Modern Poetry in Translation

Diaspora, Series 3 No. 2

Edited by David Constantine, Helen Constantine

‘Diaspora’ in its editorial and in most of its contributions addresses exile, wandering and the struggle for a language abroad. It publishes important essays by Carmen Bugan (Romania, USA, UK) on learning a new language in exile and by Goran Simic (Bosnia and Canada) on ‘Exile as Homeland’. There are translations of poems by Adel Guémar (in exile from Algeria), Ziba Karbassi (exiled from Iran) and Volker Braun, an East-German poet notably disappointed by life in a united homeland. Publishing Paul Batchelor’s versions of Ovid, the Editors effectively redefine the ‘modern’ in Modern Poetry in Translation to mean any new (and lively) translation of any poetry however old. So frontiers of time are crossed as well as those of space.  The languages reperesented here are Modern Greek, Farsi, Polish, Bulgarian, French (Algeria), Hungarian, Latin, German, Norwegian, Italian.  ‘Diaspora’ is the first issue in the Third Series to carry reviews and the first to have a cover – at once very striking – by Lucy Wilkinson.

'Diaspora' was reviewed by the Guardian, here.

Subscribe   Buy issue

EXPLORE THIS ISSUE:   » Editorial   » Poems   » Reviews

In Diaspora

Poetry and Features

Editorial  David and Helen Constantine

Carmen Bugan, an essay and two poems (concerns Romanian)

Yannis Ritsos, fifteen Tristichs, translated by David Harsent from Modern Greek

David Harsent, three poems from Legion

Goran Simić, an essay and four prose poems (conerns Bosnian Serbo-Croat)

Forough Farrokhzad, four poems, translated by Gholam Reza Sami Gorgan Roodi from Farsi

Marzanna Bogumila Kielar, six poems, translated by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese from Polish

Lyubomir Nikolov, six poems, introduced by Clive Wilmer, translated by Miroslav Nikolov from Bulgarian

Adel Guémar, four poems, translated by Tom Cheesman and John Goodby from French (Algeria), with a note on Hafan Books

Sándor Márai, ‘Funeral Oration’, translated by George Gömöri and Clive Wilmer from Hungarian

Versions of Ovid’s Tristia, by Paul Batchelor, from Latin

Olivia McCannon, three poems

Yvonne Green, three poems

Ziba Karbassi, three poems, translated by Stephen Watts from Farsi

Volker Braun, nine poems, translated by David Constantine from German

Wulf Kirsten, ten poems, translated by Stefan Tobler from German

Knut Ødegaard, ‘Taking out the Hives’, translated by Kenneth Steven from Norwegian

Eugenio Montale, three uncollected poems, translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre from Italian

Reviews

Bernard Adams on George Szirtes’s 'Ágnes Nemes Nagy'

Paschalis Nikolaou on David Connolly’s 'Yannis Kondos' 

Will Stone on Antony Hasler’s 'Georg Heym' 

Jo Balmer: Further Books Received