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Unread 05-16-2022, 05:56 AM
Carl Copeland Carl Copeland is online now
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Join Date: Apr 2022
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
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I had the experience once of translating Russian hexameter into English pentameter. I did it for two reasons: 1) hexameter (iambic at any rate) is unwieldy in English; 2) English is a more compact language, and a shorter line helps take up the slack. A friend objected, so I did it over in hexameter. It took some padding (always a problem), but the flavor was completely different (food analogy). More leisurely and elegant. It was like transposing the poem into a different key (new key analogy). I apologize for bringing this down to the level of counting syllables when the thread was taking on such cosmic proportions. Just feeling talkative.

Carl

Last edited by Carl Copeland; 05-16-2022 at 06:04 AM.
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