What is it about?
This article examines how poetry inspired by visual art is translated, focusing on Lawrence Venuti’s English translation of a Catalan poetry collection by Ernest Farrés based on paintings by Edward Hopper. It argues that translation is not simply a transfer of meaning, but a creative and interpretative act shaped by cultural context. Because the poems already reinterpret Hopper’s paintings, Venuti’s translation involves a second level of interpretation, where language, art, and culture intersect. The article introduces the concept of “contra fusion” to describe a translation approach that does not smooth out differences between languages and cultures. Instead, it preserves tension between them, allowing multiple voices—painter, poet, and translator—to coexist. Through close analysis, the study shows how Venuti maintains the cultural specificity of the Catalan original while integrating elements of Hopper’s American voice.
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Why is it important?
This research matters because it challenges the idea that translation should produce a seamless or neutral text. By analysing Venuti’s practice, the article shows that translation is shaped by cultural power relations—especially when a minoritized language like Catalan enters a global literary system dominated by English. Rather than assimilating the original, Venuti’s approach makes cultural difference visible and meaningful. The concept of contra fusion offers a new way to think about translation: not as unification, but as a structured coexistence of perspectives. This has broader implications for how literature travels across cultures and how lesser-known authors gain international visibility. More generally, the study positions translation as a site of cultural negotiation, where meaning is produced through interaction between languages, artistic forms, and historical contexts.
Perspectives
This article emerges from my interest in translation as a form of interpretation that operates across languages, media, and cultural frameworks. Working on this topic led me to focus on Lawrence Venuti not only as a theorist, but as a practitioner whose work makes visible the cultural and ethical dimensions of translation. A central concern for me was how translation can engage with texts produced in minoritized languages without reducing their specificity. The case of Ernest Farrés is particularly revealing in this respect, as his work is deeply rooted in Catalan linguistic and cultural traditions while entering an international context through translation. The concept of contra fusion emerged as a way to articulate this tension. It reflects my attempt to describe a mode of translation that does not resolve differences, but works through them—preserving plurality while enabling dialogue between cultural systems. More broadly, this research has allowed me to approach translation as a collaborative and transmedial practice, where meaning is shaped through the interaction of artistic voices, rather than transmitted in a linear way.
Alla Shyrokova Manno
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Fusion and “contra fusion”, Babel Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation / Revista Internacional de Traducción, March 2026, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/babel.25210.shy.
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