Find a poem in a language you don’t know, and translate it into English based on the look of the words and their sounds.
Pablo Neruda Translated
My English Transaction
Treacherous mama rescued
passed the time playing solitaire
a sin that tests, hi ho
to the solders, violent delegates,
heavenly lines, fetching silver.
Poem Spanish
Tequendama, recuerda
solitario paso en las alturas
sin testimonio, hilo
de soloedades, voluntude delgada,
linea celeste, flecha de platino.
Spanish is so beautiful just to look at, I do know some but not enough to really understand or translate. I turned off my brain and just went by appearance of the words, and I didn’t look across to the translated page and I won’t look until after I press publish. I respected the obvious word celeste that must be sky or heaven. I also didn’t want to be too silly because I love and respect Neruda’s work.
My Daughter did her Study Abroad in Chile and brought home these photos.
Thanks NaPoWriMo Happy Writing and Reading!
Light Words 
Ahhh… That is lovely! Mine just turned out like gibberish, but this one actually reads like a proper (though abstract) poem!
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Gibberish is good! I thought of translated the Jabberwocky. There’s a fun challenge.. Sometimes it is a good practice to let thing not make scenes…letting go…kinda like sky!
Happy writing.
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I love Neruda as well. Have you seen the movie Il Postino, a fictional account about his life while in exile in Italy? Great movie.
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My writing group had a showing of Il Positino last year. One of the ladies is blind so another gal re the subtitles to her. It was a beautiful way to experience this gorgeous movie.
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This is fab! Such a great take on the prompt and with such a nice flow!
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Thank you.It was fun to write because Spanish has it’s own flow that is poetic without knowing the words and many cognates
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Neruda is awesome. Your poem is is cool.
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