These translations are a “homecoming, returning to several prize-winning Canadian, Anglophone and Francophone authors while reflecting the concept of translation as authorship and moving beyond traditional translational forms, by utilizing alternate communication modes including homophony, Morse code, Braille, semaphore, typography, and visual interpretation. Some of these translations enter the field of Ekphrasis. All of these translations reflect the original subject-matter of the chosen poems by interpreting them through appropriate communicative modes. This translation process sometimes demands an initial translation from one language to another, followed by a second translation into an alternate mode, a double-translation. These forms of translation inhabit the poems’ topics. The face à face presentations share original poems with their translations. Explanatory short essays accompany each translation. The door is open to ever more translations. I note that Prof. Norman Cornett is currently translating Innu poet, Maya Cousineau Mollen’s Breviaire du matricule 082 for Caitilin Press. This issue of ellipse is significant. Further cultural exchanges through translations of Indigenous, Francophone, Anglophone, BIPOC, those differently-abled, and authors of other cultures will surely contribute to more nuanced, mutual understandings, and improved, socio-cultural behaviours.  

“Clavier d’antan” par Émile Nelligan (1879-1941, public commons). Homophonic Translation:

Homophonic translations render a text from one language into another language based on sound through bilingual punning, often for humorous purposes. In other words, par·o·no·ma·sia /ˌ perənōˈmāZH(ē)ə/ noun: paronomasia; a play on words. Homophonic translation was developed by innovators, including Oulipists approximately 70 years ago. (E.g.; Howard L. Chace’s “Ladle Rat Rotten Hut”, written in “Anguish Languish” (English Language, 1956). Earlier manifestations exist in other languages. See; Forward magazine’s article; “When the Second Verse is the Same as the First in Hebrew” featuring Italian Rabbi, Leon de Modena (1571-1648) whose octet, Kina Sh’mor, reads equally well in Hebrew and Italian. (<https://forward.com/culture/179839/when-the-second-verse-is-same-as-the-first-in-hebr/>). Luis van Rooten’s English-French Mots D’Heures: Gousses, Rames appeared in 1967. Louis Zukovsky’s homophonic translation of Catullus’ Fragmenta was released in 1969. Canadian authors such as bpNichol developed systems moving beyond homophonics into cryptography. Nichol’s “Translating Translating Apollinaire: A Preliminary Report” (Milwaukee: Membrane Press, 1979), uses a cryptographic approach analyzed by Joseph A. Brown and Terry Trowbridge in in their 2009, on-line essay, “Deciphering Translating Translating Apollinaire” (www.researchgate.net).

Rampike magazine features early versions of Nichol’s cryptographic translation of Apollinaire (V.5, #2, pp.4-5), as well as Brown & Trowbridge’s “Deciphering Translating Translating Apollinaire” (V. 21, #2 pp. 14-17). Free back issues of Rampike are on-line c/o the U-Windsor “Scholar’s Portal”; <https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/rampike/about.html>. Homophonic translations dating back to the 1500s and more recently to the 1950s and 1960s generated critical attention, and many imitators. Tracing homophonic origins is challenging since they are part of an oral folk tradition dating back centuries, and relating to techniques of spoonerism, malapropism, and slips of the tongue. Here, Jirgens interprets Émile Nelligan’s post-Symbolist approach (partly influenced by Baudelaire), while remaining consistent with rumours that Nelligan experienced hallucinations, and was schizophrenic. Symbolism predates Surrealism. To differentiate, Surrealism explores the unconscious and isn’t always rational. Symbolism juxtaposes images to signify specific meanings. The following is a homophonic translation of Nelligan’s poem, “Clavier d’antan.”