Translating metaphor: understanding experience

Poets may use metaphor more often and in a more elaborate way than the rest of us, but metaphor is in everyday speech as well. Ordinary people use metaphors when they are working to understand their deeper experiences and make sense of those experiences for themselves and for the person they are talking to. The docu-memoir, the form I have chosen to write in, depends on this aspect of language. Docu-memoir is the jewel in the crown because it brings out a deeper level of meaning in the speech and the reflections of ordinary people as elicited by the docu-memoirist. When speaking to the interviewer who gives a context or setting that they otherwise never had in their ordinary everyday life, the subjects use metaphorical language. They use it in a way that opens up a whole new understanding for themselves and, incidentally, for their readers who are, in one way, a disembodied audience. As a result, subjects’ stories are heard, respected, and valued.