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 didnât even look at the English at first, because I didnât know that the mistranslation was the point, and of course I didnât 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.Â
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 as âThe mermaid rose from the sea / To see the dry world.â Theyâre very neutral lines. She was curious about the dry world, so she went to check it out. Thatâs a very different connotation from the mistranslation, which tells you that the mermaid preferred the land to the sea.
The second two lines I would say mean âShe found a fisherman on the beach / this beautiful fish without a net.â Sheâs 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 read âShe had a gleaming tail; scales / that covered her breasts, arms, and face / and a wake of lacy waves.â Again, itâs from her perspective, not the fishermanâs, and she thinks of herself as having a gleaming rather than oily tail, a lacy wake rather than a frothing one.
Next stanza: âThe fisherman caught her by the tail / and cut it in half.â From her point of view, the fisherman has committed a sudden and senseless mutilation. Then he goes, ââNow,â he said to her, âyou have legs. / Why donât you walk?ââ Itâs almost like an accusation. You have legs now, why donât you just get up and walk?
My read on the next stanza is:Â âThe mermaid began to sing to the sea / for aid, her blood transforming / the sand of the beach into rainbows.â The sea is her home, not the land, and sheâs crying out to her home in pain as she bleeds.
Then the poem ends with âShe sang to the fisherman, âI forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you.ââ
The reason this mistranslation is so brilliant is that it takes a story about a mermaid trying to forgive a man whoâs 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, thatâs exactly what happens to so many stories from colonized cultures when theyâre 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 canât. Itâs usually not this extreme, but this exists to some degree in all translations by people who donât truly understand the culture that produced the work theyâre translating.
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