Creative Writing and Translation

Abstract

Creative writing and translation have an intricate relation in writing, scholarship, the classroom and beyond. The philosophical context of mimesis and anti-mimesis affects writers, translators, critics, scholars, teachers and students. Imitation, innovation, originality, copying all become part of the debate over translation and creativity. From Plato through Roger Ascham to Immanuel Kant and beyond, this article explores the relation between writing and translation and discusses contributions to this debate East and West before proceeding to the author’s experience in those two realms, especially in Canada, England, China and the United States. I argue that translation is creative, for both creative writing and translation are – along with reading – forms of interpretation. Translators of poetry are, or should be, poets who create anew or recreate the poems.