As you might have noticed in my profile I am very fond of debating on anything that might strike me as interesting.​ Myself I am not a big fan of poetry; I have just read various works by Surrealist and Dadaist writers. I like the feeling of absurdity and freedom that can be found within these movements.
Anyway, most of their works are in French, so I had to read them in their Greek translation Τhat’s when the question arose. A translated poem is still the same poem? Or has it become something entirely different? I mean you might have read “The Flowers of Evil” or «Τα Άνθη του Κακού», but have you indeed read “Les Fleurs du Mal”?

For example, the following is from the book “Ralentir Travaux” by André Breton, René Char and Paul Eluard.

Dècouverte de la terre

La statue d’ écho  crie au secours
On entre dans le feu par une fontaine furieuse
Qui découvre son front pur de toute éclaboussure​

La poussière d’homme se cherche
Une fusée au bout des doigts
Elle regagne son sillon à la nuit tombante
Les taupes sont attelées au traîneau invisible
Qui se dirige souterrainem​ent entre les trésors
La belle inconnue-lim​ite.

As it’s a bilingual edition I have before me the Greek translation – «Ανακάλυψη της Γης» -  but is this translation still the same poem?

I think that when it comes to poetry, words are not just the tools the writer is using in order to pass his message to the public. The words themselves are playing a major part in our aesthetic conception of a poem. It’s not just the message that matters, but the way it is written, as well. Every word is like a note in a musical piece. Tightly paired with one another, they comprise an undivided whole.

In the same way that you can’t change a note and expect to get the same melody, you can’t change a word in a poem and still get the same feeling.

So, when a poem is translated is like separating a work of art from its artistic form. Like e.g. painting Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” using fluorescent colors. This is most evident in the case of surrealist poetry, which before all else is a picture painted with words.

Well, this is at least what I think. Now, what do you think?

P.S. Careful, I am not asking whether poetry should be translated. The answer to that is obvious.