Fifteen students attending the Translation Methodology course in the Department of English Language and Literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki created their own translations of the following lines by the Nobel Prize winning poet Odysseas Elytis (Εκ του Πλησίον, 1998) which have previously been translated into English by Jeffrey Carson & Nikos Sarris (From Close By, 2004):
Την άνοιξη αν δεν τη βρεις τη φτιάχνεις.
Και ή πας να παίξεις τρικυμία ή πνίγεσαι.
If you can’t find spring, you make it.
And either you go to play storm or you drown.
The translation and redrafting process took place during the first and second coronavirus lockdown respectively under the supervision of Dr Louisa Desilla. Students were encouraged to take liberties with the original poem and accompany their translations with an image portraying what spring is to them in these challenging times.
And either you face the tempest or suffer the defeat and drown.
And you either challenge the storm or you drown.
And either you weather the storm, or you drown in it.
In our tempest we briefly float, in our tempest we vanish.
And you either take the difficulties down, or they make you drown.
Either you surf the waves or the waves devour you.
And with tempests either play or drift away.
And either you ride out the storm or you let it blow you to pieces.
And we’ll eventually mellow its gloomy blossoms, or they’ll stifle us.
And either you shall dare and play or you shall ever perish.
And as storm bursts, either fight or die.
And to avert drοwning, defy the storm.
And either you rise against the storm or it drowns you.
And you either bite the bullet or get hit by it.
Εither you beat the storm or you become defeated.