human minds were not
meant to divide attention
ten different ways
//
Trondheim, Norway
human minds were not
meant to divide attention
ten different ways
//
Trondheim, Norway
seeing as a well
a pupil pours in or out
birth babies for life
Rachel Wolfe
19 March 2018
Oslo Norway
Google Translate
ser som en brønn
en elev går inn eller ut
fødsel babyer for livet
For a year, I wrote by hand on paper, a haiku-a-day. Then I translated the haikus to Norwegian, using Google Translate. Of course, these translations are not accurate and likely make little sense. This act is a modern enactment of the term: transliterations. Sometimes bad translation can be funny and sometimes they can be rude, or in extreme cases fatal.
As a personal endeavour, as in much of my work, I look for ways to transform frustration into joy, alter forms of ridicule to reveal the ridiculous. In this project, I ask can laughter be in service to mending divided relations? or are such aspirations purely naive in the times we live today. Can understanding the words we use everyday are so easily misunderstood-that people can fall in love with misunderstanding and this delight in misunderstanding creates the basis of hate and conflict? Can looking at the misunderstanding as a situation of error, reveal our humility and regrow understanding of and for each other?
The project services a study in structure and rules, such that an English poem following the rules of Haiku, are then broken when translated. In this case project, the words were translated to Norwegian. In an exhibition, the poems could be translated to another language. The original language could be different and then translated into English. The transliteration can go all ways.
The idea to do this haiku project started with a desire to learn Norwegian because I was about to move there and experiencing a great deal of existential fear in relocating from the safe knowing of my home country. I had no reason really to leave, but only the invitation to join my beloved across the ocean.
The language courses were difficult; so I distracted myself from the pain of misunderstanding the grammar and became enamoured with studying the etymology of words- the pace of learning Norwegian was slowed. And in many ways, though deeply frustrating at times still-I learned a great deal about the English language and how I have used words I thought I new their meaning and really, in fact, did not. And if in today’s culture speaking words with different meanings is permitted-then how do we uphold the structures which we rely upon?
Enter the value in latency of learning: The ripples, halos, after effects of learning and having the learning come around later.
Exhibition Note: The project is protected by international, intellectual copyright laws. An interactive exhibition invites visitors to write-in their haikus to be translated as part of playing with words and learning different cultures. I would like to see a world amongst our technological connectivity, where difference is appreciated.
a completed sphere
make whole by a concept gone
and replaced by real
//
en fullført stære
gjøre hele av et konsept borte
og erstattet med ekte
spur of the moment
choices make reliable
outcomes as minutes
//
sporen for øyeblikket
val gjør på litelig
utfall som minutter
working backwards and
frontwards tossing to and fro
around in my mind make mad
//
jobbe bakover og
foran avdelinger leaste fram og tilbake
rundt i tankne gjør gal
literal language
distinguishes parallels
cropping out the crap
//
bok stavelig språk
skiller paralleller
beskjæring ut dritt
a white candle
means no more than a color
of another sort
//
et hvitt lys
betyr ikke mer enn en farge
av en annen sort
something can be tried
with all their mighty power
and strength still grows thin
//
en kelte ting kan prøves
med all sin velde
og styrke fortsatt vokser tynn
a different kind
arises from within minds
made of choice not will
//
en anne type
oppstår innenfra sinn
laget av valget ikke vil