From the poetry of Jorge Luiz Antonio (Brazil), entitled 'Solidão De Um Pássaro Sem Asas', and through online collaboration, a visualization, translation and re-reading in digital music was accomplished with Fatima Lasay (Philippines).
In this collaboration, the poem in the original Portuguese was translated by Antonio into English with the assistance of Joel Weishaus (from the Center for Excellence in Writing, Portland State University) and then translated by Fatima Lasay into Filipino. To create the visualization or a visual re-reading of the poem entitled "Visualizing the Solitude of a Wingless Bird", the Portuguese and Filipino texts of the poem were used with the handwritten text by Antonio. In composing the image, Fatima Lasay explains:
"In the background of the visual are the plot lines from a facsimile of an ancient map which symbolizes the concept of a journey or a flight. Also reproduced is the drawing of an open womb by Leonardo Da Vinci, with the fetus visible. The drawing in relation to the poem looks much like the fetus of a bird inside an egg. Very faintly at the back of the fetus is the image of a wing taken from an old Spanish colonial sculpture in Bohol, Philippines. This single faint wing symbolizes the flightlessness of the crouching figure inside its womb. Texts of the poem, in Filipino and Portuguese, are layered upon the image and in the background is the handwriting of the poem's author to depict his presence in the work."
The poem, in all its translations, is presented on a webpage (http://www.geocities.com/imaginero/poetry/) where the digital music generated from the Portuguese text of the poem automatically plays when the page loads. The music, produced by Lasay, is a composite of texts of 'Solidão De Um Pássaro Sem Asas', and uses two midi patches: bird tweet and whistle, to create the impression of the wingless bird described in the poem.
'Solidão De Um Pássaro Sem Asas' is 'The Solitude of a Wingless Bird' in English and Antonio finds that the expression 'wingless' is important to describe that the bird has no wings and does not fly and is thus solitary, alone.
Antonio wrote 'Solidão De Um Pássaro Sem Asas' in 1973 and was published in a poetry anthology called 'Poetas Brasileiros de Hoje - 83' ('Today's Brazilian Poets'), in Rio de Janeiro by Shogun Arte Press. Antonio describes "… it is an old poem, when I was young many, many years ago … Even now I don' t realize what this poem is for me. It came out in a morning and clear day. It came this way and I didn't correct it or tried to change something."
The collaborative work brought the old poem into new contemplation, with certain phrases and words riding between different languages and meanings. For instance the Portuguese word 'ser' or in English, 'being', in the line 'Depois a voz do seu ser' ('Then its being's voice'), to which Lasay explains, "'Being' can refer to soul, consciousness, human being, human consciousness, awareness, existence. In Pilipino 'being' can be translated as 'eksistensiya' (existence), 'kalikasan' (nature, human nature), 'katauhan', and 'pagkatao' (which both refer to being human)."
The line 'em vôos tão virginais' or 'in flights so virginal' which Lasay initially translated as 'ang unang lipad ng birhenes' directly translates in English as 'the first flight of virgins.' Antonio looks into the meaning of the poem and remembers, "I tried to say - 'em vôos tão virginais' - in flights so virginal - that the flights are the first the bird did, not the virgin's flights. So it would be correct to translate into: the first flight of the bird, instead of the virgins." In Lasay's Filipino translation, she indicates the presence of the metaphor as in the English 'the maiden flight' or 'the maiden voyage.' And both Lasay and Antonio find the agreement of their translations in Spanish, as Lasay points out "… 'the maiden voyage' which is in Spanish 'primera travesia' … I would translate 'em vôos tão virginais' in Spanish as 'el vuelo virginal'" to which Antonio responds, "'Primeira travesia'" (primeira travessia, in Portuguese), or 'el vuelo original' (vôo original, ou virginal, in Portuguese), is correct, that is, it expresses what I tried to mean in Portuguese."
The collaborative work, Lasay explains, is more than a translation or transposing of languages. "It deepens and widens our understanding of poetry", where translation becomes interpretation in the forms of electronic text, image and music.
(Source: Jorge Luiz Antonio)
