Thursday, June 2, 2011

In translation & two Latina poets on POETRY's podcast


In addition to its magazine, POETRY also produces a monthly podcast. This past March, POETRY's podcast was awarded an "Ellie" or National Magazine Award for Digital Media. These are given by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia School of Journalism.

The current podcast, devoted to June's translation issue, is well worth the 30-minute investment of time. The format is fairly straightforward: Editors Christian Wiman and Don Share talk about, "frame" if you will, what listeners are going to hear: in this particular case commentary from a few of the poet-translators who rendered into English the poems in this month's issue, as well as the poems themselves. Wiman and Share also offer their own astute insights on the work presented.

Two selections stood out for me--the translations from the Portuguese of Eugenio de Andrade, which were rendered by Atsuro Riley; and the translation from the German of Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven, which were rendered by Jill Alexander Essbaum.


In both cases we get to hear the translators talk about the poet and the poems. I would highly recommend taking a moment to listen to the entire production since, really, there is no substitute for the sound of the human voice. In the meantime, here are the pieces that grabbed me:


"The Children"

by Eugénio de Andrade
translated from the Portuguese by Atsuro Riley

"Goats"
by Eugénio de Andrade
translated from the Portuguese by Atsuro Riley

"Fruit Don’t Fall Far"
by Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven
Translated from the German by Jill Alexander Essbaum

*

But perhaps the best reason to take a moment to listen to this podcast in its entirety is because at the end, both Christian Wiman and Don Share offer a taste of two poets they've been reading and enjoying recently.  It just so happens that the two poets they hone in on this month have a connection to Letras Latinas: both have read in PALABRA PURA, and one is the most recent winner of one of Letras Latinas' flagship initiatives:

Emma Trelles, winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize for TROPICALIA

&

Joanne Diaz, winner of the Gerald Cable Award for THE LESSONS.

If you'd like to know which of their poems are featured and read aloud, you simply have to click below and enjoy!

POETRY Magazine’s June Podcast




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