Emerging Writers Network

Work of the Day - August 8, 2007 - From the cycle A Difficult Childhood or 20 Dreadful Tales by Dmitri Prigov and translated by Christpher Mattison

Christopher Mattison has translated these dark poems by Dmitri Prigov and they appear in the inaugural issue of St. Petersburg Review - White Nights 2007.  A snippet:

“When I was young and played

violin amidst a great hall

a rat crept out from behind

and crawled up my pant leg

nibbling away at my trembling scrotum

until it nibbled it completely away

…”

As noted, a little dark.  Which, perhaps not so surprisingly, lends towards my enjoyment.  In looking for more information about the author, I noticed there was on contributor note for Prigov - however the very last line of the journal is a dedication to him, as he passed away this past July at the young age of 46.  The translator, Christopher Mattison has translated a collection of Prigov's poetry, 50 Drops of Blood in an Abosrbent Medium (2007, Ugly Duckling Presse) which I'll be trying to track down.

RTW - Open Letter Announces They are Ready for Business

Open Letter has announced that they will be publishing 12 works of international literature per year, focusing on modern classics and contemoprary works of fiction.  This, in tandem with the literary translation programs the University of Rochester is developing, will try to help further advance the numbers of books in translation available to North Americans.

The Open Letter weblog is up and running, it's aptly titled Three Percent, and it features links, reviews of books, sample translations, and a calendar of information regarding grants and prizes for translation.

Chad Post (formerly at the wonderful Dalkey Archive, and co-founder of the Reading the World program) is the director of Open Letter, where he is joined by E.J. Van Lanen (formerly of Ecco) and Nathan Furl (formerly at Dalkey Archive).

RTW 2007, E-Panel: Literary Translators

The following is the third E-Panel of literary translators who have made it possible for those of us reading in English to enjoy works from authors we otherwise would never have had the chance to enjoy.

Adam Sorkin - http://www.spuytenduyvil.net/authors/AdamJSorkin.htm

Christopher Bakken - http://webpub.alleg.edu/employee/c/cbakken/

Sean Cotter - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/104-4129247-2361545?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Sean%20Cotter

Steven Stewart - http://www.amazon.com/Devoured-Moon-Rafael-Perez-Estrada/dp/1931236372/ref=sr_1_3/104-4129247-2361545?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184768362&sr=1-3

Chris Andrews - http://www.fritss.unimelb.edu.au/research/publications/andrews.html

Dan:

Hello, and thanks for participating in this E-Panel, especially now during Reading the World month.  What language(s) do you translate from and to what language(s)?

Adam Sorkin:

And thank you, Dan, for inviting me to take part. I translate from Romanian into English, mostly poetry.  Through contacts and friends, I’ve also been asked to work on some poems from Flemish (Dutch), Georgian, and soon Serbian.  But, not at all knowing these languages (in two cases, not even the alphabets), for me this is less translation than the application of whatever skill and craft I can bring to a “raw” poem so as to turn it into something more or less alive in English.

Christopher Bakken:

Modern Greek into English.

Sean Cotter:

All my translation is into English. I translate Romanian the most, and I have published work from Spanish and German, as well.

Steven Stewart:

I primarily translate from Spanish into English.  I have done some English into Spanish, though as a non-native Spanish speaker I’m not confident doing that alone (I’m currently working on translating American poet Robert Duncan’s book Bending the Bow into Spanish along with Mexican poet Antonio Ochoa).  I have also co-translated some Korean poetry into English along with the author (I don’t speak any Korean) and have done a few translations from Old English and French into English by working with original texts and existing translations.

Chris Andrews:

English is my native language. I learnt French at school and university, and through living in France for a while. Spanish I learnt at university and traveling a bit in Latin America.

Dan:

Which of the languages you translate from and to is your native language?  How did you come about learning the other language(s)?

News from Dzanc Books

The following announcement has been posted at the Dzanc Books News page:

To Whom It May Concern:

Dzanc Books is joining forces with the editors of Absinthe: New European Writing to bring great works of European fiction to North America for the first time.

Dzanc is committed to finding the absolute best literary fiction to publish.  We believe acquiring and publishing works from around the world is important on two fronts – a) there is some incredible work being done in Europe that has not been made available to those who only read English, and b) reading fiction from different world view points is essential to having a better understanding of the world we live in, and our own place in it.

Dwayne Hayes and Jessica Bomarito, editors of Absinthe, have been publishing wonderful translated material in their journal for close to five years now, and have built up a fantastic array of talented translators they communicate with regularly and Dzanc will, in partnership, help Absinthe further their own mission by getting this work into book form and distributed to stores nationwide.  Our intent is to find an excellent work of fiction for publication in 2008, and then continue this joint arrangement annually.  Other authors and translators may also contact us directly as well by sending manuscript submissions through our website and writing us with attached materials at [email protected].

Please feel free to share this information and if you know people who are interested in contemporary European literature, or writers and/or translators of European fiction looking for a North American publisher, we would be thrilled to hear from them. We look forward to reading the submissions and hope to share more news of our efforts soon.

Best wishes,

Dan Wickett

Executive Editor and Publisher

Steve Gillis

Founder and Publisher

RTW 2007 - Work of the Day - June 7, 2007 - What I Want to be When I Grow Up by Geza Szocs translated by Paul Sohar

From Absinthe:  New European Writing issue 7 - subscribe!

