So As Not to Lose Culture in Translation

Ojibwe poet, novelist, playwright Jim Northrup used to attend boarding school where "English was pounded in [his] head" (presentation, ACDebrecen, 12 Feb. 2014). His poetry, through the healing power of humour has helped him survive postwar peace, he asserts. The interpreter at Northrup's presentation (aka storytelling) translated Northrup's words as "a bentlakásos iskolában az angol vette át a odzsibve nyelv helyét." Even though this translation is technically correct, it has missed to convey the trauma of cultural loss that the speaker's choice of words, his poetry and the complexity of North American race relations imply. Language, his personal experience attests, thus, has the power to write and overwrite, transmit and transform cultures as well as cultural trauma. This explains why translations of texts that deals with sensitive sociopolitical events/identities must be faithful not only to the form but the context of the words as well.