Welcome to my April 2026 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…maybe even with pictures), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, X is for … eXperimenting with translation.

Truth is, I don’t know what I would ultimately do with this, but this is Emily Dickinson’s There Came a Wind like a Bugle translated to Inuktut and back to English. What’s your favourite line change in the final version?

Original poem, Emily Dickinson

There came a wind like a bugle;
It quivered through the grass,
And a green chill upon the heat
So ominous did pass
We barred the windows and the doors
As from an emerald ghost;
The doom’s electric moccasin
That very instant passed.
On a strange mob of panting trees,
And fences fled away,
And rivers where the houses ran
Those looked that lived—that Day—
The bell within the steeple wild
The flying tidings whirled.
How much can come
And much can go,
And yet abide the world!

Translated into Inuktut

Anuri tikilauqpuq qummuattitautititut;
Quaqsaalauqpuq siurarmi,
Ammalu uujaujaq niglasuktuq uqquunaqtumi
Taimaimmat kappianaqtuq anigulauqpuq
Igalaangit matungillu matulauqtavut
Taimanna tarraqtugarmik;
Doom-kut uajamuuqtut muukasin
Tainna anigukautigilauqtuq.
Kamanaqtummarimmit napaaqtunit,
Ammalu sapuulutait qimaallutik,
Ammalu kuut igluit aqqutigivalauqtangit
Taikkua takunnalauqtut inuujunik—taissumani ullumi—
Sivaniruti iluani tuksiarviup uumajuit
Tusagaksait sanguvallialilauqput.
Qattinik tikitittijunnaqpat
Ammalu amisut kajusijunnaqtut,
Ammalu suli maliktauluni nunarjuarmi!

Back to English

The wind came like a thunderbolt;
He shivered in the sand,
and green is cool in heat
So the panic was over
We closed the windows and doors
Like a ghost;
Doom’s Electric Moccasins
That time passed quickly.
Wonderful trees,
and the fences fled,
and rivers through which houses
Those who watched the living—on that day—
Bell inside the Temple Animals
The news began to spin.
How much can they import
And many can pass,
And still follow the world!

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Thanks for visiting my 2026 A to Z Challenge – Letter X.