![]() ![]() Because they co-exist within one culture, the need to translate for understanding is almost non-existent. Commonly, works from an established literary canon are translated from the cultural-dominant language to the peripheral language, but this centre-margin relation is upended when languages in diglossia-two languages within a community where one is used formally and the other is used in vernacular communication-are involved. But the act of translation is inherently politic: this bridge is always sloped, and likely gated at one end. The noble ideal of literary translation, metaphorically speaking, is building a linguistic bridge between cultures. Writing this article thus proved to be an apt opportunity to revisit translating literature into Singlish. While poets (notably, Liren Fu) took on this challenge admirably, I did not further this discussion during the month. This poem was part of a #makesinglishgreatagain campaign I started, half-in-jest, during this year’s Singlish Poetry Writing Month I wanted to question the notion that “literature written in Singlish invariably is comic in nature informed” (Sharma). Thankfully, inspiration came when OF ZOOS asked if they could publish my Singlish translation of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” alongside Joshua Ip’s response. I briefly toyed with writing a Silas Marner parody where Singapore’s last rattan weaver struggles to get Parenthood Tax Rebates as a male single-parent adopter in Singapore, but the story never spun. When my editor-in-chief, Chloe, politely suggested that I write for Margins, I agreed, because it seemed like a good break from grinding in Dragon Age. His accompanying reflection draws out insightful and pertinent questions of language politics and propels us into a world where Singlish is taken seriously enough for it to be a vehicle of translation. Jerome Lim’s courageous transmutation of Tennyson’s elegant ‘Morte d’Arthur’ into this Singlish gem is the first of its kind for a Victorian text. Translating Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur into Singlish ![]()
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