» Sign up for the MPT eNewsletterIn this issue of MPT
Frontiers, Series 3 No.11
By David Constantine, Helen Constantine
Every issue of MPT crosses frontiers. Contributions come in from all over the world. Copies go out world-wide. Whatever their subjects, the translations themselves, out of many languages, cross frontiers of space and time. MPT 3/11 concentrates on that essential act, and makes connections of many kinds - of going-betweens and crossings-over. There are frontiers between species, countries, creeds, classes and generations; between the sexes, between life and death, between then and now… And poetry has always gone out to these boundaries, to survey them and to cross them. Some passages are customary and welcome; others are more like smuggling and transgression... Some borders are open; others are walled, barb-wired and mined… Contains previously untranslated poems by Bertolt Brecht.Poems from this issue were featured on the 'Borders' edition of the BBC Radio 3 Words and Music programme on Sunday 3rd January, 2010.
For more details on the programme see the BBC website.
'Frontiers' was reviewed by the Guardian, here.
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Table of contents
In Frontiers
Poetry and Features
Editorial David and Helen Constantine
Oliver Reynolds, ‘Curtain’ (after Brecht) from German
Aviva Dautch, ‘Ghazal’ (concerns Arabic and Hebrew)
Kathryn Maris, variations on ‘Atonement’ from Modern Greek
David Hart, ‘At the Edge’
Carol Rumens, five poems
Philippe Jaccottet, five poems, translated by Alastair Thomson from French
Hubert Moore, ‘Write-to-Life’
‘After 209’, translated by Nasrin Parvaz and Hubert Moore from Farsi
Hubert Moore, three poems
Sasha Dugdale, ‘At the Edge’
Jane Draycott, from Pearl (Middle English)
Olivia McCannon, ten poems
Mark Leech, ‘Shadow Economy’ (after the Anglo-Saxon ‘The Husband’s Message’, anon. 9th-10th century)
Stephen Watts, ‘Nonno’
Timothy Adès, three translations from French
Shinjiro Kurahara, ‘The Fox’, translated by William Elliott and Katsumasa Nishihara from Japanese
Fitzgerald Kusz, ‘love’, translated by Shon Arieh-Lerer from Franconian German
Heinz Ehemann, two poems, translated by Shon Arieh-Lerer from Franconian German
Raymond Foster, ‘The Garden of God’ from chiNdau and Fanagalo
Jennie Feldman, two poems
Ariel Zinder, ‘Bricks’, translated by Jennie Feldman from Hebrew
Thomas Rosenlöcher, four poems, translated by Ken Cockburn from German
Reiner Kunze, ‘The Wall’, translated by Robin Fulton from German
Robin Fulton, four poems
Robert Hull, three poems and three translations from Spanish and Modern Greek
Georgi Gospodinov, eight poems, translated by Maria Vassileva and Bilyana Kourtasheva from Bulgarian
Wilhelm Bartsch, ‘Three leaves from the album of German Romanticism’, translated by Tom Cheesman from German
Juan Gelman, ‘Nightingales Again’, translated by J.S.Tennant from Spanish
J.S.Tennant, ‘The Sleeper in the Valley’ (after Rimbaud from French)
Brecht, ten poems, translated by David Constantine from German
Reviews
Belinda Cooke, on translations of Jean Cassou and Aldo Vianello
Charlie Louth, on the Bachmann-Celan correspondence
Josephine Balmer, Further Reviews
Issue highlights
- Poetry in the Franconian dialect
- Poems from Bulgaria, Japan, Israel…
- An extract from Jane Draycott’s new translation of Pearl
- New translations of Brecht
Selected poems
- Heinz EhemannGerentology or when you get old (Gerontologie odder wennsd ald bisd)Translated by Shon Arieh-Lerer
- Georgi GospodinovMy mother reads poetryTranslated by Maria Vassileva
- Shinjiro KuraharaThe VixenTranslated by William I. Elliott
- Ariel ZinderBricksTranslated by Jennie Feldman
Featured review
Herzzeit: Ingeborg Bachmann - Paul Celan. Der Briefwechsel.
By Ingeborg Bachmann, Paul Celan
Reviewed by Charlie Louth
Mit den Briefwechseln zwischen Paul Celan und Max Frisch sowie zwischen Ingeborg Bachmann und Gisèle Celan-Lestrange. Edited and annotated by Bertrand Badiou, Hans Höller, Andrea Stoll und Barbara Wiedemann.
The year that saw the publication of the correspondence between perhaps the two most important American poets since the war, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, also saw that of the lette...
» Read moreMPT is a necessity for anyone interested in enjoying and communicating the best in translated poetry old and new.Alan Brownjohn
The Sunday Times
Next issue…
Transitions
Series 3 Number 18
The next issue of Modern Poetry in Translation (Third Series, Number 18, Autumn 2012) will be called ‘Transitions’.
