User:Phil wink

There is a general consensus on the English Wikipedia that illustrative English translations of foreign-language poetry must always be as literal as possible. Form, tone, literary quality or influence be damned. This ratifies the idea that poets are notable for what they say, not how they say it, when the truth is more often the reverse. It also perversely discourages the inclusion of professional, even culturally significant, translations (which often wickedly reach past lexical blamelessness to grasp at aesthetic value), encouraging instead ad hoc translations by Wikipedians. I admit that, in this community (or any), it must surely be easier to end a conflict by deferring to literalness than to taste. Well, I don't agree with this mindset, but I'm not gonna fight it. However, when the purpose of the verse quotation is to illustrate some formal feature of verse, then dogged literalism defeats the very rationale for its inclusion. Therefore, in these cases, formal equivalent verse paraphrases should be supplied: reflecting, as faithfully as possible in English, all formal features that are germane in the given context. Literalness is of course still desirable, but of secondary importance here. Just as published translations may be deemed insufficiently literal, frequently they are insufficiently formally equivalent to serve these illustrative purposes. So over the years I have had occasion to supply a few such formal equivalents, which, out of vanity, I list below.

Groups

Wikimedia Minnesota User Group — WikiProject Poetry/The Canterbury Tales task force

Handy links

Help:Table — Copy & Paste Excel-to-Wiki — MediaWiki Tables Generator — {{citation}} — WP:CS1

User:Phil wink/Translation workshop

User:Phil wink/English alexandrine

User:Phil wink/observations

User:Phil wink/scan