Challenges of Translation

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There are several challenges that we face as translators of Indigenous literature. Among these is the fact that we do not belong to these communities or cultures. This is a challenge because we may not understand all of the poem’s meanings. For instance, certain phrases will not make sense to us, even though they are very common phrases for indigenous communities. Another great challenge is that there are many words in the Indigenous languages ​​that don’t have a direct translation in Spanish or other languages. In this case, the translator can leave the written word in the Indigenous language or change the text a bit trying to somehow communicate the same as the original.

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It is important to translate poetry because when listening to it in different languages ​​we wonder about the meaning of time and place. When translating we connect and exchange ideas between different languages. When we translate, we have to think critically to understand what the author is saying. Within Negma Coy's poetry there are words that are written in Kaqchikel that cannot be changed because it is a unique language and if we try to translate, it will change the main message of the poem. When we translate, we want to try to connect the ideas between his poetry to understand the message but sometimes it is not the case because poetry has other messages. In any event, we have improved in the process of translating in Spanish 455 through the experience of struggling with the linguistic and cultural details of the poems.