Translating the Poetry of Nikos Nomikos

by HELEN JIA(西贝)

It is a commonly held view that amongst all literary genres – fiction, plays, and essays included – it is most difficult for poetry to transcend linguistic and cultural barriers. I have first-hand experience of this in my own practice of translating poetry. Some poetry may receive high acclaim from native speakers for the beauty and magic that is inherent in the subtle flow of rhythms in the language used to convey incisively brilliant perceptions, meditations, feelings, and emotions. Translated into another language, however, these linguistic elements are seldom fully replicated, and the intrinsic charm and beauty of the original poem often disappears in the process of transmission. Hence, some argue that poetry cannot be translated.

Despite these prevailing challenges, this turned out not to be the case with poems by Nikos Nomikos that have been translated from Greek into English by George Mouratidis, and my subsequent translation of the poems from the English into Chinese. I firmly believe that the brilliance of the original poems was undiminished and that nothing had been ‘lost in translation’ as it were. At the Sixth International Poetry Forum held by the China New Poetry Institute in Chongqing in October 2017, part of my seminar discussed Nomikos’ collection Noted Transparencies (Owl Publishing, 2016) – Mouratidis’ translation of Nomikos’ Σημειωμένες Διαφάνειες (2003). The audience were all deeply impressed by his poetry, even though the poems had been translated two times. Take poem 18 for example:

Today, when the festivities of the beautiful world begin, with all the porphyry instruments of the heart, and of good hope, they called out my name, with the megaphone, (as though I was deaf)
and they showed me the itinerary of my journey, hurry beloved brother, they told me, the Polymnia is whistling to take you on board. (33)

Behind the simple words, the poem is full of rich allegories, and the poet uses a seemingly mundane narrative to construct a channel of poetic imagery to pour out his soul. We know that the best poetry can make people feel the meaning behind the words. Less is definitely more in this case: just as in Voltaire’s famous maxim, ‘The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.’ Through the simple image of celebration, there is the metaphor of the perplexment and disorientation of outsiders and their giving themselves over to loneliness, and how this alienates them from the hustle and bustle of the world. This also reveals a significant part of the modern human experience, especially that of immigrants: there is often a sense of strangeness before the world – the society, people, everyday – around them, together with an inner conflict about wandering through life on the margins. This poem stays deep in my heart, and it often floats up in my mind and fills my eyes with tears. The pervasive sense of displacement, itinerant longing, and loss driving Noted Transparencies is most vivid in poem 3 of the collection:

Confronted by his stature, I seemed an ant, and just
When I went to tell him, something of mine, an ungenerous wind
Took my only reward, brought to me
by this lord, and a heavy breath
covered, the only sweet horizon left to me. (23)

In the short poems of Nomikos, it is quite magical how a single poetic image can produce such a rich collection of spiritual moments and perceptions of the pulse of the universe, along with shadows of destiny on the horizon. Nomikos is keenly aware that the creation of poetry needs deep contemplation to allow such imagery to be fully revealed as well as to be able to convey with incisive clarity those unspeakable visions and feelings at its diamond-like heart. This is why the poetry of Nomikos is like the mysterious reverberation of a temple bell, and perpetually resonates in the heart and soul of the reader.
As the pain and joy deep within the soul are common for all human beings, it is through such a process of selecting and arranging images that the feelings of the heart can be accessed and conveyed, no matter the language. Poems such as these are therefore rarely limited by the original language, so there is little loss of quality in the translation. Such poetry transcends cultural and linguistic borders. It is a voice that human beings share.

Professor Lü Jin (吕进) of China New Poetry Institute maintains in Modern Poetics: Dialectical Reflection and Ontological Construction, “The use of simple words to form a wonderful way of speaking is the style of a great poet.”*  Indeed, simplicity is the key to brilliance. In the poetry of Nikos Nomikos there is no fancy decorative vocabulary or overwrought linguistic trickery, not even many adjectives; mostly nouns and verbs. It is through the poet’s powerful imagery – surrealistic in moments yet ever visceral and affective – that the reverberations of the mind rise to a level of transcendence. This is how poetry of the soul can transcend language barriers to become the shared wealth of the whole world.

*  Prof. Lü Jin. Modern Poetics: Dialectical Reflection and Ontological Construction. People’s Publishing House, 2016, p. 52.