LIRIKONFESTOVIH ENAINDVAJSET (22): KRISTINA TAMULEVIČIŪTĖ


This year, as a poet and a translator, I participated in the international poetry festival “Poezijos pavasaris” (“The Spring of Poetry”) that takes place in Vilnius, many other Lithuanian cities or towns and also abroad, in countries with Lithuanian minorities. I had a chance to visit Samogitia, one of the most unique Lithuanian regions with distinctive dialect. Being half Samogitian, I had no difficulties to understand the locals but was very surprised to see the thriving poetry in Samogitian. Poet Justinas Kubilius was even honoured with one of the main festival awards for his collection of poems in Samogitian.
And then it hit me that these poems could never be translated to a foreign language (or any dialect of any language, including Lithuanian itself) without losing their significance and sociolinguistic message.
As a translator, I notice a trend to write in one’s own dialect. I know that professional literary translators try to overcome such linguistic challenges by translating into their own dialects or using slangs that could keep the sociolinguistic message of the original text as close as possible. Some of them, for example, Djudja Strsoglavec, even create their own languages for this purpose. I see this process as another rare yet creative way to enjoy literature and reading.
Literature is a special form of art because it depends on language. It both uses words and shapes the course of linguistic development. Therefore, I believe that translated literature is a tourist visiting (and touching) another culture. It is beautiful.