Since there are only a few days left in March, and I still want to get a poem in for this month, I'm going to assign myself something a little simpler than February's crazy crossways poem of doom.

A while back, I read a post about homophonic translations on one of my favorite weblogs, languagehat.com. A homophonic translation begins with a poem in a foreign language, preferably one which you cannot read but can pronounce. Listen to yourself read the poem (or even better, record yourself reading the poem, then listen to it), and write down the sounds you hear in the English. For example, if you're translating a French text, the word "blanc" would probably translate to "blank" in English. (Go here for the original post I read for more examples an explanation...the comments are especially aweseome).

Then, at a conference I recently attended, Davis Schneiderman brought up homophonic translations. The Gods seemed to be conspiring to get me to write a homophonic translation. So, I'm going to for March.

I have a few ideas in mind for particular poems or poets I could work from, but I'll be doing some more research tomorrow. Feel free to post any non-English poems in the comments for others to use and translate.