{"id":135440,"date":"2019-04-12T11:44:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T15:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=135440"},"modified":"2019-04-12T12:04:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T16:04:05","slug":"ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Emily Dickinson, ca. 1848. Photo: public domain, courtesy of Yale University Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Database, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

When she was translating Rilke into Russian, the poet Marina Tsvetaeva wrote in a letter to Boris Pasternak:<\/p>\n

And today I want Rilke to speak\u2014through me. In the vernacular, this is known as translation. (How much better the Germans put it\u2014nachdichten!\u2014<\/em>following the poet\u2019s path, paving anew the entire road which he paved. For let nach<\/em> be\u2014(to follow after), but\u2014dichten<\/em>!, is that which is always anew. Nachdichten<\/em>\u2014to pave anew over instantaneously vanishing traces. But translation has another meaning. To translate not just into (the Russian language, for example), but across (a river). I translate Rilke into the Russian tongue, as he will someday translate me to the other world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To speak through another always sets us down in a place of no return, a place of exile, translation\u2019s natural habitat. However, precisely because it is a place of exile, translation allows for the confluence of several voices. And suddenly, sometimes, the almost-miracle occurs, as Rilke writes in the fifth of his Duino Elegies<\/em>:<\/p>\n

In this troublesome nowhere, suddenly,
\nthe unsayable point here the pure too-little
\nis changed incomprehensibly\u2014, altered
\ninto that empty too-much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Translating poetry requires both a deep knowledge of the original language and of the poem\u2019s historical, cultural, and literary context; more than anything, though, it requires a still deeper knowledge of the language into which it\u2019s being translated, the translator\u2019s own language. Added to this must be a love of that language, the language of the person receiving and then transforming the poem into a new poem\u2014creating a new path. <\/p>\n

Attempting to \u201ctransport\u201d Emily Dickinson\u2019s poems into Portuguese is a still harder task, because Dickinson\u2019s poetry is notable for its peculiar agrammaticality: unexpected plurals, inverted syntax, and an often complete disregard for gender, person, or agreement between nouns and verbs. As for form, Dickinson uses the structure of hymns, though, as Mutlu Konuk Blasing says, \u201cthe metric norm so severely limits the verse it empowers that the verse grows cryptic, crabbed, and idiosyncratic and resists communication itself, thus undermining the religious and social function of hymns that the form alludes to as authorization for her \u2018dialect,\u2019 her \u2018New Englandly\u2019 tune.\u201d The result is a compact, cryptic language full of ellipses, which translates into texts that challenge the tradition of poetry as communication and gives literary language an autonomy more akin to the aesthetics of modern poetry.<\/p>\n

Dickinson\u2019s language is deviant not only in syntax and form but also in its semantics. The main problem when translating Dickinson is not just its hymnlike form but the actual way the poems are constructed and the sometimes impossible task of bringing to the surface what lies beneath. Regarded as extreme in her own time, Dickinson remains extreme in ours, because of the opaqueness of her poems\u2014and their complex subject matter.<\/p>\n

The ambiguities introduced by Dickinson with her use of dashes, blank spaces, and ellipses provide a multiplicity of ways to challenge the reader. To exemplify some of the difficulties that confront the translator, I give below the original of one of Dickinson\u2019s best-known poems, \u201cMy Life had stood\u2014a Loaded Gun,\u201d alongside my translation:<\/p>\n

My Life had stood\u2014a Loaded Gun\u2014\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Espingarda Carregada\u2014a minha Vida\u2014<\/em>
\nIn Corners\u2014till a Day\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Por Cantos\u2014assim fora<\/em>
\nThe Owner passed\u2014identified\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 At\u00e9 passar o Dono\u2014Me marcar\u2014<\/em>
\nAnd carried Me away\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 E Me levar embora\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

And now We roam in Sovereign Woods\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 E agora erramos em Bosques Reais\u2014<\/em>
\nAnd now We hunt the Doe\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 E perseguimos uma Cor\u00e7a agora\u2014<\/em>
\nAnd every time I speak for Him\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 E cada vez que falo em Sua vez\u2014<\/em>
\nThe Mountains straight reply\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 As Montanhas respondem sem demora<\/em><\/p>\n

And do I smile, such cordial light\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 E se sorrio, uma amig\u00e1vel luz\u2014<\/em>
\nUpon the Valley glow\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 No Vale se faz ver\u2014<\/em>
\nIt is as a Vesuvian face\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00c9 como se uma face de Ves\u00favio<\/em>
\nHad let it’s pleasure through\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Soltasse o seu prazer\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

