Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine

Modern Poetry in Translation

Arts EN ↓ 142 episodes

When Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort founded MPT in 1965 they had two principal ambitions: to get poetry out from behind the Iron Curtain into a wider circulation in English and to benefit writers and the reading public in Britain and America by confronting them with good work from abroad. They published poetry that dealt truthfully with the real contemporary world. For more than 40 years MPT has continued and widened that founding intent.

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Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine

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MPT The Illuminated Paths – Maghreb Poets on Tour at Waterstones, Gower Street 17.10.2019 1:22:43

This is a live recording of the London launch of MPT The Illuminated Paths, featuring some of the most exciting emerging poets from across North Africa. As part of the British Council’s Majaaz project, ten poets writing in Arabic, Arabic dialect and Tamazight were brought together in Tunisia in summer 2018 with some of the UK’s best poets to make collaborative translations. This event celebrated t...

Khairani Barokka introduces 'My Body Is Stone, My House Is the Moon’ 19.08.2019 14:50

For a full transcript please visit the project page http://modernpoetryintranslation.com/lakoat-kujawas-a-digital-pamphlet-curated-by-poet-in-residence-khairani-barokka/

Tim Saunders reads ‘Porthpean’ – in English and Cornish 05.04.2019 3:14

Tim Saunders reads ‘Porthpean’ – in English and Cornish From MPT 'Our Small Universe: Focus on Languages of the United Kingdom', Spring 2019 See more at wwwmodernpoetryintranslation.com

Christine De Luca reads ‘Dis life is nivver enyoch’ – in Shetlandic 31.03.2019 5:12

Christine De Luca reads ‘Dis life is nivver enyoch’ – in Shetlandic by Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine

Gerda Stevenson reads ‘I am the Airt’ – in Scots 31.03.2019 5:19

Gerda Stevenson reads ‘I am the Airt’ – in Scots From MPT 'Our Small Universe: Focus on Languages of the United Kingdom', Spring 2019 See more at wwwmodernpoetryintranslation.com

Jhilmil Breckenridge reads ‘वेनलॉक एज पर वन मुशकिल मे है’ – a Hindi translation of AE Housman 31.03.2019 1:43

Jhilmil Breckenridge reads ‘वेनलॉक एज पर वन मुशकिल मे है’ – a Hindi translation of AE Housman – from the online translation workshop

Philip Gross and Cyril Jones read a series of englyn translations – in English and Welsh 31.03.2019 7:46

Philip Gross and Cyril Jones read a series of englyn translations – in English and Welsh From MPT 'Our Small Universe: Focus on Languages of the United Kingdom', Spring 2019 See more at wwwmodernpoetryintranslation.com

Mukur Petrolwala reads ‘રાખ (Ash)’ – a Gujarati translation of AE Housman 31.03.2019 2:34

Mukur Petrolwala reads ‘રાખ (Ash)’ – a Gujarati translation of AE Housman from the MPT online translation workshop

David Morley reads ‘Roma and Roma’ – a Romani tranlsation of AE Housman 31.03.2019 2:16

David Morley reads ‘Roma and Roma’ – a Romani tranlsation of AE Housman from the MPT online translation workshop

Steve Dornan reads a version of Vahabzade’s ‘Knock the Fences Down’ – translated into Ulster Scots 31.03.2019 3:54

Steve Dornan reads a version of Vahabzade’s ‘Knock the Fences Down’ – translated into Ulster Scots From MPT 'Our Small Universe: Focus on Languages of the United Kingdom', Spring 2019 See more at wwwmodernpoetryintranslation.com

Anna Kessling reads ‘SW16 1961’ – a Streatham dialect translation of AE Housman 31.03.2019 1:02

Anna Kessling reads ‘SW16 1961’ – a Streatham dialect translation of AE Housman from the MPT online translation workshop

Sophie Herxheimer reads ‘On ze Kvestion off a ‘Hostile Infyroment’ – in Inklisch 31.03.2019 3:37

Sophie Herxheimer reads ‘On ze Kvestion off a ‘Hostile Infyroment’ – in Inklisch From MPT 'Our Small Universe: Focus on Languages of the United Kingdom', Spring 2019 See more at wwwmodernpoetryintranslation.com

Tim Saunders reads ‘Porthpean’ – in English and Cornish 31.03.2019 3:14

Tim Saunders reads ‘Porthpean’ – in English and Cornish From MPT 'Our Small Universe: Focus on Languages of the United Kingdom', Spring 2019 See more at wwwmodernpoetryintranslation.com

Liz Berry reads ‘Iron Oss’ – Black Country Dialect 31.03.2019 3:42

Liz Berry reads ‘Iron Oss’ – in Black Country Dialect From MPT 'Our Small Universe: Focus on Languages of the United Kingdom', Spring 2019 See more at wwwmodernpoetryintranslation.com

HOW TO SWIM: Introducing our digital pamphlet on Lithuanian poetry 20.02.2019 5:46

In this episode, MPT Editor Clare Pollard introduces our Digital Pamphlet on Lithuanian poetry, 'How to Swim', and looks back at our online translation workshop on Lithuanian poetry. Hear Martyn Crucefix reading his tranlsation of *** by Nijolė Miliauskaitė, alongside a reading in the original Lithuanian. This digital pamphlet is published on 21 February 2018. See more at: modernpoetryintranslatio...

