Seamless Translation

Yesterday I wrote about “The Electric Classroom,” described on their site as “a constellation of web sites on Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and nineteenth-century American culture.”  I promised that today I would share one of the links I explored from that site, however, I’m going to put that off for a day, because I stumbled upon something I’d like to share first.

In yesterday’s post, I discussed Whitman’s poem, “I sing the body electric,” and I shared a line from a letter from Emily Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson: 

“You speak of Mr Whitman - I never read his Book - but was told that he was disgraceful-”

I then noted that the second line from Whitman’s poem used the word “engirth.”  Twice. “That sounds pretty darn disgraceful, no?” I said.  “I mean …for 1862.”   I then posted this spoiler alert: “Emily Dickinson never used the word ‘engirth’ in any of her poems.”  Yes – that is true.  However, I realized that I should also check for use of the word “girth,” and surprisingly, yes – Dickinson used the word “girth” in one poem, “How fits his umber coat.”

Then, as I was exploring that poem, I found this translation of it (below left). 

So what language is that?  I threw it into Google translate, and it seems to be Hungarian.  How I happened upon Dickinson in Hungarian I may never know. Anyway, I wondered how Dickinson translated in Hungarian, so I copied & pasted the poem into Google Translate to have it re-translated back into English to find out – and I got this (below right). 

As a bonus, the site included a second translation of the poem in Hungarian (below left) so I re-translated that version back into English too.  Here’s how it came back to me (below right). 

The translations certainly come close to Dickinson’s meaning, although their takes on the last stanza – particularly with line 11 – seem a bit off.  Dickinson’s “Yet by this Countryman,” that is, this living thing connected to the web of life of which we are all a part, becomes “But this rural kin” in the first re- translation and “But here comes this little mite” in the second. Then, the final line, “This nature – how done” – highlighting how the work of nature surpasses our own accomplishments – becomes “He is logically and legally correct” and “And all this is worthless.” 
​
Of course, I’m basing this on a re-translation of a translation of the poem from Google Translate; alas, I don’t know anyone who speaks Hungarian to discuss their understanding of the poem in the two different Hungarian formats.  Maybe something’s been lost in the re-translation?  Anyone out there who speaks Hungarian?