1071 — Emily Dickinson

I’m participating in a translation workshop this month (more on this soon). It’s mostly Spanish and English, with some French, Italian, and a little German, as well. One of the first exercises was to translate and analyze three existing translations (including one by Silvina Ocampo)  of a poem by Emily Dickinson. It would never (at least not now, maybe in the future) occur to me to translate into anything other than my native language. (There’s that great quip of Gregory Rabassa’s, that when someone asked him how he knew his Spanish was good enough to translate Spanish texts into English, he replied that the question was never that, but always whether his English was good enough.) But for an exercise, for a first try at translating out of English, Dickinson’s agramaticality is very liberating.  There’s lots I’m not sure of in what I’ve done, but here’s the poem and my attempt: 

Emily Dickinson, 1071:

Percebir un Objeto cuesta precisa su pérdida—  Percepción en sí — Ganancia  Replicando su precio—  El Objeto Absoluto — nulo — Percebir adjusta y luego reprende cierta Perfección Que sitúa tan lejos—	Perception of an object costs precise the Object’s loss — Perception in itself a Gain Replying to its Price — The Object Absolute — is nought — Perception sets it fair and then upbraids a Perfectness That situates so far —