Master Class: “Poetry Is What Is Lost in Translation”
Ryan Wilson
“Poetry,” Robert Frost said, “is what is lost in translation.” This famous bon mot has occasioned a great deal of comment. In this brief course—for which knowledge of no language other than English is required—we’ll look with intense scrutiny at some of the greatest lyric poems ever written—including several that influenced Frost profoundly—in their original languages and in multiple translations in order to explore what can be translated and what can’t be translated, as well as what poets can gain from the art of translation and from an awareness of this art’s shortcomings.
