Subtitling Slam Poetry for the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences

An Account of Specific Challenges and Solutions

Abstract

Slam poetry is a competitive performance in which poets deliver their own, short pieces, and are judged by randomly chosen audience members. This form of performed poetry is an underexplored text type in audiovisual translation (AVT). To fill in this gap, this paper provides an introductory account of current practices in the translation of slam poetry, both at local and international competitions held onsite and online. After that, the paper describes the challenges entailed in making slam poetry accessible for the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing by means of intralingual subtitles added to pre-recorded sessions. The focus of the analysis is placed on the translation of literary style constrained by the immediacy inherent to this form of performance, in which speech rates are typically high. Translation challenges and solutions are illustrated with examples taken from a small corpus of four poems. The study is based on the authors’ experience in collaboration with the non-profit organization Associació RED927 Literatura Oral responsible for the main slam poetry event in Barcelona (Spain).