"Wine is Rain in Translation" Old Roads, New Stories: A Blog Series by Rob Carney on Terrain.org

Rob Carney jumps right into metaphor in his most recent guest blog post on Terrain.org and then continues with an interesting writing exercise.

“My friend Rick suggested this years ago: working out approximate versions in English based solely on the way another language looks . . . the pattern of letters, and how you might pronounce them, and so on. Having no clue about the original was his only rule.”

He then shares the end result–a new poem he wrote “translating” visually from an Icelandic poem into English. It’s a fun exercise and can often result in something you’d never have written otherwise.

Try your hand at a similar poem using the same exercise. Once you find a poem you want to “translate” and finish your first draft, go ahead and start revising. Turn it into a poem your proud of and then share a link or an excerpt of your favorite lines in the comments below. 

Rob Carney's fourth book 88 Maps was just released by Lost Horse Press (distribution by University of Washington Press). Read the detailed review by Julie Marie Wade on The Rumpus here.

Other books and chapbooks include Story Problems and Weather Report, from Somondoco Press. You can also read his poetry in Terrain.org: 4th Annual Contest Winner and Issue 30. And listen to a new radio interview with Rob Carney.

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