Found in Translation
For this month’s theme Turn & Turn Again, it seemed fitting to offer a translation adventure that involved a bit of turning. Read on, to see what I mean.
Hélène Cardona first composed the following poem in English, then translated it to French. You can read the original English version in her book Life in Suspénsion (which I encourage you to do).
Because language is dynamic and connotations shift with each translation (and under each translator’s hand), I thought it would be intriguing to begin with Hélène’s French translation and bring it back to English with the nuances the poem picked up through its journey into the curves and hollows and carvings of its French container.
Container, by the way, is the original last word of Hélène’s poem.
When she moved container to the French, it became récipient. To me, récipient implies receive, something a bit more actively gentle and wise. So my poem translation ends with “its holding” which just feels more … gentle and wise and compassionately purposeful than “its container.”
I liked that translation (“its holding”) for how it seemed to speak of the gourd’s partnership in this process—making the gourd not just something acted upon (as when the speaker shakes it in previous lines, as a way to get her truth itself to shake and to sing).
This participation is already implied by what feels like the speaker’s gratitude and love (seen in the moment of “blessing” and “love-gaze”). The gourd has a work to do, and it is doing this work gently and wisely, so it feels.
In my own way, I look upon Hélène’s poem-gourd with my own blessing and love—for how it contains and sings a truth about being gentle with ourselves—who we have been, and what that has taught us, and how that invites us to be ever-grateful for the journey of our lives.
If we are writers, we have the added privilege of “shaking the gourd” that we hold—and translating its truth-song into words the world can read.
First, Hélène’s French Translation of “Woodwork”
Travail d’orfèvre
Si je pouvais rassembler toute la tristesse du monde,
toute la tristesse enfouie en mon seine
à l’intérieur d’une gourde,
je la secouerais du temps en temps
pour qu’elle chante
et me rapelle qui j’etais.
Je la bénirais pour ce qu’elle m’a appris
et le regarderais avec amour
pour qu’elle ne s’échappe pas de son récipient.
—Hélène Cardona, de La Vie Suspendue
Second, Some Key Words I Learned
It’s encouraging to me that with each poem I learn both less and more. In other words, I come to each poem with more vocabulary each time. But I also learn new words, and new senses of words. I love how this works. It’s enlivening!
rassembler – gather
enfouie en mon seine – buried in my bosom
secouerais – shake
secourais – rescue
rapelle – remind
bénirais – bless
échappe – seep
récipient – container
Third, My Translation of Hélène’s French Translation of “Woodwork”
Woodwork
If I could bring together all the sadness of the world,
all the sadness buried in my chest
to a gourd’s inner place,
I would shake (oh, rescue!) it from time to time
to make it sing
and remind me of who I have been.
I would bless it for the learning it gave me
and look upon it with love
for not escaping, ever-slowly, its holding.
—Translation by L.L. Barkat
In this translation you will think, perhaps, that I have taken liberties. The addition of oh, rescue! for instance: It brings in an echo sense of la secouerais (the similar phrase la secourais) that you couldn’t otherwise know without knowing the French. So I brought the sense over, with this addition.
Translation is itself always a creative act, a holding up of sound and sense. An old tune, newly sung.
Poetry Prompt
Using the opening line from the translation above, begin a poem of your own: “If I could bring together…”
What would you bring together? Where would you gather these things to, and what would you do next?
If you like, use the French phrase instead: “Si je pouvais rassembler…”
Photo by Pedro Lastra, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.
See all Words to Travel By posts…
- Found in Translation: Gently May It Sing - September 15, 2025
- Learning by Poetry: Vous venez d’où? - September 1, 2025
- 5 Fun Ways to Play with Language! - August 18, 2025
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