Translate, recreate

Below is the first stanza of Pablo Neruda’s poem Cuerpo de mujer from the collection Veinte poemas de amor: 1

Cuerpo de mujer, blanca colinas, muslos blancos,
te pareces al mundo en tu actitud de entrega.
Mi cuerpo de labriego salvaje re socava
y hace saltar el hijo del fondo de la tierra.

One of Neruda’s best known translators into English, Mark Eisner, translated the stanza as follows:

*Body of a woman

Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look like the world in your attitude of giving.
My savage peasant body plows through you
and makes the son surge from the depths of the earth.*

Another translation

I translated the same poem in English and Afrikaans (a Germanic language spoken in South Africa, derived mainly from 17th century Dutch). The Afrikaans version is below.

Lyf van ‘n vrou, wit heuwels, wit dye,
jy lyk soos die aarde in jou oorgawe.
My wilde boerelyf ploeg...