Translations
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Three translations of Osip Mandelstam
Alistair Noon writes: Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938) grew up in St. Petersburg and published his first book, Stone, in 1913. One more volume followed before he began encountering publishing […]
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‘Two Visions’ – a translation from the Estonian of Mathura
Below is an English version of the two-part poem ‘Kaks nägemust’ (‘Two Visions’) by the Estonian poet, Mathura. Winner of the Gustav Suits Poetry Award and other literary prizes […]
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‘Ballad of the Outer Life’: from the German of Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Below is a translation by James Owens of the poem ‘Ballade des äußeren Lebens’ by the Austrian poet, novelist and essayist Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929). Stefan Zweig wrote […]
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‘Love’s Arrow’ – a translation of Chaucer
© Morgan Library, New York The below is a translation by Mark McGuinness of a section of Troilus and Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic poem re-telling, in Middle […]
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‘The Waterspout’ – a translation of Luis Vaz de Camões
The below is a translation by Mark McGuinness of a section of Os Lusíadas (‘The Luciads’), an epic poem by the 16th-century Portuguese poet Luis Vaz de Camões (c. […]
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‘Fear of Language’ – a Katja Perat poem translated
Nicoletta Asciuto writes: Katja Perat is a contemporary Slovenian poet and novelist. Her first poetry collection, Najboljši so padli (The Best Have Fallen), was published by Beletrina (Ljubljana) […]
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Two translations of Corrado Govoni
Chiara Salomoni writes: Corrado Govoni was born near Ferrara in 1884 and died near Rome in 1965. He was a prolific writer of poetry, prose and drama. Govoni joined […]
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After Catullus – three versions by Peter Jenkins
The bridge above the station – After Catullus 5 Hunger on their lips for living, for loving, they disregard the looks of strict old men and […]
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‘Masks’ – a translation by April Yee of Sebastián Núñez Torres
April writes: “Chilean poet and academic Sebastián Núñez Torres (b. 1984) explores the fracturing of self and society in Las arpas rotas (Bajo la lluvia ediciones, 2020), a […]
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‘Like walking in the rain’: César Vallejo, Carolyn Forché, and the problem of witness
César Vallejo in 1929; the cover of Carolyn Forché’s The Country Between Us (Harper & Row, 1982) Jonathan Hitchens The very first couplet of A Man […]
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‘Namái Ye Un Ayeri’ – a poem in Asturian and English by Xe M. Sánchez
Namái Ye Un Ayeri los poemes aseméyense abondu a eses ciudaes que les lleendes alluguen baxu les agües o sapozaes baxu les viesques. namái surden dende’l […]
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Translations of Theodorakis by Gail Holst-Warhaft
The below translations are taken from The House with the Scorpions: Selected Poems and Song-Lyrics of Mikis Theodorakis (Fomite, 2020), translated by Gail Holst-Warhaft. The book presents Theodorakis’s poems […]
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‘Encounter’, a version of Baudelaire, by Stuart Henson
Encounter Traffic was howling in my ears and eyes that moment when we passed—she in her slim black dress, a gloved hand tugging up the hem— […]
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Two translations by James Owens
The Death of Dido —Aeneid IV, 692-705 She searched the sky for light, and moaned to find it. Then mighty Juno, for pity on long […]
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Three Poems from Centres of Cataclysm
To celebrate 50 years of Modern Poetry in Translation, Bloodaxe have just published an anthology – Centres of Cataclysm – edited by Sasha Dugdale and David and Helen Constantine. Below […]
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Translation – Sean O’Brien
Translation No, we were never introduced, Yet she and I were long acquainted. I know all her ways and all The tunes this pale usurper sings To those she […]
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Alejandra Pizarnik, remembering
Alberto Manguel: I met Alejandra Pizarnik in Buenos Aires, in 1967, five years before her death. I had asked her to contribute to an anthology of texts that purported to […]
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Christel Wiinblad: My little brother – a morning in heaven, at least in green
Malene Engelund: It troubles me that things must no longer mean anything. Must no longer be real, and that we can no longer be accessible to one another […] It’s […]