In Another Voice Productions

Faiz Episode Reading by In Another Voice Productions

Our very special collaboration with the Stephen Spender Prize! The Stephen Spender Trust runs an annual competition for poetry in translation, doing very important work promoting translation in the UK. Give this episode a listen to hear the winning poem from the 2021 Open category winner, Harry Man, as well as interviews with Harry and the original Norwegian poet, Endre Ruset, and with judge Khairani Barokka, for an insight into what it is like behind the scenes of the biggest poetry translation competition in the UK.

In this very special episode we share the results of our very own translation competition! Thanks to funding from the University of St Andrews School of Modern Languages, we were able to focus on the work of three non-anglophone poets working in the world today, and challenge anyone in the world to translate their poems into English. In this episode, you’ll hear the winning translations, as well as an interview with all three poets about working as a non-anglophone poet, about translation, and about how the pandemic affected their work.

We have so many people to thank for this episode, which this little list can hardly do justice:

Poets: Chloé Savoie-Bernard, Xenia Dyakonova, Jairo Martín de la Fuente

Translators: Daniel Clark, Lou Sarabadzic, Huw Davies

Readers: Tahra Sebti, Isabella Redmayne, Zoë Morrison-Griffiths, Claire Borradaile, Melodie Lewis, Axel Kacoutié, Coggin Galbreath, Caitlin Morris, Maddie Lee, Phoebe Mazzier, Rory McGuirk, Charlotte Bae, Reece Anderson, Una McGeough, Don Cellini, Lisa Ireland, Maria Goikhberg

Graphics: Joanna Joannou

Sound Design: Kyra Ho

Original Music: Maxence Fulconis

and everyone who participated. Thank you.

Head to our website at https://www.inanothervoicepodcast.com/episodes/episode-6-translation-competition for more details

In this episode we talk about Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a super famous poet who wrote in Urdu and Punjabi. His poetry was innovative and timeless, and the poem we've focused on is the celebrated ہم دیکھیں گے - Hum Dekhenge - We Shall See. We then talk to the brilliant Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil.

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Hum Dhekenge:

ہم دیکھیں گے

لازم ہے کہ ہم بھی دیکھیں گے

وہ دن کے جس کا وعدہ ہے

جو لوحِ ازل پہ لکھا ہے

ہم دیکھیں گے

جب ظلم و ستم کے کوہِ گراں

روئی کی طرح اُ ڑ جائیں گے

ہم محکوموں کے پاوٗں تلے

یہ دھرتی دھڑ دھڑ دھڑکے گی

اور اہلِ حکم کے سر اوُپر

جب بجلی کڑ کڑ کڑکے گی

ہم دیکھیں گے

جب ارضِ خدا کے کعبہ سے

سب بت اُٹھوائے جائیں گے

ہم اہلِ صفا مردودِ حرم

مسند پر بٹھلائے جائیں گے

سب تاج اُچھالے جائیں گے

سب تخت گرائے جائیں گے

بس نام رہے گا اللہ کا

جو غائب بھی ہے حاضر بھی

جو منظر بھی ہے ناظر بھی

اُٹھے گا انالحق کا نعرہ

جو میں بھی ہوں اور تم بھی ہو

اور راج کرے گی خلقِ خدا

جو میں بھی ہوں اور تم بھی ہو

ہم دیکھیں گے

لازم ہے کہ ہم بھی دیکھیں گے

ہم دیکھیں گے

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We shall see

Certainly we shall see

That promised dawn

Etched on the slate of eternity

When the crushing mountain of tyranny

Will blow away like cotton wool

When underneath the feet of the enslaved

This earth's beating heart

Shall tremble and shake

When the lightning

Will strike down those who lord over us

When from the House of Allah

All false gods shall be cast off

We the faithful, the dispossessed

Will rise to our seat of sovereignty

Each crown knocked off, will go

Each throne brought down, will go

Only Allah's name will reverberate

He who is the Seen and the Unseen

The Spectacle and the Witness

And the cry will rise

'I am the Truth'-

And that is me

And that is you

Now,

The Children of God will rule

And that is me

And that is you

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Translator: Zehra Kazmi

Guest: Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil

Sound Design: Kyra Ho

Readers: Shaista Ghazali, Raj Shekar Sen, Sajeea Bhatti, Taniya Hassan, Nia Babaar, Satyabahma Rajoria, Mallika Balakrishnan, and Zehra Kazmi.

Theme Music: Maxence Fulconis

The February episode is dedicated to Sappho, an Ancient Greek poet born (probably) around 620 BCE. We discuss her life, what we don't know of it, her truly fantastic poems, the original meaning of 'lesbian', and the sacrificial nature of translation.

Poem: 'Fragment 31'

Interviewee: Daniel Mendelsohn

Translator: Brooke Braden

Poem Readers: Isabella Redmayne, Zehra Kazmi, Henry Waterson

Sound Design: Simon Drummond

Theme Music: Maxence Fulconis

In this episode we hear the poem we've translated as 'I like that you are aching not for me', or 'Мне нравится, что Вы больны не мной' originally.

We also talk to Professor Alyssa Gillespie about Tsvetaeva's work and Gillespie's translation process.

Credits:

Translator - Alisa Matyunina

Poem Readers - Alisa Matyunina and Maria Goikhberg

Interviewee - Professor Alyssa Gillespie

Poem Scorers - Devon Riegel and Nate Collins

Theme Music - Maxence Fulconis

Sound Design - Kyra Ho

Producers - Kyra Ho and Maria Goikhberg

Pascoli - late 19th and early 20th century Italian poet. Big deal in Italy. Not so well known everywhere else.

Poem: 'Bologna, November 2nd'

Translators: Marina Della Putta Johnston, Taije Silverman, Emma Bussi.

Interviewer: Emma Bussi

Guest: Marina Della Putta Johnston

Readers: Lucia Guercio, Maddie Lee, Isabel Wideman

Poem scorer: Simon Drummond

Theme music: Maxence Fulconis

Producer: Maria Goikhberg and Kyra Ho

Sound design: Kyra Ho

Marie Krysinska was an innovator of French free verse poetry. Join us and our guest, Prof. Seth Whidden, as we read and discuss the poem Nature Morte/Still Life.

For more info, head to our website: inanothervoicepodcast.com

Credits:

Producer/Translator: Kyra Ho

Producer/Translation Editor: Maria Goikhberg

Readers: Caitlin Morris, Kiera Obi, Lea Hachem, Mallika Balakrishnan, Timo Marchant

Theme Music: Maxence Fulconis

Poem Scorer: Devon Riegl

Guest: Professor Seth Whidden https://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/people/seth-whidden