Reading the two articles really emphasized just how important finding balance is in translating, especially for something as sensitive as poetry. To want to pull away from the original text so that it is more appealing to the targeted audience and translated language, and yet still respects the meanings and nuances of the original poem. I already find it difficult to achieve this balance in a normal story translation, so I was in awe at just how much care is taken in translating poetry.
In particular, I really enjoyed reading Carl Sesar's explanation to his translation of one of Ishikawa Takuboku's poems. I agree that the shorter the poem, the bigger the impact that every word and punctuation alike have on the poem, which makes it that much harder to translate. Yet, Carl Sesar does this seemingly effortlessly, explaining the usage of the word 'tiptoeing' and breaking down the word 'kuchizuke' into 'kuchi' and 'tsuke' and coming up with the actions of pressing one's mouth against the other.
I was also intrigued at Pulver's explanation of his translation of "Ame ni mo makezu." To flip the poem on its head, and to change the sentences from negative-containing words to a more positive usage of "Strong" was impressive to me as I probably would not have thought to do that at all. I do agree with Pulver when he says that sometimes to pull away from the syntax is how you get the closest possible translation to the original.
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