Beyond Self-Translation: Bilingualizing the Poetic Process as a Form of Destruction and Creation

Workshop Description: “Beyond self-translation” intends to question the originality of a translated poem. Bilingual writers who self-translate their work may often find themselves inspired by new ideas during the self-translation process. What do we do with these new ideas? Oftentimes, we may think that these inspirations may not have a place in the translated poem, but this may be a form of resistance within our poetic process. When we translate, we make ourselves accessible in another language. Though, as bilingual writers, should we limit ourselves to being accessible in one language over the other or should we resist? As new ideas form during the act of self-translation, our poetic process challenges us to consider whether we need to adhere to translating a poem or whether we need to embrace the fluidity of language and creativity to create new multiple and original poems that all stem from that first poem that…