"cross-language homophonic poetry" -- or something

[Joel S. Berson]

On the other list, someone has answered with:

"Homophonic translation: Take a poem in a foreign language that you
can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate the sound
of the poem into English (i.e. French "blanc" to blank or "toute" to
toot). (Cf.: Louis and Celia Zukofsky's Catullus.) Rewrite to suit."

http://www.kayvallet.com/Syllabi/translation.html

But I'll pass on "macaronic verse".

Joel

At 1/18/2006 04:33 PM, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: "cross-language homophonic poetry" -- or something
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On 1/18/06, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > On another list, someone asked:
> > >There's been a conversation on our family list about _Mots
> > >D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript_, by Luis
> > >D'Antin Van Rooten ... who produces poems that look like French
> > >but sound like English (that is, when read aloud they make sense
> > >as English sounds).
> > >
> > >What is that form, joke, or whatever it is called?  I know of it
> > >because Jonathan Swift did it with Latin and English, but at the
> > >moment I can't even find any of those jeux in my library or on
> > >line (much less in my memory), and my hope (nay, expectation) is
> > >that someone on this learned list has the noun at the tip of her
> > >tongue, or fingers.
>
>The general category of burlesque verse in which one language
>masquerades as another is called "macaronics" or "macaronic verse."
>But I've never come across another example of macaronics with the
>precise phonological mapping found in __Mots D'Heures: Gousses,
>Rames_.
>
>More on macaronic verse here:
>
>http://www.library.northwestern.edu/collections/garrett/frivreadings.html
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
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