Abstract
ABSTRACT This work is premised on the assertion that poems about translation can offer a way of doing theory, providing a resource that may elude rational discourse and reach the reader at least partly through eliciting aesthetic response. In many cases the poems presented and discussed are well known and broadly resonant; in others, quite obscure ‘occasional’ poems, but as a whole they show great teachable potential as a set of interrelated cases. Subgenres that poems about translation take, such as the verse epistle and the translator’s prefatory poem, are discerned, and ten subtypes of translation themes–such as the translator’s identity, translation framing and criticism, apologia for translation, advice to the translator – are distinguished in this non-exhaustive canon, and one may historicise and draw further conclusions about the poems in or against their respective eras of composition. The pedagogical usefulness of these works is strengthened by the analytical attention given to key features of the texts for elucidating principles, thematics, and historical debates on literary translation for the classroom.
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