Fidelity & Betrayal: Linguistic Translation

Explore faith and creative betrayal in the fascinating art of linguistic translation.

There are times when translating a text can seem like trying to imitate Beethoven’s Fifth symphony on a kazoo. Poetry, like no other art, perhaps remain imprisoned in the medium, language, which limits its audience to speakers of a common tongue. Anyone across the world can look at an Aboriginal painting, or listen to a string quartet or a Sitar and be moved. Yet Georgian poetry, if you do not speak the language, remains imprisoned behind the fence of incomprehensibility. Until, of course, it is translated…

Yet what works in one language and one cultural setting may seem alien, strange, ugly in another. Auden said that a good poet must be like a valley cheese, “local but prized elsewhere”. This indeed is the challenge of translation to make a text “local“ in two different environments. In my case, this means taking poems, stories and novels ordinarily fenced in by Ukrainian and giving them an English voice. The texts might be remote, not only geographically and culturally, but also historically. Soviet Ukraine in the twenties had many institutions, even many garments with names that challenge the translator and which might require cumbersome footnotes. How faithful should we be to mechanical details of the original text? Is it possible to argue that by discarding some details that will be alien to a modern English reader we might produce a translation that is more faithful to the beauty of the original: a more perfect rendition of the author’s voice? After all, their audience would not have required dozens of footnotes?

These discussions are relevant to any poet, even if they are not translating a text. Whether it’s Tony Harrison (1937–2025) facing the poet’s dilemma of being faithful to their roots while crafting work that could speak to English poetry readers across time and borders – with his collection The Loiners (1970) being titled after the dialect term for Leeds natives and its poems employing the classical poetry techniques that reflected his Grammar School education; Harrison’s poetry remained faithful to his Yorkshire voice and was also informed by a tradition reaching back to Classical Athens. Harrison is not unique here, Heaney spoke of his “hobnailed boots… trampling… over the fine lawns of elocution” yet translated Virgil and imbued his language with classical references. Brian Patten (1946-2025) was one of a group of Mersey based writers in the sixties who wanted to create an accessible poetry which eschewed traditional forms like the sonnets: yet his poem ‘So Many Different Lengths of Time’ speaks, like any great poetry, to universal themes and has comforted many people who have lost those they loved.

A man lives for as long as we carry him inside us,
for as long as we carry the harvest of his dreams,
for as long as we ourselves live,
holding memories in common, a man lives

In this course we will explore how being faithful to, or betraying your roots can enrich your poetry. We will examine translated poetry that remains faithful to, and betrays the original to keep faith with the author, such as Jeremy Reed’s translation of Eugenio Montale The Coastguard’s House (1990). The course will meet you where you are as a poet and provide exercises that can inspire anyone working in any tradition; whether, like Patten, you want to create a new tradition or, like Harrison, you wish to renew classical methods because they liberate your voice.

5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 21 Jan 2026. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.

Concessions & Accessibility

To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].

What to Expect

Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.

Image credit: @kmile_ch

About Steve Komarnyckyj View Profile

Steve Komarnyckyj is a poet and literary translator who is addicted to rescuing disabled dogs from Bosnia. His literary translations and poems have appeared or featured in Index on Censorship, The Guardian, The Economist, Modern Poetry in Translation and many other journals. He is the holder of three PEN awards and a well-regarded English language poet whose work has been described as articulating “what it means to be human” (Sean Street). His next two translated books, The Girl With The Teddy Bear (Viktor Domontovych) and Take 6: Six Ukrainian Women Writers will be published by Dedalus Books and are financed by the Ukrainian Book Institute and English PEN.

"I've been working with the Poetry School over several years. The overall quality of the courses has been one of the factors in my confidence to write."

– Summer 2025 survey response

The Poetry School