To Eff the Ineffable. Can Metasemantic Poetry Be Translated?

Abstract

CJOems like Ihis make me wanl lo cry Ihal Ihis emperor has no clolhes. As r far as I can discern, close lo no meaning can be pulled.from Ihese lines.BuI how can I be sure? I cannol. All I can say is Ihal il would probably lake such a greal efforl lo 'decode' Ihese lines Ihal I suspecl very, very few peopie would be willing lo make iI. I Hofstadter's words beautifully and succinctly trace the problem centraI to this paper: the dilemma facing any translator who approaches nonsense verse. How does one translate words which defy sense? How can one render, from one language to another, the "meaning" ofnonsense? The aim ofthis article is not that of establishing a theory oftranslation: metasemantic poetry is a highly complicated issue and would require the formulation of a whole new system of translation tools. The more modest aim is the identification of some ofthe dilemmas conceming this most extraordinary form of poetry and to introduce the reader to some theories that were considered along the way to its translation. This paper will therefore firstly (1) investigate the nature of metasemantic poetry, (2) propose a frame ofreference that could allow its translation, (3) apply this frame of reference to a specific poem and, lastly, (4) offer its translation as a result.