Pain in Poetry

Out of all the lectures of this semester, i must say this is the least interesting. For one, I am not a fan of poetry at all. Despite my lack of interest in poetry, there were parts of this lecture that caught my attention. It was quite appealing to hear Professor Espito Frank read these poems expressing pain in a different language out loud while trying to follow along in the english translation for these poems. I found that although she was reading the poem in a different language you could still hear the experience or feeling of pain in the words by how they were said. The experience of pain transcends language and culture, it is a universal concept.

What I also found interesting was La Capra poem and the three different english translations by three different translators. It was interesting to see how the difference in translations by the different translators for the lines of the poem. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to translate a poem from one language to another and get the exact meaning and intention of the orginial poet. This very fact is proven if you look at the different translations of the original poem. Finally, as I was typing this exact line, it came to me that poetry and poems are beautiful thing and they are a means to expressing things, such as pain, that are quite often unexpressible, in a abstract or literal way. With that being said, poems expressing pain, are a means to cope and describe a pain and can be for the benefit alone or for others.