Translate, a poem by Benjamin Zephaniah

[spiralsheep]

For reasons that will become apparent, I prefer not to translate this poem by Benjamin Zephaniah (although I will interpret and elucidate on request). Note: author's dialect/accent is Brummie (i.e. from Birmingham, England), and English Rastafarian, and with Caribbean Island inheritances.

More Benjamin Zephaniah here: http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/358757.html

Translate

Who will translate
Dis stuff.
Who can decipher
De dread chant
Dat cum fram
De body
An soul
Dubwise?

Wot poet in
Resident,
Wot translator
Wid wot
Embassy,
Wot brilliant
Linguistic mind
Can kick dis,
Dig dis
Bad mudder luvin rap?

Sometimes I wanda
Why I and I
A try so hard fe get
Overstood,
Mek we juss get
Afrocentric,
Dark,
Who in space
Who on eart
Who de hell we writing fa?

Sometimes I wanda
Who will translate
Dis
Fe de inglish?

Comments

[scifisentai]

*glees* I'm so happy to see this. Benjamin Zephaniah was a guest of honour at my graduation and his speech was amazing. He has this incredible way of using humour to make his points zing home and boy, did they ever. <3 I really need to look up more of his work, clearly, so thank you for the link as well. :)

[spiralsheep]

You're welcome.

Whenever I've encountered Ben, I've found him an inspiring person to be around. The forward/essay at the beginning of Too Black, Too Strong is very powerful too.

Also: "overstood"! Wordplay ftw!

[scifisentai]

*nods* I'll have to see if any of my local libraries has that one. They should, he's a prominent poet for the city, after all. Birmingham represent! \o/

Yesss. Wordplay is always excellent. :)

[spiralsheep]

TB, TS actually has poems referencing Brummagem so there ought to be copies somewhere around there (or there's always inter-library loan cos my copy came from a library not a million miles from Brum, heh). Some of Ben's work is painfully truthful reading though. /obligatory trigger warnings

[scifisentai]

I'll look around after Easter, see what turns up. :) /too lazy to poke at the website now

And thank you for the warning. :)

[gramina]

I really like this, and most of it I can follow just fine -- but: "dubwise" ? Is that explicable, or is it one of those words like "gemutlich" that just doesn't fit other languages?

[spiralsheep]

I think it's a play on words with at least two meanings:

1. like dub (music/culture)

2. the wisdom of dub (music/culture)

Have you heard of dub poetry?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_poetry (warning: wikipedia)

[isis]

This is very cool!

[spiralsheep]

:-)

[azuire]

I wonder if there's an audio version somewhere; I feel like I'm missing something reading it on the page.

[spiralsheep]

I think there are some poems written to be read from a page and some poems written to be recited or sung, and the recite/sing poems/lyrics often need to be heard in the voice/accent/rhythm of the poet to be fully comprehended (e.g. I didn't get the rhythms of Kathleen Jamie's poetry at all until I heard her read it and now I love her work). I dunno if translate is on youtube but there should be plenty of Ben performing his own work cos he gives wonderful delivery in a rich voice. Anyone not used to contemporary multi-English British accents might initially have problems "hearing" words in unfamiliar dialects but my experience is that esl speakers are often more adept at this than rp natives because they're more used to reaching for understanding.

http://www.google.com/search?q=translate+benjamin+OR+ben+zephaniah&btnG=Search&hl=en&tbm=vid&sa=2

[azuire]

I had a feeling his poetry was the latter, and I was right! Listened to him performing some on youtube and it's really come alive.

as someone who has multi-English accents, indeed, yes! though I don't think I necessarily need to access Brummie English in order to appreciate the poem, because some spaces belong to others, and one is a guest.

[spiralsheep]

I'm glad hearing Ben read his own worked helped.

I don't think I necessarily need to access Brummie English in order to appreciate the poem, because some spaces belong to others, and one is a guest.

Yes, definitely.

Im my previous comment I meant, hmm how to explain, that speakers of poshEnglish/theQueen'sEnglish/RP/received-pronunciation/upper-classEnglishEnglish seem to habe more difficulty understanding non-poshEnglishEnglish/Englishdialects than esl speakers. It's one of those "the less-privileged people need more knowledge and adaptability to get by than the more privileged people do" things, cos some accents/dialects are privileged over Others, especially in England where even minute differences in speech mark gulfs in social privilege.

[newredshoes]

Oh, I love it! How neat -- thanks for sharing! Time to get lost looking up more neat internet stuffs. :)

[spiralsheep]

I'm enjoying (re-)reading some of Ben's work. I'm glad you appreciate it too. :-)

[quinara]

Ee!! I can hear the Brummie in this and it's beautiful. (Also the Caribbean influences, naturally. But it's the Brummie where I feel it, in the questioning.)

[spiralsheep]

Brummies have such a sly/subtle sense of humour, which I read in Ben's work as well as the accent. I also love the way he casually code-switches between Brummie/Rasta/CaribbeanInheritance/RPEnglish, sometimes within poems and sometimes between poems. I truly admire his skill as a poet.

[spiralsheep]

P.S. make that "sly/subtle/laconic sense of humour". /belated addition

[nh4ever]

:)
very nice
thanks