Susan, that's a great tip! Always rhyme on the obscenity! I like it.
Actually, though, I don't think that's a good idea now that I think of it. I think we saw one or two examples in the recent "sonnet bake-off" where the subject matter was so gruesome and intense that most critters thought it best for the poem to avoid rhyming on the obscene or otherwise emotional word....after all, you want to keep the middle of the line interesting, as well, and if all the powerful, important words are saved for the rhyme, then there's little left to give substance to the middle of the line.
And adding words to a translation? I guess it's done all the time, but I can't help but think it to be a no-no, particularly for rhyme words. As Mike Juster once remarked, translations sometimes might need to omit a word or two from the original, but they should never add a word. But there's a simple solution: Just add the word and don't call it a "translation." Take a page from Robert Lowell's book and simply call it an "imitation."
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