Empreintes, by Abdellatif Laâbi

(image credit)

Si l'on pouvait écrire
just en apposant
ses empreintes digitales
sur la page
cela éviterait
le mal que l'on se donne
pour rechercher l'originalité
à n'importe quel prix

Empreintes, by Abdellatif Laâbi.

Translating this tiny poem involved much thought and discussion. We struggled for some time with the title: in the original French, it's 'Prints' not 'Fingerprints' (though that word crops up in the third line). But 'prints' in English has far wider connotations than in French. So we stuck with 'Fingerprints'. 

Most of our efforts centred on trying to make our final version sound as 'light' and colloquial as the original - as close to ordinary speech in English.

I love how the Poetry Translation Centre worked at translating such a poem.

If only we could write
just by laying
our fingerprints
on the page
this would avoid
the hurt we incur
in the quest for originality
regardless of the cost

Fingerprints, as literally translated by Andre Naffis-Sahely.

If we could write
simply by placing
fingerprints
on a page
it would relieve
the pain we endure
trying to be original
at any price

Fingerprints, by The Poetry Translation Workshop.

Abdellatif Laâbi