DUAL Poetry Podcast

This week’s poem is 'Glaucoma' by Azita Ghahreman from Iran. The poem is read first in English translation by Maura Dooley and then in Farsi by Azita.

In October 2018 we are celebrating the publication of 'Negative of a Group Photograph', a new collection of poetry by Farsi poet Azita Ghahreman, with an national tour and from the 6th to the 12th of October Azita will be Touring the UK. To find out where you can see Azita follow this link:

http://poetrytranslation.org/events/series/azita-ghahreman-tour-2018

Poetry is an important part of Georgian literature, and dates back to the 4th century AD. The first known woman poets are Queen Borena and Queen Tamar, who reigned in medieval times.  Contemporary Georgian women’s poetry has its origins in the Soviet period, when a new form of free verse appeared.

Salome Benidze is a poet, writer, blogger and translator. She has been nominated for and has received many prestigious awards, and her poems have been translated into more than 10 languages. She writes both in a traditional poetry mode and in free verse.

Salome’s poems are a journey through the dramatic historical and social changes in Georgia’s recent history and her own experience of life and love. They are conveyed in a rich and romantic language, highly charged with passion and love. In some ways, her work is a call for women’s voices to be taken more seriously.

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us

A chilly poem: ‘Snow’ by the wonderful Iranian poet, Azita Ghahreman, who now lives in exile in snowy Sweden.

The seemingly endless snow is a metaphor for the hopelessness the poet feels – she and her lover are lost in its vastness. Only ‘a single stray earring’ can be seen – ‘not a tree, not a rabbit, not a star’.

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us

'Neighbour!
You're like a fruit knife.
There's never a time
when you're not
at our dinner table.'

This poem is read first in English translation by Mimi Khalvati and then in Kurdish by the poet Choman Hardi.

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us

The prize-winning Moroccan poet, Abdellatif Laâbi, is widely acknowledged as being one of the most important poets writing today. Laâbi was born in Fez in 1942. He began writing in the mid-1960s, publishing his first novel in 1969. In 1966 he founded the renowned literary magazine Souffles, a journal of literature and politics that was to earn its editor an eight-year prison sentence (from 1972 to 1981) under the authoritarian reign of Hassan II. Once released from jail, Laâbi left Morocco in 1985 and has lived in Paris ever since.

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us

Diana Anphimiadi is a poet, publicist, linguist and teacher. Jean Sprackland was the poem's poet-translator. She commented that the poem is about more than a simple dance, it is an erotic poem. Jean also worked hard to maintain the 3/4 time of the original poem in her translation.

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us

This week’s poem is by Partaw Naderi from Afghanistan.  The poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Dari by Partaw Naderi. 

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us

This week’s poem is 'Harmony' by Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf from Somalia/Somaliland.  The poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Somali by Asha Lul. 

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us

Our poem podcast this week is 'The North Wind Whips' by Victor Teran from Mexico. The poem is read first in English translation by David Shook and then in Zapotec by Victor himself. If you would like to support PTC, please visit: http://www.poetrytranslation.org/support-us

This week’s poem is by Coral Bracho from Mexico.  The poem is read first in English translation by Katherine Pierpoint and then in Spanish by Coral. 

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us