They make absolutely no sense at all. Of course, this is a criticism of Dylan often made by those who read him in English, but I won’t get into that now…The translations were excellent, on a literal level, but the emotional impact and wisdom was totally drained.

The point is that the poetry makes sense only to those steeped in the cultural milieu and context of the poet. Is it possible to really understand translated poetry composed in another language? If language is as intimately related to culture as we suspect it is, is it even possible to feel what people in other cultures feel, even if we are able to decipher exactly what they think.

As I mentioned, I speak Spanish, but the Dylan translations into that language are gibberish. Likewise, people who speak perfectly good English sometimes don’t “get” Dylan either. Dylan’s poetry refers to a place and time and head not shared by all, even if they speak good English.

Could it be that poetry contains nothing of value at all, that we are just making it all up? That the sense of profundity, insight, eternal unshakable emotional truth, is not real? Or is it that whatever is communicated by poetry on an emotional level is something intimately tied in with culture, hence language? Perhaps even the act of thinking in another tongue somehow masks or obscures those cultural references that make the poem meaningful. I don’t know, but somehow, it seems really important that I find out.