Launching the Poetry Challenge
Posted on 13. Feb, 2011 by Mr Picardo in Languages
Following the success of the Song of the Week series of posts from last year, in 2011 we are going all literary and launching The Poetry Challenge, a series of posts in which we will publish a short poem every week in French, German or Spanish and challenge our students to translate them into English.
Since poetry is at the heart of this challenge, winning translations will not only have to be as linguistically accurate as possible, but will also retain the original poem’s poetic characteristics – i.e. it will still read like a poem, even in English.
Every week a winning translation will be chosen by your teachers and a prize will be awarded.
This week’s challenge are the last two verses of a beautifully melancholy poem by Chilean poet Jorge Teiller called Despedida:
Me despido de la memoria
y me despido de la nostalgia
-la sal y el agua-
de mis días sin objeto
y me despido de estos poemas:
palabras, palabras -un poco de aire
movido por los labios- palabras
para ocultar quizas lo único verdadero:
que respiramos y dejamos de respirar.
So, do you dare take the challenge? If so, submit your translation to Mrs Moorhouse before Friday 18th February. You might well be our winner 
Follow this link to read the full poem.
