The National Covid Memorial Wall as a Translation Site

Sherry Simon describes “Translation Sites” as polyglot places “shaped by conversations across languages” (2019, p. 1), public spaces inscribed by historical, cultural, and linguistic exchanges. This chapter focuses on one such site, the National Covid Memorial Wall along the Albert Embankment in London, discussing the historical-cultural significance of its location within the urban landscape. The second part of the chapter outlines the creation of the Wall as an act of experiential translation and its role in memorialising memorializing the loss of life. The personal dedications added to the hearts painted onto the Wall provide a material translation of the subjectivity of individual voices, forming an emotionally charged, choral text of micro-narratives in a variety of languages and scripts. The spontaneous quality of the inscriptions encapsulates J. Earl Roger’s observation on the therapeutic value of creative exfpression: “Grief, art, and storytelling are an innate part of the human experience” (2007:, p. 3). As an example of experiential practice, the Wall translates grief into a visual, textual reality, with a strong sense of situatedness, amplified by the fact that you have to walk half a kilometre to take it all in, adding an embodied dimension. The Covid Wall is in constant evolution and, as such, translates memory into a dynamic process rather than a static product.