I’m participating in the National Poetry Writing Month challenge, writing a poem a day based on a specific prompt. So far, I’ve been running a day behind, but today I’m going to catch up and try to stay on track.
Today’s prompt is a bit involved. The gist is to choose a (relatively random) photograph, then find a poem in a language I don’t know. Ignoring any accompanying English translation, “translate” the poem to English as though the poem were actually about the random photo. The prompt says to “Use the look and feel of the words in the original to guide you along as you write, while trying to describe your photograph.”
Whew! Hopefully easier done than said.
So I opened up the photo gallery on my laptop, closed my eyes and pointed. I came up with this shot I took of Mt. Hood in Oregon, USA in 2013. So far, so good.
Then I went looking for a poem, and found one written in Slovakian, coincidentally titled “Mountain.” The poem was hecka long, though, and seemed rather daunting. I decided to see what other bloggers were up to, and checked out “Mexi Movie the Third” to see Manja’s entry for today’s challenge.
Wisely, Manja had chosen a four-line poem written in Afrikaans. Now that seemed much more manageable.
So I stole her poem to translate. (Hope you don’t mind, Manja 😀 )
Here’s the original poem, as written by poet Hester Ley Ney. (Hope you don’t mind, Hester 😀 : )
Hierdie dag
wat ek graag wou vashou
het gesmelt
en weggedrup uit my hand
Okay. Time for me to “translate” based on my photo:
hardy day
what a great view shown
and smelled
on the way up to it with my hand
Well, now. That was interesting… Wonder what fun tomorrow’s challenge will hold.
What Rhymes with Stanza? 
Hahha, most excellent! I certainly don’t mind and I hope Hester won’t mind either, even though I don’t know her at all.
Now a little trick – if you look at her post again, you will notice another poem in English, a haiku, below this one in Afrikaans, and guest what – they tell the same thing! Just in case you were wondering what her poem was about.
Your poem makes moderate sense as well. 😀
This challenge was much more fun than I thought it would be at first. They should just post Hester’s poem in the original challenge and make it more easier. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
That certainly would have helped. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hope you found some instructional value there. You did manage to make a little sense out of mayhem. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah… maybe I should have taken a bit more creative license with that one. I like the notion of inhaling the view, touching the view with my outstretched hand. A poem for another day, perhaps.
LikeLike
I like that too. Touching and smelling beauty, even when it’s not within reach. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stay tuned…
LikeLike
Pingback: NaPoWriMo / GloPoWriMo 2018 – Day 5 – “Spectres Of Speeches And Letters” by David Ellis | toofulltowrite (I've started so I'll finish)
Interesting… Like the prose. And the easy narration. The poem also befits.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you.
LikeLike