Holy crap, this is incredible. As a natively bilingual Latina woman, allow me to dive into a full analysis.
First, I should tell you my experience of reading this. I didnāt even look at the English at first, because I didnāt know that the mistranslation was the point, and of course I didnāt need it. So I read the whole poem in Spanish and thought it was really sad and moving. Then I looked at the English and my eyebrows went right up to my hairline. Why the hell would you translate it this way, I thought.Ā
Then I read the caption and realized that this is a genius way of demonstrating how translation into English can be an act of colonization and violence.
I would translate the first two lines asĀ āThe mermaid rose from the sea / To see the dry world.ā Theyāre very neutral lines. She was curious about the dry world, so she went to check it out. Thatās a very different connotation from the mistranslation, which tells you that the mermaid preferredĀ the land to the sea.
The second two lines I would say meanĀ āShe found a fisherman on the beach / this beautiful fish without a net.ā Sheās the one with agency here, not the fisherman, and she thinks of herself as a free fish, unconstrained by a net, not as a fish without a home.
The next three lines by my lights readĀ āShe had a gleaming tail; scales / that covered her breasts, arms, and face / and a wake of lacy waves.ā Again, itās from her perspective, not the fishermanās, and she thinks of herself as having a gleamingĀ rather than oilyĀ tail, a lacyĀ wake rather than a frothingĀ one.
Next stanza:Ā āThe fisherman caught her by the tail / and cut it in half.ā From her point of view, the fisherman has committed a sudden and senseless mutilation. Then he goes,Ā āāNow,ā he said to her,Ā āyou have legs. / Why donāt you walk?āā Itās almost like an accusation. You have legs now, why donāt you just get up and walk?
My read on the next stanza is:Ā āThe mermaid began to sing to the sea / for aid, her blood transforming / the sand of the beach into rainbows.ā The sea is her home, not the land, and sheās crying out to her home in pain as she bleeds.
Then the poem ends withĀ āShe sang to the fisherman,Ā āI forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you.āā
The reason this mistranslation is so brilliant is that it takes a story about a mermaid trying to forgive a man whoās committed senseless violence against her, and turns it into a story about a man who uplifts a woman to a better life out of the kindness of his heart. And the thing is, thatās exactly what happens to so many stories from colonized cultures when theyāre adapted by the oppressor. Translation into English, and further the cultural language of the oppressor, can be an act of violence and erasure rather than one of respect.
This is why I have worked so hard to translate poetry from Spanish to English that has previously only been translated by white Americans who learned Spanish in college. I can bring something to the translation that they canāt. Itās usually not this extreme, but this exists to some degree in all translations by people who donāt truly understand the culture that produced the work theyāre translating.