And when at Night\u2014Our good Day done\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 E quando \u00e0 Noite\u2014j\u00e1 cumprido o Dia\u2014<\/em>
\nI guard My Master\u2019s Head\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Guardo a Cabe\u00e7a do Meu Amo\u2014<\/em>
\n\u2019Tis better than the Eider-Duck’s\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Melhor do que Almofada em Penas Suaves<\/em>
\nDeep Pillow\u2014to have shared\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Partilhada\u2014no sono\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

To foe of His\u2014I\u2019m deadly foe\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Do inimigo Seu\u2014sou-o, mortal\u2014<\/em>
\nNone stir the second time\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 N\u00e3o se torna a agitar\u2014<\/em>
\nOn whom I lay a Yellow Eye\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Esse em quem pouse o meu Olho Amarelo<\/em>
\nOr an Emphatic Thumb\u2014\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ou enf\u00e1tico Polegar\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Though I than He\u2014may longer live\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Embora eu possa viver mais\u2014do que Ele<\/em>
\nHe longer must\u2014than I\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ele mais do que eu\u2014deve viver\u2014<\/em>
\nFor I have but the power to kill,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Que eu tenho s\u00f3 o poder de matar,<\/em>
\nWithout\u2014the power to die\u2014\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Sem\u2014o poder de morrer\u2014<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this poem, I tried, as far as possible, to keep the same meter and rhythm and a certain regularity of rhyme, while possibly sacrificing other aspects. For example, in the first line, there is a verb in the original, but none in the Portuguese, and I make the subject of \u201cstood\u201d the \u201cloaded gun,\u201d not \u201cmy life.\u201d I could have replaced espingarda<\/em>\u00a0(\u201crifle\u201d) with arma<\/em> (\u201cgun\u201d) and said: \u201cA minha vida\u2014arma carregada<\/em>,\u201d but that collision of vida<\/em>\u00a0and arma<\/em> is singularly uneuphonious. Then there is the problematic word \u201cidentified,\u201d over which Dickinson critics have spilled whole rivers of ink. What is the complement of that verb? \u201cMe\u201d? The \u201cOwner\u201d? I think both are possible and there is no way of coming down firmly on one side or the other. The reason I went for the first option is because of the presence of \u201cme\u201d in the third line, but, obviously, that is my choice.<\/p>\n

In the last two lines of the fourth verse, I have translated \u201cthe Eider-Duck\u2019s\u2009\/\u2009Deep Pillow\u201d as \u201calmofada em penas suaves<\/em>\u201d (\u201cpillow of soft feathers\u201d) because the more literal alternative would either have to include the word edred\u00e3o<\/em> (\u201ceiderdown\u201d) or I would have to crowbar in some reference to the feathers of the pato \u00e1rtico<\/em>, the Portuguese name for the eider duck. In the following verse, I translated \u201cyellow eye\u201d absolutely literally as olho amarelo<\/em>, with its suggestions of liverishness. Now, I could have been freer and translated \u201cyellow eye\u201d by something like olho de fogo<\/em> (\u201ceye of fire\u201d) or olho chamejante<\/em> (\u201cflaming eye\u201d) or olho brilhante<\/em> (\u201cshining\/blazing eye\u201d), but I felt this would make the lethal potential of that loaded gun, the subject of the poem, too explicit.<\/p>\n

Finally, the third line in the final stanza went through various phases, from Pois eu possuo o poder de matar<\/em> (\u201cFor I have the power to kill\u201d), which I rejected because it omits that important \u201cbut,\u201d to Pois meu \u00e9 s\u00f3 o poder de matar<\/em> (\u201cFor mine is only the power the kill\u201d), and ended up with Que eu tenho s\u00f3 o poder de matar<\/em> (\u201cFor I have only the power to kill\u201d). Basically, I did what Emily Dickinson so rightly called \u201cchoosing not choosing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe that writing poetry is the only basis for translating poetry. After all, writing poetry is also an act of translation, translating the world and the language of the world. And there is only one language for us humans, which is why all poetry is written in a foreign tongue, simultaneously shared and unshared. I translated Emily Dickinson knowing that translation is always a negotiation between pacts and infidelities, but that, as Haroldo de Campos said, while translating may involve some betrayal, it should never involve petrification. In my translation of Dickinson\u2019s poems, I have tried to do something similar to what Willis Barnstone describes in his beautiful poetic meditation ABC of Translation<\/em>: to embark on a voyage across the ocean, an ocean that offers all things and where everything is possible\u2014everything except a mistake, which one must never confuse with freedom.<\/p>\n

It was precisely my belief in that idea of freedom that allowed me to alternate the two most commonly used meters in Portuguese, the decasyllabic and the redondilha<\/em> (seven syllables), using them as the Portuguese equivalent of the English hymn. That same freedom allowed me to use half rhymes, not only because Dickinson herself uses them but because full rhymes in Portuguese sounded phony and unnatural to me, somehow restricting the breathing of the poem, forcing it into constructions that, to my ear, sounded artificial and constrained.<\/p>\n

