The Australian Association of Writing Programs

Buy, borrow, or hunt down on the Internet some poetry or prose in a language other than English (which you don’t speak or read at all). Read it out loud to yourself, however you might imagine it is pronounced. Look at the line and/or sentence lengths, the reliance (or not) on stanzas and/or paragraphs, the reliance (or not) on rhyming sounds. What would you imagine its topic to be?

‘Translate’ it into English. That is, use exactly the same line or sentence lengths, exactly the same number of paragraphs or stanzas, rhyme in the same places you think the original rhymes, use the topic you have guessed to be its topic.

What emerges?