DUAL Poetry Podcast

Reza Mohammadi is a prize-winning poet, prolific journalist and cultural commentator. He is widely regarded as one of the most exciting young poets writing in Persian today. He was translated collaboratively for the PTC by Hamid Kabir, editor in chief of the only Afghan fortnightly newspaper published in London, Simorg by and the Irish poet Nick Laird. You can buy a short introduction to the work...

The poem is about the poet's love of a medieval stone tower in Istanbul, Turkey. Karin Karakaşlı's pain can be deeply felt in most of her poems. However, alongside this we encounter an enormous amount of love for the geography she lives in, especially the city of Istanbul. Karakaşlı has an almost synergetic relationship with this city, as we can see in this poem 'Galata' – with the history embedde...

This week's poem is 'When Winter Comes' by Azita Ghahreman from Iran. The poem is read first in English translation by Maura Dooley and then in Farsi by Azita herself. Azita Ghahreman's collection ' Negative of a Group photo ', translated by Maura Dooley and Elhum Shakerifar, has been Shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation award. This is part of our new rebranded weekly release...

This week's poem 'My girlfriend leaves for Cancún today ' is from by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias' collection Dame Spray, which was published in 2016. The poem refers to Cubans entering the US by crossing the border from Mexico. You can buy Legna's book 'A little body are many parts' from the PTC website. This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two langua...

List week's poem is Empty Town by the chinese poet Yu Yoyo. In her afterward to Yu Yoyo's collection  My Tenantless Body  the poet Rebecca Tamás notes that Yoyo's concerns are often the global, concerns of those whose future is at stake in an uncertain world. Get a copy of this book of Yu Yoyo's book My Tenantless Body  from the PTC website. This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Du...

This week's poem is 'Earth' by Partaw Naderi from Afghanistan. The poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Dari by Partaw himself. Partaw Naderi was born in Badakhshan a northern province of Afghanistan in 1331 [1953]. He studied in his birthplace and graduated from the Faculty of Sciences at Kabul University in 1354 [1976]. He was imprisoned in the notorious Pul-e-C...

'But' is by Azita Ghahreman from Iran.  Azita Ghahreman's collection 'Negative of a Group Photograph' has been longlisted for the Warwick  Prize for Women in Translation. This wonderful collection of Farsi poems was  translated by Maura Dooley & Elhum Shakerifar. Order your copy here: https:// buff.ly/2FiQMvL This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in tw...

'Giddy-up Johnny' is from by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias' collection Miami Century Fox, a series of Petrarchan sonnets the poet wrote when she was finding her feet in America. This poem makes reference to Queso proceso, a kind of processed cheese eaten during Cuba's Special Period, from 1989 to 2000 when the country was struggling to survive after the collapse of the Soviet Union and food shortages a...

This week's poem is 'Death Of A Princess' by Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac 'Gaarriye' from Somalia. The poem is read first in English translation by W N Herbert and then in Somali by Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac 'Gaarriye'. 'Gaarriye' (1949–2012) is regarded as one of the most important Somali poets of the twentieth century. He composed on a wide variety of topics, from nuclear weapons to the nature of poetry. H...

Diana Anphimiadi is a poet, publicist, linguist and teacher. Currently a doctoral student at the linguistic institute at the Tbilisi Javahkishvili University, Diana has published four collections of poetry,  Shokoladi  (Chocolate 2008),  Konspecturi Mitologia  (Resumé of Mythology, 2009),  Alhlokhedvis Traektoria  (Trajectory of the Short-Sighted, 2012 and  Kulinaria  (Personal Cuisine, 2013. Her...

'the elephant' by Adelaide Ivánova, looks at how the human body processes trauma, drawing parallels between a mother reacting to the death of her young child and a woman experiencing sexual assault. In this recording, you will hear Ivánova talk about the origins of this poem in her friendship with an elderly German woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease before she reads her poem in the original...

Bejan Matur is the most illustrious poet among a bold new women's poetry emerging from the Middle East. Her poetry engages directly and concretely with the struggles of her people, and yet there is also a mysticism in her writing, a closeness to nature, an embracing of mythology – a dialogue with God. This poem and many others that appear in her PTC chapbook 'If This is a Lamnet' were translated b...

Despite the pleasurable excitement and excess of youth that Yoyo shows us, these poems are also laced with the insecurity and fear of growing up on a planet which may not outlast you; and the societal fissures that flow from that. In Yu's poetic world, nature is necessary and liberating, but it is not the beautiful, timeless vision we see in classical Chinese poetry. Nature offers potential freedo...

