Johannes Göransson on the deformation zone that is translation
One frequently heard standard for translation is that the translation should read as it would read to a speaker in the native country. But this criterion makes it seem as if the readers in the original country are all the same, all with the same interpretations and reading approaches. Further, it makes it seem like poems are always written for the most educated (which tends to mean richest, most privileged) readers … [But, poetry] may be written for and by immigrants and emigrants, for and by weirdos, for and by readers with strange or unusual reading habits, for and by people who read via transnational contexts, for and by people who have no desire or ability to ‘master’ the poem.
From Transgressive Circulation: Essays on Translation (Noemi Press, 2018)