New year, fresh snow. Fresh snow, old words. I first came across Gwerful Mechain this time last year through her most famous poem of all, translated as ‘Ode to My Cunt’ by Zoë Brigley Thompson for Modern Poetry in Translation.…
New snow, old words
Tagged with: books, Broadview, Broadview Press, Gwerful Mechain, Katie Gramich, New Year, Poetry, Translation, Welsh
Posted in books, history, literature, poetry, translation
Posted in books, history, literature, poetry, translation
The snow banks are high, the snow drifts deep
Christmas is almost here. Deep snow drifts is what we want, but will we get them? At least we can sing about them. My choir sang this carol by Jean Sibelius at our Christmas concert this year. We do not…
Tagged with: Christmas, Christmas Carols, Finland, Finnish, On hanget korkeat nietokset, Sibelius, Translation
Posted in Christmas, music, translation
Posted in Christmas, music, translation
The Jeweller
The jeweller prepares the sanctuary. And you’re lured into it. Mari is a market stallholder in a small North Welsh town. Ordinary enough. Except The Jeweller is written by Caryl Lewis, who also wrote the fabulously dark hit thriller series…
Tagged with: books, Caryl Lewis, Gwen Davies, Hinterland, Honno Press, The Jeweller, Translation, Welsh, Y Gwyll
Posted in books, literature, translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
The Last Witnesses
Translation often comes with a delay, sometimes of decades. Many of these people’s stories are only being told in English after their death. Before that, it took decades for their voices to be heard in their native language. Last Witnesses:…
Tagged with: Belarus, books, history, Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear, Russian, Second World War, Soviet Union, Svetlana Alexievich, The Last Witnesses, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Arid Dreams
These are feminist stories with a difference, in that many of them show how a male protagnonist is thinking, and how their thinking changes through encounter with the women around them. Which hopefully makes the reader take a long hard…
Tagged with: Arid Dreams, books, Duanwad Pimwana, Feminist Press, Mui Poopoksakul, Short Stories, Thai, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Vilnius Wilno Vilna
I had little more than twenty-four hours in Vilnius, so I picked this up at the airport when I left. First – what a civilised airport that it had proper books like this for sale. Second – I was utterly…
Tagged with: books, Kristina Sabaliauskaitė, Lithuanian, Romas Kinka, Short Stories, Translation, Vilna, Vilnius, Wilno
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
River of Fire
The beginning is so far back in time, it’s hard to know what’s real. It’s like a fairytale. I’d have liked to spend more time in this part of the story, but it moves forward. We race from the fourteenth…
Tagged with: books, India, Quarratulain Hyder, River of Fire, Translation, Urdu
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
