Translating Zukofsky's Catulus

Abstract

For most translators, the name Zukofsky represents a scandal. It is a name better left unspoken, and when it is spoken it inevitably signifies grotesque infidelity, gratuitous distortion, the deliberate abuse of a poem for the translator's own aesthetic satisfaction. Indeed, Zukofsky is the one name in whose company Robert Lowell is likely to mark a conservative position. Apparently the only readers who respond sympathetically to these translations are devoted readers of Zukofsky's own poetry: a mere handful of scholars and experimental poets, for the most part, since Zukofsky's work is overwhelmingly difficult even for experienced readers of the most hermetic modernist texts.