(NON-)TRANSLATION OF MURALS POETRY IN THE NETHERLANDS: BACKGROUND AND REALISATION

Abstract

When you come to the Netherlands, you don’t expect to see poems in Russian, Chinese, Berber, or North American Indian on city walls. Even more surprising is the lack of translation or explanation of these texts. However, the (non)translation of murals in the Netherlands has a social background: at the same time when the poetry projects were most active, there was a heated discussion in the Netherlands about the possibility of creating a multicultural society. This idea dictated to the creators of the projects the image of a potential reader and obviated the need to translate poetry. In this article we will look at the ideas behind Dutch poetry projects, as well as the realization and functions of (un) translated murals. The collapse of the idea of a multicultural society has led to the need to translate poetry through various means, including modern online media. This allows us to speak of the intermediality of poetry and the mutual influence of the original text and the translation.