The Truth By: Dana Cramasta

THE TRANSLATION SENSATION MAGAZINE

Table of Contents

Shadow Narrative …………………………………

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Narrative to Poem

Translation………………….5

Poem Reflection……………………………………6

Translation Two……………………………………8

Translation Reflection ……………………………

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Writing Goals

Reflections……………………….10

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We were in his room it’s a charcoal gray color and you can still see the

crayon drawing of Sonic the hedgehog seeping through the paint somewhat.

You’re looking at all the posters of Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and

Biggie Smalls. And you keep thinking how weird his taste in music is while

looking at these figures on the wall. Mat asked me “What are you doing, why are

you spacing out at the walls?” You try to reply with one of your clever answers

but all you can muster up was “Oh, I don’t know just looking.” Which led to the

question, “No really, what’s wrong?” He really does know you better than you

thought, but you’re thinking that what happens when you spend four and a half

years with someone, they start to figure you out. You then reply with, “I don’t

really want to tell you but I guess this is something I have to tell you and I don’t

want you to be mad at me.” As if you don’t prepare people for the worst. And he

goes “What do you have to tell me, I am not going to be mad unless you like

cheated on me or something ridiculous.” So in your head you are thinking okay

this shouldn’t be as bad as you expect, which you do with any situation for the

most part.

You then take a deep breath, like you’re about to take a shot of whiskey,

and remind him not to be mad. “Okay, do you remember the other day at Joe’s

house, when we were there for the Super Bowl and I left like a million times and

went through the trash and looked like Onyx when he goes through the trash for

any left overs?” He said “Vaguely, but I do remember you walking in and out of

the house a few times and you had this distressed look on your face.” You

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gained up all the courage you could muster and just blurted, “Well I lost my

bracelet and have no idea where it is!” You look directly at him waiting for a reply

or movement or some type of reaction. He didn’t even look at you, it wasn’t like

you were telling him you slept with someone else, it was just that you lost you

know the first piece of jewelry from him, the first Christmas gift. He finally replied

after which felt like hours with, “ Oh really?” so you say, “Yes, really, I am so

sorry I just couldn’t tell you until I looked through all the trash at work and asked

the security guards just incase someone decided to drop it off to them so the

owner could claim it. “

He said he wouldn’t get mad; remember that, well he got mad.

Mad enough that we didn’t speak for a couple hours like a child who didn’t get his

way. We watched about 4 episodes of Big Bang Theory and after watching

Sheldon and Penny sing “Soft Kitty,” in a round you say, “So you’re mad? It was

an accident and if I am lucky it will still turn up at work. I could have dropped it

one of the bins where we keep our hardware.” He finally spoke and said, “Yes, I

am mad, but it is the fact that you didn’t tell me what was going on while we were

at Joe’s when you first realized it was missing. If you would have told me that I

could have helped you look for it.” You reply with, “Well I didn’t want to ruin your

good time while you watched the game and played beer pong with everyone; I

just figured I wouldn’t tell you about it until after I went to work and looked for it

there to be sure it wasn’t there.” Mat then said, “True, I am sorry for getting mad,

and I guess we knew it would become lost eventually with how little your wrists

are and how the toggle comes undone so easily.”

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Remember That…

Remember that moment, where you didn’t stop and think,

Where the only thing you cared about was finding that one piece.

You dug and searched,

You even checked in books, but now its time to tell the truth

Instead of carrying such a worried look.

Remember that moment where he said he wouldn’t get mad at all;

Now you mutter the words and he stares blankly at the wall.

Remember that moment where you puzzled over what was going through

his head,

And then you thought maybe you knocked him dead.

Remember that moment he finally decided to speak

To let you know if you just told the truth,

It wouldn’t of hurt him so deep.

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Dana Cramasta

Narrative to Poem Reflection

When I was translating my narrative essay, I was trying to figure out

what pieces I was going to use and how I would make them work together.

Then I was reading a line from my narrative and it caught me. It stated,” He

said he wouldn’t get mad; remember that. I wanted to use this somewhere

in my poem and I used Remember That as the title of my poem and used it

to start each stanza in my poem, and using it as remember that you said

you would never lie to him and then you did, and it then goes into the

moments where I am in my boyfriend’s room puzzled of why he is so mad

after he said he wasn’t going to be.

