Poetry in Translation
This MIT seminar, offered through the Experimental Study Group, examines what happens to a poem when it moves from one language into another. Students look at translations across different eras and cultures, comparing versions of the same poem to see how rhythm, sound, and meaning survive or get lost in the process. Coursework includes students attempting their own translations, with accommodations built in for those who know no foreign language, so the emphasis stays on close reading and craft rather than fluency. Materials include readings, discussion, and translation exercises drawn from MIT OpenCourseWare. The course treats translation as a form of literary criticism in its own right, asking what a translator owes to the original poem and what gets inevitably rewritten along the way.