Voice recognition

I did my first translations years ago and just for myself.

I was at university, less than pleased with my current lover, when I ran across a bevy of Latin American poets who took me by surprise.

Thanks to a much-feared (but not by me), renowned and endlessly fascinating professor, I was introduced to these astonishing ladies.

Juana de Ibarbourou, Alfonsina Storni and Delmira Augustini. Rebelde, Hombre Pequeñito, and so many other seductive, transgressive poems.

They seemed to speak directly to my heart, and in foreign voice. Not just the words of course, but the voz as well. Unlike any I had heard before, unique, distant, but ever so distinct.

Knowing nothing, I transcribed those words, for myself. Years later, when I began translating in earnest, I recalled their voices, and I remembered that what truly mattered was the unique voz, not the mere transcribing of words.


And I believe that still obtains, no matter the genre, subject, source or format. The sad truth is, however, that very few translators, and perhaps even fewer clients, seem to give it a thought. As if it matters not that a marketing text actually markets, an opinion text opines or a billet-doux woos.