Puerto Rican writer discusses translation

Emphasizing the importance of the translation of literature in bridging the gap between different countries, Puerto Rican writer Rosario Ferre presented two literary works to a crowd of more than fifty students and faculty members Wednesday night. Ferre read her essay "Literature, Destiny, and Translation" and a short story entitled "The Youngest Doll" and explained that it is important that works written in foreign languages be translated. "Translation is very important to Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans because we have to make our culture known to other countries," Ferre said. "It is a way to integrate the old world and the modern world." But Ferre said that translating is not an easy task and that it can often be frustrating and futile. She pointed to poems as the most difficult of literary genres to translate, because in poetry form and emotion are so closely intertwined. "Poetry cannot be translated, it can only be transcribed," Ferre read from her essay. "The loyal translator will write what is correct, but not necessarily what is right." Festival Latino Planning Committee member and College junior Scott Recaldi said that he agreed with much of what Ferre said. "I think that it's true that it's very hard to translate," Recaldi said. "You lose a lot about the way a person thinks and the culture when you try to translate from one language into another. It becomes very hard to express yourself." Many of the students at the speech said that they were surprised by the content of Ferre's speech. "I'm not sure that everyone expected it to focus so much on translation," College junior Alfred Bustamente said. "I thought that she would read more of her works. But I did like the blend of the reading of her essay and that of her short story." In general, most students and Festival Latino organizers said they were pleased with the program. "I enjoyed it very much," College junior Doreva Belfiore said. "I especially liked her canal image as a metaphor for translation." Festival Latino organizer Recaldi said that the speech was "a great success." "I hope that people come to the other events," he said. "There are lots of interesting things going on this week."

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