Words about Words: Introducing MPT's Digital Latvian Poetry Pamphlet 23.10.2018 6:48

IN this episode, MPT Editor Clare Pollard introduces our Digital Pamphlet on Latvian poetry, 'Words about Words', and looks back at our online translation workshop on Latvian poetry. See more at: http://modernpoetryintranslation.com/words-about-words/

silencesilencesilencesilencesilencesilence: On Estonian poetry and our online translation workshop 07.08.2018 12:05

IN this episode, MPT Editor Clare Pollard introduces our Digital Pamphlet on Estonian poetry, silencesilencesilencesilencesilencesilence, and looks back at our online translation workshop on Estonian poetry. See more: http://modernpoetryintranslation.com/estonian-poetry-digital-pamphlet-silencesilencesilencesilencesilencesilence/

"In Spite of Everything": Annie Freud reading her translation of Jacques Tornay 13.06.2018 5:35

Introduction to Jacques Tornay by Annie Freud, published in MPT 'Profound Pyromania'. I met Jacques Tornay in 2016 at HeadRead, the International Literary Festival of Estonia. Sitting in the audience, listening to poems in many languages which are foreign to me, I was suddenly transported by the familiar sounds of the French language. Having been brought up on the poems of Ronsard, Du Bellay, Lama...

The Struggle: a reading and discussion with Hisham Bustani and translator Thoraya El-Rayyes 04.05.2018 8:56

From the introduction to Hisham Bustani's poems in MPT 'A Blossom Shroud' by translator Thoraya El-Rayyes: Few poems better capture the cynicism of the infamously irate Hisham Bustani than these two odes to frustration. A poet, short-story writer, political commentator and veteran rabble rouser, Bustani’s eventful public life has been punctuated by various brushes with the police state – from hara...

War Of the Beasts And The Animals - Read by the poet Maria Stepanova and translator, Sasha Dugdale 20.01.2018 29:40

Russian poet Maria Stepanova wrote her epic poem ‘War of the Beasts and the Animals’ in 2015, when the war in the Donbas Region of Ukraine was at its height. Every line in this densely-populated and highly allusive poem emerges from a consciousness of conflict and the martial culture and mythology that allows state-sponsored violence to happen. Stepanova traces the mythmaking culture of war from b...

Mona Kareem: The Room of Darkness 02.10.2017 8:43

ABOUT THE POET: MONA KAREEM Mona Kareem is a poet-writer-translator based in New York. She is the author of three poetry collections. Her translations include Ashraf Fayadh's Instructions Within and an Arabic selection of Alejandra Pizarnik’s poems. ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: ROBIN MOGER: Robin Moger is a freelance translator of Arabic with a particular interest in twentieth-century and contemporary pr...

Sumerian Tablets as 'Iraqi Haiku' - Dunya Mikhail reads 'Tablets III' and talks about her work 14.08.2017 10:33

DUNYA MIKHAIL was born in Iraq and left for the United States in 1996. Her books include The Iraqi Nights, Diary of A Wave Outside the Sea, and The War Works Hard. She also edited a pamphlet of Iraqi poetry titled 15 Iraqi Poets. She was awarded the Kresge Fellowship, Arab American Book Award, and UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing.

Translation Duel at Ledbury Poetry Festival! Olivia McCannon vs Susan Wicks 16.07.2017 52:29

Two poet-translators rattle their sabres for a duel of words and French poetry! Listen to MPT's translation duel which took place at Ledbury Poetry Festival, Sunday 9 July 2017. Olivia McCannon and Susan Wicks went head-to-head with their translations of a poem by Ariane Dreyfus. *No poets were harmed in the production of this event*. About the translators: Olivia McCannon is a translator of Balza...

Two poems by Ján Gavura, read by the poet and translator James Sutherland-Smith 16.07.2017 15:03

In Gavura’s work the poetic persona has a strong empathy with nature, seeing it as an example of both a non-human otherness and as part of God’s creation. As a theologian Gavura regards nature and humanity as part of a post-lapsarian existence. Gavura’s natural world and the animals which inhabit it are true to themselves and the savagery they express is an aspect of the innocence they retain. His...

Siddhartha Bose: ‘Elegy, Father’s City’ 09.06.2017 10:12

ABOUT SIDDHARTHA BOSE I was born in Calcutta and spent the first five years of my life there. This city, which was once the second city of the British Empire, was where English literature was fi rst introduced as a discipline of study, to civilise the natives. I spent the next eight years in Bombay, and returned to the city of my birth for another five before moving to the USA on my own when I was...