixty-Four Sunsets by Durga Lal Shrestha has been translated before, but only for its accuracy, not for its inherent beauty of rhythm or sound. Dr. Hargreaves said that translators often use language “for data” and that “language never gets treated as art itself.”
He showed how he utilized rhyme and rhythm in his translations; his recitations of the poems in the Nepal Bhasa language showed there was a distinct melody and sound pattern to the lines uttered, which he tried to convey in his English translations.
Dr. David Lewis, who has his Ph.D in anthropology and is a direct descendent of Chief Santiam, presented next. His focus was on the translation and adaptation of a Kalapuya poem.
First, Dr. Lewis presented a version of this text as translated and made popular by Jerold Ramsey. The text describes a shaman who has a dream that foretells of a time when the white men would come and destroy the land.
However, Dr. Lewis has doubts about the accuracy of this translation. “Does this [translation] really have that native perspective?” He queried.
While there are earlier translations of the prophetic poem, Dr. Lewis wanted to have a fresh perspective to work from.
Kalapuyan, the language of the original text, is an extinct language, so Dr. Lewis reached out to two linguists to decipher a fresh translation of the text.
Dr. Lewis found that Ramsey had added in aspects of the poem that were not there originally, such as calling the whites “iron farmers.” In doing so, Ramsey changed the overall meaning of the text, altering the poem’s native perspective in the process.
Jasmine Trujille, a junior ASL Interpreting major, said, “[Dr. Lewis] shows us how there’s meaning in reanalyzing a poem … it shows more about the time period than the text.”
Much can be learned from the translations of the poetry, and, likewise, much can be lost if the language dies.
Dr. Hargreaves stated that translating texts is a “contribution to what beauty is in other places of the world.”
He continued, “If it’s not translated, not made accessible, no one would ever know.”
