All Marketing Is Done In Translation

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 08:46:45 -0400

Two poets discussed translation on the Poetry Unbound podcast as an ongoing activity of living.

Ó Tuama:

locate translation for us as something that perhaps most people are doing most of the time.
…
what I’m thinking and then what I say, and then what you might hear me say and what you might comprehend in terms of what I say — that each of those are layers of translation as well.

Leeder:

We all translate all of the time. It’s, you know, just in the kind of micro movements and the situations, we’re understanding everything, we’re translating all the time.

The act of marketing is translating what is obvious to you for an audience that doesn’t know or perhaps, frankly, care.

This is what makes fandom so powerful.

Shared slang, references, and jokes create a new shared language. Shorthand for the in-crowd. Mystique for those outside it.

What they heard matters more than what you said.

When you release a piece of messaging into the world, how much translation are you asking the audience to do? Are you trying to speak to the fans or find more?

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All Marketing Is Done In Translation