I'm not usually one for poetry. I find it too whimsical, too obscure, too concerned with the appearance of depth and meaning. Despite that, there are several poets, and poems which I find myself appreciating, as though there's something to them that shows the author gets 'it', whatever 'it' is. I would never have considered composing poetry myself, claiming the realm of my interest was purely prose, but recently, that changed. The reason for that change has to do with Chinese poetry, specifically ancient Chinese poetry, 文言文。There's a fluidity to the translations of these poems that appeals to me, and here's a blog post from another place talking about issues of translation and the beauty of Chinese poetry.
I think composing poetry that apes the translation of a Chinese poem in English to be very enjoyable, try it!
The sky outside is clear,
but my heart is unsettled.
The snow has gone away,
but will return tomorrow.
I like the short nature of these, as it makes me feel less pressured to rhyme, or to have a good structure, while still having a format to adhere to, loosely. And I can worry less about it being good or bad afterward. Maybe one day I'll compose in Chinese!
Let me know what you think, or what your favorite poetry style is. Do you think poetry can ever be translated effectively?
