Translation as Metamorphosis in the Animated Poetry-Film

Adapting or translating poetry to a new medium destabilises the significance of each of the elements of a poem’s make-up. Hanna Andrews states that in translating poetry, the “idea or emotion itself may be translated, reframed or refashioned in a new medium, [but] the adapted version cannot replicate it precisely, because in poetry, it is created through the act of expression” (Andrews [2013]. “Recitation, Quotation, Interpretation: Adapting the Ouevre in Poet Biopics”. Adaptation 6 (3): 365–383. doi:10.1093/adaptation/apt019). The conundrum of translating poetry from one language into another is problematic because of the inherent differences between languages and the peculiar nature of language in poetry. The translation of poetry from a linguistic to a visual semantic system presents a vast number of challenges to the translator if conventional approaches to translation should be attempted. Kentaro Kawashima’s (“Metamorphosis as Origin—Koji Yamamura’s Short Animation Franz Kafka’s a Country Doctor”. Arts 8 (2): 54. doi:10.3390/arts8020054, 5) view of the creation of a film based on a literary text as an instance of metamorphosis rather than an act of translation offers a solution to the question of transmedial translation. Using praxis as research this paper will explore what such a translation entails by analysing the poem and its transmutation in the poem Amon L’isa by Carina van der Walt and the poetry-film Amon L’isa by Diek Grobler.