Richard Dauenhauer’s Life & Work: A Beautiful Act of Translation

Abstract

Richard (Dick) Dauenhauer's major and best known scholarly legacy is his work (with his wife and research partner Nora Marks Dauenhauer) of translating and publishing major works of the Tlingit oral tradition as well as teaching and promoting Tlingit literacy. Less known is Dick's well-articulated notion that Tlingit oral literature was deeply spiritual world literature. In his presentation Dr. Kan argues that this idea was rooted in his life-long work as a poet and a talented translator of poetry from several European languages, his academic training in comparative literature, and his profound religious faith. All of these strands of Dick's creative work as well as his deep commitment to living with his wife's extended Tlingit family and sharing its culture were intertwined. For this reason Kan refers to his life and work as a beautiful act of translation. As a close friend and colleague of Dick as well as a Russian speaker, Kan concludes the presentation with reading several of Dauenhauer’s best translations of Russian poetry.