People often speak about words "lost in translation." Sometimes the loss depends a lot on what is being translated.

When some languages are transposed to others, the changes can just be a few subtleties of rhythm, which don't harm the ideas of the piece at all. But for other languages, what's lost in translation can go deeper than a wrong word here or there. It could mean the extinction of the original language and the loss of the culture contained within.

That's what makes Rex Lee Jim so important to so many people. Jim writes and reads his works in both Navajo (DinŽ) and English. The translations work to preserve the Navajo language by presenting it in a way non-speakers and speakers alike can appreciate.

Jim, poet and DinŽ Educational Philosophy instructor at DinŽ Community College, will read for the University of Arizona Poetry Center tonight at 8.

By writing in both tongues, Jim helps keep Navajo a living language, and has also helped to give it more literary prominence, according to Frances Shoberg, director of the center.

This is one of the reasons the center chose him to read in its Visiting Poetry and Prose Writers' Reading Series.

"We chose to have him read because it's very important to present and share in largely indigenous languages," Shoberg said. "Rex Jim has been working to save those."

"Most of my books are written entirely in Navajo. I also will be reading translations of them. I will also be reading works in progress, which are entirely in English. This will be something new for me," Jim said in an e-mail interview. "I look forward to that. I intend to tell short stories as well, mostly family and personal stories that have sustained me over the years. As I read I will also comment on issues and concerns regarding the building of a nation - the Navajo Nation."

UA linguistics professor Richard Demers believes Jim's writing is essential for the building and preserving of Navajo culture.

"The work of Rex Jim is really important for Navajo today and into the future, because having a solid literature does two things. One, it gives people reasons to keep active in the language - 'I wanna read that book. I wanna hear this poetry, this language is important.' Also it does confer some status, that there are great works of literature in that language," Demers said. "Ken Hale, who just passed away, often said, 'Just wait until the first great Navajo novel comes out; it's going really have a great impetus to keeping the language alive."

Jim worked to preserve his culture not only through poetry, but through theater as well. He has written plays about Navajo life, using himself and his family as actors.

UA professor of English John Warnock was director of the Bread Loaf Institute, where Jim received his master's degree, remembers seeing one of Jim's plays.

"They're set in scenes around the reservations," Warnock said. "They're improvisational plays, not the usual kind of thing you see where the actors memorize their lines. The characters develop and evolve."

Jim's other writing includes the essay collection, "Dancing Voices: Wisdom of the American Indian" and "Dśchas T‡‡ K—— DinŽ," a trilingual poetry collection in English, DinŽ and Irish.

"Translating across languages is hard; you can get the core, but you miss all of the emotive part of it, and then, when you're translating poetry, that's really hard. Poetry usually involves not only ideas but the beauty of language and the beauty of Navajo translated to the beauty of English," Demers, who will teach a survey course on Native American languages next semester, said. "It's difficult, unless you have a person who's gifted, who can in some way translate that beauty into a form that's aesthetically pleasing in English."

Luci Tapahanso, another Navajo poet and UA professor of English and American Indian Studies, was asked to introduce Jim's reading tonight. She said she felt honored to introduce him because "his work and the fact that his work is written in DinŽ embodies Native American philosophy and Native American ways of looking at life, as well as lots of literary forms."

Although listeners may not be able to pick up the nuances between languages from translation, they will get to hear the work of someone who works to preserve the language and culture of the Navajo people.

"He's a very well-known writer, educator and philosopher," Tapahonso said. "So that makes him an important American writer."