Professor of English and Comparative Literature Randa Aboubakr delivered the first lecture of the Fall 2012
In Translation Series. In her lecture, "Translating Poetry in the Age of Prose," she focused on the translatability
and the importance of translating poetry. She explored different strategies of translation -- homophonic, mimetic,
and analogical -- and translating "poetry in prose." The complexity of translating poetry, she observed, is reflected
in the need to create a balance between the hidden meanings of a poem and the structural form of poetry as a genre.
Aboubakr discussed the challenges of translating poetry in a field increasingly dominated by prose, the role of translators
as "couriers of culture," and the politics of translation. She concluded that more attention should be given to translating
poetry in the age of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, which she called today's "little epics."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t0EXjcVgVk