Multilingual Poetry Therapy

Abstract

Poetry Therapy can have even greater clinical impact when used in the native language of the patient. Childhood emotions and early trauma, intellectualized when examined solely in nonnative English, can be vividly summoned through the childhood language. The use of bilingual editions of poems can evoke important emotional material while at the same time providing a structure through rhyme, rhythm and the use of metaphor. The rhyme and rhythm and phonetic associations, essential components of the full impact of the poem, are not fully reproducible in the English translation, but can be captured in bilingual versions. The tension between freedom of expression, raw emotions and highly organized structure, a basic characteristic of Poetry Therapy, is superbly exemplified through the use of bilingual poems.