The BSL/BDA Collection: Translating poetry
COPY NEEDS REVIEWING: The BSL/BDA collection features four new commissioned recordings made by the Archive featured British Sign Language translations of poems taken from the Archive. In this article we speak with Alexandra Shaw (RSLT), about the process and some of the challenges of translating poetry from English into BSL.
The biggest challenges in translating poetry are understanding what the poet’s original intent was and the times it was written in, exploring metaphors and visual imagery, and acknowledging how we each as individuals interpret the poem and its meaning differently. The most important thing was to focus on what the poem meant for the performer so that they could produce an authentic translation and performance.
British Sign Language is a recognised language that has a different grammatical and syntax to English. We took advantage of role shift, use of signing space and characterisation to evoke the written word, as it is not simply a matter of matching an English word to a sign.
We were also given freedom to “adapt” the poem so that we could provide its equal in BSL, a rich and visual language. Sometimes this meant changing the order of the lines in the poem so it made visual and emotional sense, making something that was only implied in the poem overt, or using geographically-correct placement to refer to locations around the world.
It can be a tricky balance to find at times – and no one translation or performance will ever be the same! – but that is why working as part of a team is vital.