Subjective Experience of Poem Translation Versions

Previous studies have indicated differences in poem reception across languages and cultures. These studies most often used a single poem and a single translation of that poem. Therefore, the observed differences could be a consequence of individual translation choices distorting the poem. In the present study, we compare adjective ratings for two established translation variants of seven different poems to test whether differences between translation variants are as readily observable as the differences between the original and the translation were in previous studies. The ratings come from 219 mostly non-expert readers using a previously developed scale of subjective experience of poetry for the Serbian language. We find no evidence of differences in subjective experience of translation variants. These results support the notion that differences between cultural and language groups in poetry reception were not registered due to simple translation idiosyncrasies. Future research is needed to assess the generality of our findings and explore the circumstances in which two translation variants lead to clearly different subjective experiences in non-expert readers, as well as to disentangle the joint effects of language, culture, translation version, and specific rating scale (measurement) employed on poetry reception estimates. Highlights Language/cultural differences in poem reception may be due to translation choices We compare reception of established translation variants for seven poems We find no evidence of differences in reception of translation variants Further research requires developing poem reception measures in multiple languages