One final comment: the Emily Dickinson that exists in the actual texts\u2014which, although hers, were also re-created by others\u2014and the Emily Dickinson we read about in the books that ponder these poems both put on various masks, all of which are equally possible because there is no one<\/em> Emily Dickinson in the published poems or letters. Unpublished, every poem becomes a possible poem, and all the possible realities are left open, even those of translation.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Susan Howe was right: Dickinson\u2019s poetry is more at ease in manuscript form than in print; a poetry that encompasses the manuscripts in the form of verse as well as many of her letters in verse and prose, a poetry that sometimes makes no distinction between the two. For this reason, any translation will find itself tainted from the outset by the models we have at our disposal today. If we wanted to be absolutely faithful to Dickinson, we should probably not even publish our translations, let alone print them; after all, in a note to her sister, she left a final request for all her papers to be burned after her death. Being published and printed (given the way in which her texts were left to us) would be tantamount to being normalized, but not being published or printed would mean anonymity and would deprive us all of her work.<\/p>\n

My translations of Emily Dickinson occupy that slender, ambiguous fringe (or margin) between a viable unviability or an unviable viability, in which I am aware of the risks and yet hope for some certainties. Above all, I am in agreement with the poet herself when, in a letter, she writes\u2014in characteristically cryptic fashion\u2014\u201cHad I known I asked the impossible, should I perhaps have asked it, but Abyss is it\u2019s [sic<\/em>] own Apology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral was born in Lisbon in 1956. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages and won many major awards. Her poetry collection <\/em>What\u2019s in a Name<\/a> is out now from New Directions.<\/em><\/p>\n

The peerless translator Margaret Jull Costa has won countless prizes for her translations from the Portuguese and Spanish. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much of the difficulty in Emily Dickinson\u2019s work can be attributed to her distinctive agrammaticality. This quality presents an even greater challenge for the translator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1741,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[807],"tags":[2056,10796],"class_list":["post-135440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-translation","tag-emily-dickinson","tag-portuguese"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMs. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson by Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Much of the difficulty in Emily Dickinson\u2019s work can be attributed to her distinctive agrammaticality. This quality presents an even greater challenge for the translator.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson by Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 12, 2019 \u2013 Much of the difficulty in Emily Dickinson\u2019s work can be attributed to her distinctive agrammaticality. This quality presents an even greater challenge for the translator.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-12T15:44:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-12T16:04:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a71df245c50dedb627008ad2fee1fab\"},\"headline\":\"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-12T15:44:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-12T16:04:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/\"},\"wordCount\":1815,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Emily Dickinson\",\"Portuguese\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On Translation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/\",\"name\":\"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson by Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-12T15:44:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-12T16:04:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Much of the difficulty in Emily Dickinson\u2019s work can be attributed to her distinctive agrammaticality. This quality presents an even greater challenge for the translator.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a71df245c50dedb627008ad2fee1fab\",\"name\":\"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/340099b114e92084d31c08ba76ffa47f8250a5c23c7635eacf9fba7302fb6175?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/340099b114e92084d31c08ba76ffa47f8250a5c23c7635eacf9fba7302fb6175?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/alamaral\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson by Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral","description":"Much of the difficulty in Emily Dickinson\u2019s work can be attributed to her distinctive agrammaticality. This quality presents an even greater challenge for the translator.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson by Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral","og_description":"April 12, 2019 \u2013 Much of the difficulty in Emily Dickinson\u2019s work can be attributed to her distinctive agrammaticality. This quality presents an even greater challenge for the translator.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2019-04-12T15:44:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-04-12T16:04:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/"},"author":{"name":"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a71df245c50dedb627008ad2fee1fab"},"headline":"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson","datePublished":"2019-04-12T15:44:07+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-12T16:04:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/"},"wordCount":1815,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg","keywords":["Emily Dickinson","Portuguese"],"articleSection":["On Translation"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/","name":"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson by Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg","datePublished":"2019-04-12T15:44:07+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-12T16:04:05+00:00","description":"Much of the difficulty in Emily Dickinson\u2019s work can be attributed to her distinctive agrammaticality. This quality presents an even greater challenge for the translator.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/emily-dickinson.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/12\/ms-difficult-translating-emily-dickinson\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ms. Difficult: Translating Emily Dickinson"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a71df245c50dedb627008ad2fee1fab","name":"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/340099b114e92084d31c08ba76ffa47f8250a5c23c7635eacf9fba7302fb6175?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/340099b114e92084d31c08ba76ffa47f8250a5c23c7635eacf9fba7302fb6175?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ana Lu\u00edsa Amaral"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/alamaral\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1741"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135440"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135523,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135440\/revisions\/135523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}