“Everything Got Kinda Strange after a While:” Some Reflections on Translating Navajo Poetry that Should not be Translated

Abstract

Inspired by an inquiry from a Navajo friend about why I had not published on a particular poem by Rex Lee Jim, this paper engages that question through three interconnected themes. First, there will be an analysis of the poem by Jim where I translate the poem but also place it within the context of Navajo concerns with k'é (reciprocity, generosity). Second, I turn to thinking through some of the issues brought out in the translation of the Navajo word ajik'eed as "one fucks." This leads to questions about the ways that indigenous languages and their speakers are imagined and represented. Finally, I take up the foregoing issues as I reflect on my own translation practices.

“So it's got three meanings dil dil:” Seductive ideophony and the sounds of Navajo poetry

“…The volume was published by Jim's alma mater, Princeton University, through its Princeton Collections of Western Americana. I have discussed this book and translations of other poems from it elsewhere (Webster 2006, 2013, 2015a; Mitchell and Webster 2011); here I note that the book is written almost entirely in Navajo (including page numbers and introductory materials). I should also note that most Navajos, given the general lack of literacy in Navajo, come to this poem as an oral text and not as a written text (Mitchell and Webster 2011).…”

“…Many of Jim's poems create an intensification of form through the repetition of a key sound in that poem (in this poem, that sound is -dił- ) (Webster 2013, 2015a; on intensification of form, see Jakobson 1960). The second line introduces that key sound: tsidił ga’ can be analyzed as tsin ‘wood’ + - dił ‘jar, shake by concussion’ (-déél ‘jar, shake by concussion, play stick dice’ Young and Morgan 1992: 134, 135).…”

“…Dingemanse (2012) begins his piece on the coercive power of iconicity by noting that “humans are iconophiles: we love to connect form and meaning, and do so even when it doesn't seem warranted.” My goal in this article has been to look at the motivations behind the seductive power of iconicity and ideophony; that is, to show how, in this case, it is warranted. Jim's poetry often works because of the sounds that it evokes and convokes – that is, the way that key sounds in a poem evoke and convoke other words (Mitchell and Webster 2011; Webster 2013, 2015a). Certainly, Mitchell's working through of the multiple resonances of da'diłdił is a case in point.…”

“…Language is rough drafts for poetry Friedrich (1986: 35) Over the last several years, I've tried to think throughfrom an ethnographic and linguistically informed perspectivewhat it means to translate various poems written in Navajo by Rex Lee Jim (see Webster 2006Webster , 2013Webster , 2014aWebster , 2015aWebster , 2015bMitchell and Webster 2011). 1 Much of this thinking through has been founded on uneasiness with literal translations of the poems (see Mitchell and Webster 2011).…”

“A Line Will Take Us Hours Maybe:”Craft and Inspiration from the Ethnography of Poetry

“…it also does for me is when I switch back to Navajo it says, "why not in Navajo in this area as well" AKW: mhm RLJ: so it allows me to push the Navajo language in those areas and in so doing I think I'm expanding the capacity of the language in many ways for one way come up with new vocabulary to to explain the possibilities in certain areas that didn't exist before and but exist in English and I think it's the same way the other way around English has its own limitations and boundaries and when I switch to English and I come to the realization that I can't push English beyond this and it's it's the reality it's a new reality what Navajo can do so easily and so it allows me to push English into those areas as well and when the two work together it pushes me as a person further than either one of the languages could I then ask Jim about something I've noticed in his poems-and something that Navajos, including Jim, have begun to intimate to me as well-irst in the English poems, but over time in the Navajo poems as well. I call it here alliteration-Jim takes up that term-and homophones-in more technical garb I have called it phonological iconicity, Navajos that I know call it saad aheełt'éego diits'a' 'words that resemble each other by sound' or punning ( Jim too will call it punning) (see Mitchell and Webster, 2011;Webster, 2015aWebster, , 2015bWebster, , 2015c. What I am ater here is whether or not the puns precede the poem or if they come ater the creation of the poem.…”