The panel: Marco Sonzogni, Tim Smith and Vana Manasiadis (photo by Andy Laking)
After a week of earthquakes, storms and floods, we were delighted so many people joined us at Vic Books on the afternoon of Saturday 19 November to celebrate the launch of these first two books in the Seraph Press Translation Series: Shipwrecks/Shelters: Six Contemporary Greek Poets / Ναυάγια/Καταφύγια: Έξι Σύγχρονοι Έλληνες Ποιητές, edited and translated by Vana Manasiadis and Observations: Poems / Osservazione: Poesie, by Claudio Pasi, translated by Tim Smith with Marco Sonzogni.
In a fascinating and in-depth panel discussion the translators talked about how and why they started translating, and why translation is so important – with all pointing to the importance of celebrating diversity, especially in the midst of a primarily monolingual culture. They also discussed some of the specifics of translating poetry, for example Tim talked about translating Italian hendacasyllablics into English iambic blank verse, and Vana discussed trying to find a word in English that meant innocence but matched the 'muscularity' of the word in Greek. Marco said that to translate poetry one must be or become a poet, creating a new poem out of the original poem.
In a fascinating and in-depth panel discussion the translators talked about how and why they started translating, and why translation is so important – with all pointing to the importance of celebrating diversity, especially in the midst of a primarily monolingual culture. They also discussed some of the specifics of translating poetry, for example Tim talked about translating Italian hendacasyllablics into English iambic blank verse, and Vana discussed trying to find a word in English that meant innocence but matched the 'muscularity' of the word in Greek. Marco said that to translate poetry one must be or become a poet, creating a new poem out of the original poem.
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There's something wonderful about hearing poetry in a language you don't understand, as rather than focusing on the meaning you listen instead to the sound, rhythm, tone, musicality and energy of the poem, and we were were treated to a bilingual reading of a poem from each book, which you can listen to below. The afternoon ended with Greek and Italian food and wine.
If you're in or near Auckland, don't miss our Auckland launch, a multilingual poetry reading, Wednesday 14 December, 6.00pm, ST PAUL St Gallery, 40 St Paul Street, Auckland. Find out more about the Auckland launch...
If you're in or near Auckland, don't miss our Auckland launch, a multilingual poetry reading, Wednesday 14 December, 6.00pm, ST PAUL St Gallery, 40 St Paul Street, Auckland. Find out more about the Auckland launch...
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