This week's poem is by Corsino Fortes from Cape Verde. The poem is read first in English translation by Sean O'Brien and then in Portuguese by Corsino Fortes. Corsino Fortes's first book  Pão & Fonema  [Bread & Phoneme] which appeared in 1974 made an immediate impact. 1974 was a momentous year for Portugal and its African colonies as it was the year in which Portugal's dictator Salazar was overthr...

Translated by Rachel Long and Francisco Vilhena. Before we hear the poem in both in the original Brazilian Portuguese and English translation, the poet Adelaide Ivánova talks about the importance of research in her work and how she discovered the work of a British anthropologist called Dame Mary Douglas. You can buy a copy of the hammer and other poems from the PTC website:  www.poetrytranslation....

Abdellatif Laâbi is a leading Moroccan poet who writes in French. In 1966 he helped found the important artistic journal 'Souffles', in 1972 the journal was banned and in 1974 Laâbi was imprisoned for 8 years for "crimes of opinion" for his political beliefs and his writings. After his release in 1985, he moved to France where he still lives in exile. His work was translated for the PTC by André N...

'Stay' starts with the wonderfully direct and odd line 'Your beard is expendable', a great example of Yu Yoyo's lithe, arresting language, deftly translated by UK poet AK Blakemore and the translator Dave Haysom. This is a poem in seven sections that sees the poet imaging a lover's journey to Viet Nam, a country she had never visited when she wrote the poem. You can find this poem in My Tenatless...

This is one of two poems titled 'the hammer' in Adelaide Ivánova's World Poets Series collection  the hammer and other poems . This poem shows the great breadth of Adelaide's references, from the mating rituals of hammerhead sharks to reports that when a Pope die a senior member of the Vatican staff strikes him on the forehead with a silver hammer to make sure he isn't just sleeping. Also, in this...

'July' is by Diana Anphimiadi, a Georgian poet who is also a linguist, and whose often complex poetry foregrounds language. Scrambled thoughts become crow-songs perched on a wire. Famous women from Greek myth speak frankly - upside-down, headless, from beyond the grave. The five senses tussle on the page, among cats and fish and chandeliers. Eating and bathing offer a glimpse of the eternal. In  B...

at three o'clock in the morning you put your arms around a tree because there's no-one to put their arms around you Sleepwalking by Yu Yoyo is a set of 9 connected poems. In translating this poem the translators, Dave Haysom and AK Blakemore, were forced by the form of the English language to specify who the poem is addressing in a way that the Chinese original left totally open.   You can buy an...

"dad sentence me to death so you can live inside my tenantless body"   Born in 1990, Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo had already begun to earn critical attention before she turned sixteen, publishing dozens of poems in  Poetry ,  Poetry Monthly  and other prestigious publications in China. She is seen as a representative voice among the post-90's generation, especially known for her mature voice and subtl...

Translated by Jo Shapcott and Narguess Farzad. This week's poem is 'Behind The Mass Of Green' by Farzaneh Khojandi from Tajikistan. The poem is read first in English translation by Jo Shapcott and then in Tajik by Farzaneh. Farzaneh Khojandi is a poet with a huge following in Afghanistan and Iran as well as her native Tajikstan. She is widely regarded as the most exciting woman poet writing in Per...

(Explicit content) This week's poem 'the good animal' by Adelaide Ivánova. First, you will hear the poet, journalist and activist Adelaide Ivánova discussing the poem and reading her original Portuguese text, then her poet-translator, the UK poet Rachel Long will read the English version. You can buy an introduction to Adelaide Ivánova's poetry 'the hammer and other poems' translated by Rachel Lon...

This week's poem is by Mohan Rana from India. The poem is read first in English translation by Bernard O'Donoghue and then in Hindi by Mohan himself.  The poet and critic, Nandkishore Acharya, has written that, 'Amongst the new generation of Hindi poets, the poetry of Mohan Rana stands alone; it defies any categorisation. However, its refusal to fit any ideology doesn't mean that Mohan Rana's poet...

Beloved by Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf is a passionate love poem! It is a jiifto, one of the many Metric forms of Somali poetry made up of short lines. First, you will hear the stunning translation by UK poet Clare Pollard who captures the alliterating Bs of the original Somali and the sense of yearning with lines like 'be my new moon / unbreakable metal'. Afterwards, you can hear Asha reading the poem...