Poems from the heart of the city, written in a language that doesn’t get translated nearly often enough, Bengali. Bhaskar Chakrabarti writes about the ordinary life he sees from his window in Kolkata, and Arunava Sinha’s is the first major…
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Tagged with: Arunava Sinha, Bengali, Bhaskar Chakrabarti, books, India, Kolkata, Poetry, Seagull Books, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Women in Translation Month: Marina Tsvetaeva
The age of the Russian Revolution produced some extraordinary poetry, and the women poets deserve better recognition. For spot-on quick-fire dispatches from a period of unprecedented change, try Teffi, but for poetry, try Tsvetaeva, who died 76 years ago today. Glagoslav…
Tagged with: Glasgoslav Publications, Marina Tsvetaeva, Michael Naydan, Poetry, Russian, Russian Revolution, Slava Yastremski, Women in Translation Month
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation
Women in Translation Month: Ginczanka
Whenever I am in Warsaw, there are a couple of bookshops near the university that I have to visit. I always come out with something unexpected that keeps me going till I can come back to Poland. This time, the…
Tagged with: Marek Kamiński, Mądrość jak rozkosz, Poetry, Polish, Translation, Women in Translation Month, Zusanna Ginczanka
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation
The Conference of the Birds
This is extraordinarily beautiful and surprisingly gripping. Translated by a bilingual poet who made the wise decision to sacrifice the rhyme to keep the essences of the story, it sings. As Sholeh Wolpé says, translating medieval Persian into modern English…
Tagged with: Attar, books, Persian, Poetry, Sholeh Wolpé, Sufism, The Conference of the Birds, Translation
Posted in books, faith, history, poetry, translation
Posted in books, faith, history, poetry, translation
The Pearl
Simon Armitage’s award-winning translation is set side-by-side with the original, which creates plenty of opportunities for deciphering and comparing the older and younger versions of English. The original really rolls round your tongue. The translation cuts to the quick with…
Tagged with: books, Old English, PEN Translation Prize, Poetry, Simon Armitage, The Pearl, Translation
Posted in books, faith, poetry, translation
Posted in books, faith, poetry, translation
Cold moons
Summer has been so hot down south, but the Nordic midsummer is so uncharacteristically cold, even for here, that you might be missing real winter already. Time for some Icelandic poetry. Cold Moons by Magnús Sigurðsson, translated by Meg Matich,…
Tagged with: books, Iceland, Karol Majewski, Magnús Sigurðsson, Meg Matich, Phoneme Media, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Standing on Earth
Is a pomegranate a grenade-apple, a cluster of garnets, or a something else? Moshen Emadi has some ideas: Emadi’s Standing on Earth, translated from the Persian by Lyn Coffin, is a Phoneme Media production. I love this publisher for its windows on worlds…
Tagged with: books, Iran, Lyn Coffin, Mohsen Emadi, Persian, Phoneme Media, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, international, poetry, translation
Posted in books, international, poetry, translation
Mascha Kaléko: a new bilingual edition
This new and fully bilingual edition of the Poems of Mascha Kaléko, out in time for the 110th anniversary of her birth, is a good introduction in English to one of my favourite German poets, who deserves to be more…
Tagged with: Andreas Nolte, books, Fomite Press, Gabriele Münter, German, Mascha Kaléko, Poetry, The Poems of Mascha Kaléko, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Finland 100: Edith Södergran
It is spring. The earth is bare, the snow is melting. The nights are cold, but the sun is getting stronger, the days are getting longer, a lot longer. Takatalvi (“back-winter” – the reverse of an Indian summer) might strike at…
Tagged with: Aale Tynni, David Barrett, Edith Södergran, Finland, Finland 100, Pentti Saaritsa, Poetry, Swedish, Uuno Kaila
Posted in books, Finland 100, poetry, translation
Posted in books, Finland 100, poetry, translation
Not written words
Words that make satisfying shapes in your mouth and on the page, rolling around your tongue and exploding like popping candy. Penned by a woman whose name looks like a girl playing hopscotch, whose work has been described as ‘urchin…
Tagged with: Chinese, Hong Kong, Jennifer Feely, Not Written Words, Poetry, transation, Xi Xi, Zephyr Press
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
