Blog Archives

Hell, freshly translated

Posted on 27 February 2019 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

Lent starts next week, so what better time to get your hands on a book about sinners, in their infinite variety, and where they end up? The gates of Hell open onto what some might consider the worst of the…

Tagged with: Alastair Gray, books, Dante, Divina Commedia, Hell, Illustration, Italian, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, Illustration, literature, poetry, translation

New Year: The Sea Migrations

Posted on 1 January 2019 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 1 Comment

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…

Oh, to be in Finland, now December’s there

Posted on 19 December 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 2 Comments

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,…

Cold Mountain

Posted on 7 November 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

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

Beginning to Speak

Posted on 29 August 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

Diana is from Pontus, now in Georgia, once in Greece. So it’s no surprise she starts with Helen – she isn’t the first poet to do so and she surely won’t be the last: These poems are gloriously sensory and…

Thomas Bernhard’s poems

Posted on 5 June 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

Once he’d written them, he didn’t look back. He moved on to plays and novels, for which he’s much better known. He didn’t write any more poems for decades. Once he’d written them, he kept looking back. He returned and…

Tagged with: books, Collected Poems, German, James Reidel, Poetry, Seagull Books, Thomas Bernhard, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation

VE Day #73: All that still matters at all

Posted on 8 May 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

You might have heard of writing for the desk drawer, but what about writing for your jacket pocket when you expect to die, be buried in a mass grave if at all, and the odds of anyone finding what you’ve…

Tagged with: All that Still Matters at all, Hungarian, John M. Ridland, Miklós Radnóti, Peter V. Czipott, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, history, poetry, translation

Stormwarning

Posted on 14 March 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

The storm is coming. The meteorologist knew it was coming. The title poem opens with a quote from weather-woman Birta Líf Kristinsdóttir, saying that tomorrow will be worse, which is not to say that today’s weather isn’t bad. Will winter…

Tagged with: books, Icelandic, K. B. Thors, Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir, Phoneme Media, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

Posted on 14 February 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

An odd choice for Valentine’s Day, perhaps? Bear with me, you’ll see. In Blake’s image, a woman powered with sunlight faces down a dragon. This ultimate battle between good and evil from the Book of Revelation is the cover image…

Tagged with: Ana Luisa Amaral, books, Margaret Jull Costa, Poetry, Portuguese, The Art of Being a Tiger, Translation
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation, Valentine's Day

Odyssey

Posted on 17 January 2018 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 3 Comments

Once upon a time, not all that long ago, there was an eight-year-old girl in pigtails who was lucky enough to go to the sort of primary school where eight-year-old girls get to play the Goddess Athena in the school…