I was in London over new year, and there was one place I had to go. The British Library to see the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition. It is stuffed with treasures, including some of the earliest works ever written and translated…
The year was so new, it yawned and stretched…
Tagged with: books, Middle English, Poetry, Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Translation
Posted in books, Christmas, Folklore, history, literature, translation
Posted in books, Christmas, Folklore, history, literature, translation
New Year: The Sea Migrations
New year. Will old rage fuel new hope? Why publish this poem again now? Thirst was translated by Clare Pollard in 2017, but Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf wrote it earlier. After more than two decades in the UK, she has…
Tagged with: Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf, Bloodaxe Books, Clare Pollard, migration, PEN Translates, Poetry, Poetry Translation Centre, Simon Armitage, Somali, The Sea Migrations Tahriib, Translation
Posted in books, international, poetry, translation
Posted in books, international, poetry, translation
Oh, to be in Finland, now December’s there
It’s too warm. It should be colder – a lot colder. It’s unseasonable. It’s beautiful, delightful, but it all feels wrong. It’s just all a bit too much, not cosy enough, not delicate enough, perhaps? Things should be the same,…
Tagged with: Christmas Carols, Finland, Finnish, Karl Collan, Poetry, Robert Browning, Swedish, Sylvian joululaulu, Sylvias hälsning från Sicilien, Translation, Zachris Topelius
Posted in Christmas, music, poetry, translation
Posted in Christmas, music, poetry, translation
Those Whom I Would Like to Meet Again
A hundred years since Lithuania regained independence, all too briefly. Something to celebrate. I passed through in the summer, over sea and land from Helsinki to Warsaw and south-westwards. We didn’t stay long. I wish I had. My Polish grandmother…
Tagged with: 1918, books, Elizabeth Novickas, essays, Giedra Radvilavičiūtė, Lithuania, Lithuanian, Short Stories, Those Whom I Would Like to Meet Again, Translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
People in the Room
The three sisters sit at the window. From the apartment across the way, their faces are lit up, as in a (rather famous, rather older) portrait. The narrator watches them from her living room window is like a spy; she…
Tagged with: And Other Stories, Argentina, books, Charlotte Whittle, Norah Lange, People in the Room, Spanish, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain is a both a person and a place. A Buddhist monk, he brings the way to life through stories. He finds stillness inside him where he is. And he shows you, the reader, that you can do the…
Tagged with: Bill Porter, books, Buddhism, China, Cold Mountain, Han Shan, Poetry, Red Pine, Tao, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Swallowing Mercury
Wioletta Greg is frankly fantastic, and Eliza Marciniak has rendered her voice in English delightfully. A good friend gave this translation of Swallowing Mercury for my birthday, and her only concern was that I might have it already, but I might not…
Tagged with: books, Eliza Marciniak, National Translation Award, Polish, Swallowing Mercury, Translation, Wioletta Greg
Posted in books, history, literature, translation
Posted in books, history, literature, translation
