For this assignment, read Anne Carson’s essay on translation as well as the excerpt from Dante’s Inferno translated by Mary Jo Bang, all posted on BB under Course Documents in the Reading Assignment folder. Next, translate the passage from the Inferno into your own English–your own personal style. Last, provide a 200-word translator’s statement where you explain the choices that you made in your contemporary English translation as well as the vision that you had as the translator. For full credit, be sure to cite and then closely analyze one direct quotation from Carson’s essay in relation to your experience creating your own translation. What do you think your chosen passage means and how did you stay true to its meaning within the context of your own style? What unique spin does your translation put on the literature in terms of content (what the poems says) and form (how the literature articulates its main ideas)? How might (or might not) the literature’s meaning change given your translation? What was it like to do translation work? What do you like most about your translation? What might you do differently?
