Found in Translation: The Poet's Love(r)

Chanda VanderHart

The impossibility of perfect translation is a widely acknowledged trope, yet translation remains a powerful act of meaning-making. This research-creation project investigates not what is lost, but what is gained through translation, by presenting and reflecting on our artistic re-interpretation of Dichterliebe, Robert Schumann’s nineteenth-century song cycle on texts by Heinrich Heine. Drawing on theories of translation by Walter Benjamin, Umberto Eco, and Hans Vermeer, we approach art song translation beyond its conventional linguistic scope, exploring it as a mode of modernization and gendered recontextualization. Our project, The Poet’s Love(r), features a new, singable English translation, alongside newly composed spoken poetry that gives voice to the song cycle’s historically silent female protagonist. In our methodological approach, we consider translation as a generative act within a broader artistic assemblage, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images derived from the translated texts. These visuals, created with minimal textual prompts, offer a ‘post-human’ reflection on our hybrid nineteenth-century/twenty-first-century intervention, illuminating both the creative potential and the inherent biases of AI-generated art. Through an iterative process of artistic experimentation, pedagogical engagement with students at the mdw — University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna — and comparative analysis of contemporary Dichterliebe adaptations, we examine the strengths, limitations, and ethical considerations of translation as artistic research. Ultimately, we argue that translation — understood both linguistically and as creative transformation — can enhance access to art song’s multiple communicative layers (music, text, subtext), expanding its interpretative possibilities. By embracing a translational methodology, we advocate for a shift away from rigid notions of fidelity to historical works and toward a more dynamic, pluralistic engagement with musical tradition, informed by feminist, posthumanist, and experimental artistic perspectives. By situating The Poet’s Love(r) within a broader assemblage of interpretations — drawing on Paulo de Assis’s concept of musical works as decentralized, evolving entities — the project challenges traditional notions of fidelity and authorship in art song. It argues for translation as a vital creative practice that expands accessibility, deepens emotional resonance, and enriches the afterlife of canonical works. Download Accessible PDF

This accessible page is a derivative of https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2082863/3518081 which it is meant to support and not replace.

References

Primary Sources

Beyond the self-interrogation which appears throughout this exposition in a variety of formats, from text to round table recordings to reported speech summaries, we are immensely grateful to all our collaborators, only some of whom have Research Catalogue profiles but all of whom were excited to know their work is included here. They include:

Bryan Benner, Ivan Turkalj, and Thomas Toppler from The Erlkings, who were interviewed on 12 and 14 October 2022 in Vienna and who gave explicit permission for their video and audio material and CD cover imagery to be republished in this format.
Neal Peres Da Costa and Koen van Stade of Dichterliebe, Reimagined who provided their press images, liner notes and full length recording for this article.
Meredith Nicoll and Johanna Lacroix, who provided voice recordings reflecting on Ambitus Extended’s Dichterliebe Extended project for publication.

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Chanda VanderHart, Rebecca Babb-Nelsen, Eric Stokloßa - Found in Translation: The Poet's Love(r) - 2025