Students in Spanish 350 had a unique opportunity to participate in a Translation Slam. A Translation Slam, also called a Translation Duel, is modeled after a Poetry Slam, a public performance of a verbal art form that invites audience participation. This innovative event can include a variety of participants like students or professional translators who compete to best embody an author’s voice. It also becomes an open forum to see how translation happens, what meanings come through different readings, and what constitutes the art of translation itself.
Upper School World Language Teacher Alyoska Díaz chose this pilot program for her students to pique their interest and encourage more active engagement with their study of Spanish and performing arts. To prepare, students translated their assigned part and were ready to enter the first-ever Translation Slam organized by Upstream Theater in collaboration with Washington University.
To celebrate their 20th season, Upstream produced Life is a Dream (La Vida es Sueño), the professional premiere of a new translation by G.J. Racz of this Spanish classic by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, directed by Philip Boehm. Calderón’s best-known drama follows the journey of Prince Segismundo, who was imprisoned at birth due to a prophecy. As he grapples with his newfound freedom within a world of court intrigue, Segismundo ponders the nature of his existence and the power of his own choices. It is noted as „A play of enduring relevance in an age filled with political uncertainty.“
The Translation Slam competitive component included a presentation by a representative from each participating high school sharing their team’s translation of Segismundo’s monologue and a performance of the “winning” translation by an Upstream actor.
Díaz shared, „The event was a novel experience for the students and me. I was particularly impressed by how the group captains, Arissa Alpaslan ’27 and Grace Griffin ’27, confidently responded to questions and defended their translations. It offered a fresh perspective on translation, especially through the lens of poetry.“
As an added connection, Upper School Arts Teacher Patrick Huber was the scenic designer for the production. Huber has worked with Upstream for the better part of 20 years and said, „The Spanish students from MICDS attended the Saturday performance, where they participated in a Translation Slam with the translator for this production, G.J. Racz, who is one of the premier scholars of Golden Age Spanish drama. This is a rarely produced show from Calderón, the greatest of 17th-century playwrights of the Golden Age of Spain. It’s like the ‚Shakespeare play you never knew existed.‘ This production featured a new translation that preserves the verse structure of the Spanish original.“
Julia Walker, Professor of English and Drama Chair in the Performing Arts Department at Washington University, said, „I emceed Upstream Theater’s first (and we hope annual) Translation Slam, hosting teams from MICDS and Ladue. Alyoska brought a team from two sections of her Spanish 350 course, each of whom had submitted their own translation. The Translation Slam was held in conjunction with Upstream’s production of Gary [G.J.] Racz’s verse translation, which opened this past weekend, and the students were able to meet Gary in person and learn about the art of translation from a pro.
„Alyoska’s students were impressive! The two sections of her class had each submitted a translation of the monologue, and while one was very different from the other, as well as the one submitted by Ladue, all of them demonstrated thoughtful insights into the complexities of translation. Indeed, this was our goal: to get students to understand that translation is more than just a matter of calculating an easy equivalence by way of ‚Google Translate;‘ it involves assessing nuances of meaning in the language of both the source text and the target audience and considering contextual clues. In short, it is an art form.
„Alyoska’s students were knowledgeable and well-trained coming into the Slam and proved to be adept interpreters of the monologue, making wonderful contributions to our discussion. One of my favorite moments was when we discussed the word ‚reprimamos‘ in Segismundo’s first line. One team proposed ’suppress,‘ another ‚restrained,‘ and the third ‚repress.‘ All three translations offered something different to our understanding of what the monologue was about. Since Segismundo appears on stage in chains, ‚restrained‘ had dramaturgical punch. Since he tries to forget his miserable condition, ‚repress‘ introduced a psychological dimension to his musings. But one of Alyoska’s students insisted that ’suppress‘ was right since it spoke to Segismundo’s social and political situation as a prince who has been wrongly denied his freedom by his father, the king. We then checked in with Gary to find out how he—a professional translator—had rendered the word: he, too, had chosen ’suppress.‘ At that point, the students got a sneak peek of the performance when Reggie Pierre, the actor who portrays Segismundo in Upstream’s production, came forward to enact the monologue from the stage. The students were enthralled.
„While the student who chose ’suppress‘ smiled with pride to hear Reggie perform it as part of Segismundo’s monologue, Alyoska also had cause to be proud. Her students performed well in this gentle competition.“
Alexander Goossens ’27 said, „I found it challenging to rationalize and explain the words we chose to use in our translation against ones used by other groups because the word choice comes rather naturally when translating. But when you see other options, you realize that the word choice can have a big impact on the meaning of the passage when in context.“
Alpaslan shared, „This was unlike anything I’ve ever done before in Spanish class; it was a great experience that taught me that translation isn’t an easy process and has a lot more meaning than what meets the eye.“
Through the adventure of a Translation Slam, our world language students discovered the complexity and artistry of translation, gaining a deeper appreciation for the nuances of language and the power of communication and intent.