Then when I was decoding the narrative to figure out what elements of

it I wanted to use something besides me loosing the bracelet. I wanted to

focus on my boyfriend’s anger and what his reaction and what it looked

like to me and what was going on in my head by seeing his reaction. I

wanted to add the reaction he had. I found it important to capture what his

point of view and use the “Remember That,” to tie it all together.

I had a hard time trying to make it work at first and I couldn’t figure out

how to keep it all together and give it a flow, so I did what I could to make it

feel unique and different from my narrative. It took me a while to set a tone

and put things together but it worked and came out nicely.

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Since we were assigned this translation I tried to use it the best I could

and focus on how to capture my audience and give them that feeling of

remembering how the things someone said can still be hurtful and that how

silence is can make you think crazy things while in reality its not that crazy.

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Translation Two

For this translation, I choose a rhetorical translation for the new genre

part of this portfolio. I decided to draw my bracelet I chose this image

because it symbolizes what I lost and how after a few years it still means

the world to me and my boyfriend and symbolizes the first of many

Christmases together and first of many memories him and I share. My

target audience would be my boyfriend or really anyone who can relate to

loosing something special that a significant other or someone special in

your life has given to you.

When choosing this translation I choose my bracelet because I knew it

was the main reason why I had to have this conversation with Mat. If I never

had lost it, I would have never lied or had to make him angry. I thought

using the words that this bracelet represents and the words if lost could

represent to on it. I also used the words to link the stars together instead of

using just circles I can use the words to link each star together. Please

forgive that I am not the best artist. I also thought each word would give

meaning behind my narrative. I think this gives my audience and

interpreters a background to how at first its shiny and new and has a lot of

meaning and even after its old and not as shiny, it still carries the same

meaning it did when it was new.

When translating this I translated this through adaption, to give my

audience a visual of my narrative and what caused the narrative to come to

be.

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Reflection of Writing Goals

When thinking about writing, I think of grammar, a flow through each

paragraph to have them connect. One of the objectives in the Writer’s Mind

class I think I was able to accomplish was experiencing revision as an

ongoing process rather than an end point. As I thought about what helped

me make this is an accomplishment was the essays such as Rhetorical

Situation, by Blitzer, because I was able to see how it can be a continuous

situation with many different responses and it can change your rhetorical

discourse as well. I also was able to see this when we learned about the

different voices we could put our narrative into, as well as we can change

our narrative into one long sentence. It made me realize you can do many

different revisions for one piece of work and it can be formed into many

different works and be changed over and over.

Another objective that I found I am still trying to focus on is developing

critical awareness of their own writing and the writing of others. I find it

easy to be critically aware of other peoples’ writing, but with my own

writing I just write to write and don’t take proper awareness of my audience

which possibly makes me writing not easy to read. When we read, An

Evening in April, she was aware of her writing, she was aware of her

audience, and she was aware of the words she used to attract the reader.

She would give us background information; she would fill us in to what the

situation was and how it all linked together. She was aware of her writing

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and how she presented it to the reader to make sure each detailed was

examined at the moment it needed to be.

When I signed up and started this course, I thought we would be doing

a lot of thinking and a lot of writing to develop better techniques for writing.

I thought I would be product based since most college courses are strictly

product based. But to know find out this is a process based course I knew

things would be different and we were going to be really testing our writing

and ourselves. This was also my first writing class that really gets you to

think about different techniques and learning how to use these techniques

to become a better writer and to see things from all different points of view.

I believe this class has given me a better understanding of writing and the

different aspects of writing and how to transform my work into a more

interesting piece and give my readers and myself a better understanding of

what I am trying to convey.

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Background on your Author:

Name: Dana Cramasta

DOB: 7/26/1989

Siblings: Cody, 17; Ryan, 8; and Jillian, 3.

Lives: In Gloucester City, NJ with her grandparents, since it is closer to

Rowan University. This is currently her first semester at Rowan.

Relationship: Currently in a relationship.

Favorites:

Color: Orange or anything bright colors.

Movies: The Hangover, Drop Dead Fred, The Notebook, Practical Magic,

mainly comedy and romance movies.

Music: Anything I can dance to, as well as Sublime, the Dirty Heads, and

Jack Johnson.

Vacations: Cruises to anywhere tropical, Disney World, and day trips to the

beach.

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