'You can't reproduce the language, but you can reproduce the effect it has on you when you read it'
On its face, the idea of translating a piece of literature from one language to another seems simple.
The English word "cat," for instance, is chat when translated into French. In Spanish, it's gato. In Turkish, it's kedi. In Russian, it's kot.
But with most forms of literature, the reality of translation is not so simple.
"There's this equivalency assumption - that I can make an equivalent in the language that I am translating into," says Catherine Keough, a literary translator and graduate student in UConn's Department of English.
"But once someone starts engaging with the practice of translation, it becomes so clear that every single move that the translator is making to shift this text into the language they're working in is a choice," Keough says.
Choosing to put one word next to another can change that first word's meaning.
Adding a third word into the mix can complicate things even further.
When it comes to a literary form like poetry, there's also sometimes rhyme to contend with. And rhythm. And attitude.
A poem has tone. A poet instills a mood into the language they choose - it's light, or it's dark, or it's somewhere in between. It could be humorous, or joyful, or sad, or none of those things, or all of those things, depending on choice.
A chosen phrase, the juxtaposition of words - it's all done deliberately to convey something.
And when those phrases and words are crafted in Mandarin Chinese, or Arabic, or Hindi, the emotions they evoke and the cultural context they reflect typically don't just translate word-for-word into another language, like English.
"Whether we're focusing on the meaning, or the sound, or the rhythm, or the rhyme, or any of the formal features of the writing, every time we make one of those choices, we're automatically making other choices impossible," explains Christopher Clarke, a literary translator; visiting assistant professor in UConn's Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages; and editor of World Poetry Review, UConn's literary translation journal.
Because of this complexity, because of the myriad choices each translator must make when attempting to translate a text, translating poetry is as much of a skill and an art as writing original poetry itself.
And for the last nine years, UConn's program in literary translation has been teaching hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students how to undertake translations - and how to do them well.
From Pond Hockey to Hockey East
Established in 2016, UConn's program in literary translation has at times had as many as 125 undergraduate and 20 graduate students participating in its minor in literary translation and graduate certificate programs, respectively, or just taking the program's course offerings as electives.
One year, Clarke noted, he had nearly 20 different languages in the undergraduate classroom at once - something that makes UConn's program somewhat unique compared to others in the U.S.
"It is a multilingual workshop environment - everyone comes in with whatever other language they work with, and we build around that," he says. "There are a few others like this in the country, but not many."
Students in the program range from native bilingual speakers, to new learners of a foreign language, to creative writers looking for new techniques for expression, and they all share one common language to work toward: English.
They're taught the tools and techniques for selecting, translating, and pitching translations, with many students publishing their work in literary journals or going on to pursue book-length translation projects.
"World Literature Today, one of the most respected international magazines in the field, has ranked us 'among the finest translation programs in the world,'" notes Peter Constantine, a professor, literary translator, and editor and the director of UConn's literary translation program. "This recognition reflects the impressive number of translations and peer-reviewed articles our undergrad and grad students have published, along with the prestigious awards and grants they've earned, including the NEA and PEN/Heim translation grants."
World Poetry Review, the biannual literary journal founded in 2017 and based in UConn's literary translation program, is just one of many outlets for literary translators seeking to have their work published.
And while it's still a relative newcomer in a field that looks significantly different outside of the U.S. - only approximately 3% of all books in the United States are works in translation, compared to 45% in France and even greater numbers in other countries, according to Clarke - World Poetry Review is making its mark in the literary translation world.
Four translations included in the journal's Issue 10 were longlisted this spring for inclusion in the "Best Literary Translations" anthology, published annually by Deep Vellum.
One translation - Kate Deimling's translation of six poems by the French poet Gabriel Zimmerman - will be included in the anthology's 2026 edition.
The four longlisted works - translations from Deimling, Samuel Martin, Heather Green, and recent UConn alumna Zeynep Özer '24 MA - competed amongst 400 submissions for inclusion in the anthology, a competition Constantine described as "particularly intense, as the anthology chooses the best translations of poetry, short fiction, and essays, drawn from U.S. literary journals and magazines."
The 2026 anthology will mark the second time that a translation from World Poetry Review has been included in "Best Literary Translations." The 2025 edition included work the contemporary poet Yordan Eftimov translated from Bulgarian by Jonathan Dunne. UConn graduate student Xin Xu's '23 Ph.D. translation of the Chinese poet Yuan Yongping was longlisted that year.
For UConn's literary translation journal and program, it isn't quite the equivalent of winning the World Series or the Stanley Cup.
But it's recognition that the program has grown significantly from the humble beginnings of skates on a pond to a team of real players in a growing and dynamic international field.
"It's like if our team was invited to join a popular conference - like if suddenly World Poetry Review got to play in Hockey East," says Clarke, the journal's editor. "The bonus for us is that we will have work published next to work from other better-known journals or long-established journals, and our name listed among these many important other publications."
Is the Original Beautiful? Is Yours?
There's no golden rule on the kinds of translations that get accepted to journals like World Poetry Review, explains Clarke.
Texts can be contemporary or historical. Translators can be new to the field or established.
Every issue is different, though Clarke tries to curate his issues around submissions that complement each other in some way.
"We just launched Issue 11, and we'd received a really great submission of contemporary Ukrainian poetry, written in Ukrainian," Clarke says. "And then, as counterpoint, I had another submission of Ukrainian poetry written in Russian. And then, as a late submission that I also really liked, we had some poetry from Russia, in Russian, and I thought it was a really interesting mix of aesthetic and political commentary to run the three together at the same time."
The journal also launched a bonus dossier featuring 14 different translations of the 1926 poem "J'ai tant rêvé de toi" by the French poet Robert Desnos - a striking example of how each translator's individual choices can impact the way a reader experiences the original text.
"I tell our students: You can translate this, and it might mean the same thing, but ask yourself, is the poem in the original language beautiful? Is yours?" Clarke says. "And if they aren't both, then you're doing a disservice and it's not a good translation, even if it's very accurate.
"You have to translate the way you react to it, and really what you're trying to reproduce is not the language - because you can't reproduce the language, you're using different tools. But you can reproduce the effect that it has on you when you read it."
World Poetry Review will have an open call for submissions for its next issue in August 2025 - an opportunity for both established and upcoming translators, including UConn students, to compete for a space that's quickly become notable in the field.
"Competition for publication in World Poetry Review is considerable," says Constantine. "World Poetry Review is not a student publication, but it has included outstanding translations by both UConn undergraduate and graduate students, work that holds its own beside that of widely published literary translators."
That includes work like alumnus Michal Ciebielski's '20 (ENG, CLAS) translation of Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, which set off a remarkable career for the contemporary Polish poet, according to Constantine.
"Thanks to Michal's translations, Kwiatkowski's work was discovered outside Poland, leading to versions in German, French, Greek, and Slovene," Constantine says.
"It's a reminder of how literary translators can open doors and shape careers for the writers they translate, and it's especially rewarding to see one of our own undergraduates play such a part."
Issue 12 of World Poetry Review will launch in October.
