Translating Poetry into indigenous Languages: The Case of Igbo Language

Abstract

Poetry belongs to the literary genres. It is characterized by imagery, flowery expressions, emotions, proverbs, idioms etc. Most times, it is connotative and subject to many interpretations. Each poem conveys a particular message, formulated in words specific to a language and culture. Poetry, therefore, is deeply rooted in culture and no two cultures are the same. Translating a poem from one language to into the framework of a totally different language gives cumbersome results. All these factors make the translation of poetry an uphill task and requires a great deal of rigor. Translation of poetry is a recreation of the source language (SL) poetry in the target language (TL). The dilemma of a translator of poetry is then how to recreate the poem of the source language to the target language while maintaining the structures of source language poem: rhyme, rhythm, meter etc. The structural differences between languages constitute another bottleneck for the translator. The challenges become more complicated when working with two languages, English and Igbo languages that are very wide apart in areas of development, structures, worldviews and cultures.