This poem by Geza Szocs, translated from Hungarian by Paul Sohar, is dedicated to his grandfather's bronze bust, that was melted along with others so that a larger statue of Stalin could be cast in their place.

The poem begins:

"In unknown boots

the unknown soldier

always starts marching toward a well-defined target:

not again and again

but continuously"

And it goes on from there to describe how that unknown soldier would be loved by all, and cast in bronze, and certainly falls in line with the dedication - nicely done.

RTW 2007 - Work of the Day - June 6, 2007 - Kafka and His Sister Stop in Budapest on Their Way to Lebanon and Run into Artist Csontvary by Geza Szocs translated by Paul Sohar

From Absinthe:  New European Writing issue 7 - subscribe!

This poem by Geza Szocs, translated from Hungarian by Paul Sohar, is broken into five sections, with the middle section, by far the shortest:

"Say, don't you ever worry about waking up one morning as a giant cockroach?"

"No.  I usually wake up with the feeling I must save the world."

The poem uses bits of repetition between the first and both the second and fourth sections in an interesting way, especially when seeing how it's broken up by that odd third section.  It's almost as if they're there, positioned around this outlandish bit of information (though, information that isn't a total surprise to the reader due to the title of the poem), in order to remind the reader of that first stanza.

The fifth section then almost feels completely stand-alone:

"Two gentlemen and a lady go up to this kid

loafing at the railroad stating and ask him:

Do you think there is a God?  The kid says:

God is not just anybody who may or may not exist."

RTW 2007 - Work of the Day - June 5, 2007 - untitled poem by Jacques Reda translated by Daniela Hurezanu

From Absinthe:  New European Writing issue 7 - subscribe!

From Jacques Reda's 1975 collection, La Tourne, comes another untitled poem:

“Nice soft day around five o’clock at the church

Like a bird whose wings have stopped beating.

Crystal and feather balls fall and shatter

Between the old-fashion roofs.  It was a

Sunday in the depths of water, in the book’s picture,

The sky flapping its eyelids behind our backs

Under the forehead of giant clouds, the joists

Of slow air balancing on round forms skirt

With a silk bodice and a slightly unknitted wool

With small fingers looking through the holes

For a fresh winter down in the depths

Of black pillows waiting on a lap in summer,

Under the lap’s light with the thread unstretched –

And your teeth – which I touch – have cut time

(Sunday encircling its giant breathing heart

Watches over us and childhood’s apple

Shines between your teeth.)”

This poem, translated by Daniela Hurezanu, is another that confuses me, sorry to admit.  I'm not sure what the whole parenthetical bit at the end is all about. Any help?

RTW 2007 - Work of the Day - June 4, 2007 - untitled poem by Jacques Reda translated by Daniela Hurezanu

From Absinthe:  New European Writing issue 7 - subscribe!

From Jacques Reda's 1975 collection, La Tourne, comes an untitled poem:

“We are too far east and the sun passes faster

Than on twilight’s orchards here when spring

Spills from the top of the still frozen mountains

Streams of coolness tumbling down the streets

And exploding around burning pales of perfume

The wind, carrying a licorice smell over the asphalt,

Touches the bodies before slipping into the heat

That lies at the bottom of the ravine.  It’s seven then,

But the loads of stars are already ablaze

Through the foggy grass, and the lamps on the bridge,

And the watches’ phosphorescent numbers.  The faces

Of people hurrying like an avalanche up there

Glow unknowingly between the unlit banks,

And millions of steps sink deeper into silence

Under the streetcars’ giant spark in the heat.”

The poem was translated from French by Daniela Hurezanu - I enjoyed Reda's usage of nature to move his poem forward.

RTW 2007 - Work of the Day - June 3, 2007 - Leonardo's Cross by Tsvetanka Elenkova translated by Jonathan Dunne

From Absinthe:  New European Writing issue 7 - subscribe!

From Tsvetanka Elenkova's third book, The Seventh Gesture (2005, and due in English from Shoestring Press (UK) this year) comes the prose poem, "Leonardo's Cross," which begins:

“They find dead victims like this, with legs outstretched and arms to the side.

Children sleep like this in their sweetest dreams.  Like this, hung on a hook

against you, I writhe at your every touch.”

And ends:

“ ….    To tighten the legs of the lamb after you’ve stuffed it.  The legs of

A young bride who wants to conceive.  The difference between Leonardo’s

cross and Christ’s.”

This poem was also translated from Bulgarian by Jonathan Dunne, and in it, Elenkova does a great job of using the imagery - dead victims and how they lie, children and how they appear when sleeping, and bringing it all home with the image of Christ on the cross.

RTW 2007 - Work of the Day - June 2, 2007 - Your Body, a Garden by Tsvetanka Elenkova translated by Jonathan Dunne

From Absinthe:  New European Writing issue 7 - subscribe!

From Tsvetanka Elenkova's third book, The Seventh Gesture (2005, and due in English from Shoestring Press (UK) this year) comes the prose poem, "Your Body, a Garden," which begins:

“Your body excited and limp at the same time, loose soil.  A dug garden,

which you do not tread on but work with your hands.  You clear it of small

stones, add blades of grass, you smooth it with a rake.  You make small pits

with your fingers or with a special stick for planting.”

This is as it was translated from the Bulgarian from Jonathan Dunne.  I'll admit, this poem has me a bit confused.  Had it started, "My body...", I'd slip into perversion and announce it completely about sex, but it's auto-erotic, the language has slipped past me (don't be surprised to read that a bit when I'm looking at poetry).