[Julie Steiner]

Popular vote picks:

Main Translation Bake-Off event:

1A--Ariosto's fly 24pts
1E--Anonymous bookworm 22pts
1C--Boye's butterflies 7pts

Meleager's bee poem challenge:

Post #19 by Ann Drysdale 14pts
Post #7 by Mary McLean 10pts
Post #22 by John Whitworth 9pts

Meleager's first mosquito poem challenge:

Post #3 by Ann Drysdale 18pts
Post #8 by Brian Allgar 15pts
Post #10 by Susan McLean 6pts

Judge's Picks (main Translation Bake-Off event only):

1E--Anonymous bookworm
1A--Ariosto's fly
1D--Rimbaud's lice

Now Alex can tell us who the anonymous finalists were! Thanks to everyone who participated, either by entering or commenting or both.

[Ann Drysdale]

And Thanks! to you, Julie. Not least for introducing the element of fun. "Above and beyond..." doesn't cover it. You're a star!

And now - bring on the new mosquito!

[Maryann Corbett]

Amen to what Ann said. Julie is the real champion of this event.

C'mon, Alex--we're all curious to know whose translation is whose!

[Catherine Chandler]

Give him a break! It's three hours earlier in CA !

Once again, Julie, thank you for your extensive comments, critiques and suggestions on the translations.

[Alex Pepple]

And here it comes ... (and sorry for keeping all of you eager translators, critics and readers waiting!)

Without further ado, congratulations to our winners:

Adam Elgar for Ariosto's fly with 24pts
Maryann Corbett for Anonymous bookworm with 22pts
Janice D. Soderling for Boye's butterflies with 7pts

And congratulations also to the rest of our finalists:

Catherine Chandler for Leal's butterflies
Skip Dewahl for Gautier's cricket
Ann Drysdale for Rimbaud's lice
John Ridland for Kosztolányi's 3 insects
Robert Schechter for Neruda's insect

Thank you to everyone else who submitted to, or participated in this year's translation bakeoff. Especially, a big thank you to our Host and Distinguished Guest, Julie Stoner. I estimate that she's been our most involved, most hardworking DG to date! Not only did she run three concurrent events, she also went above and beyond the call of duty to comment privately on submissions that didn't make it to the finals--which I'd forwarded anonymously.

Cheers,
...Alex

[Ann Drysdale]

Thanks, Alex, and thanks again, Julie.

Congratulations, winners - and how splendid to see Adam among us again. Makes me yearn for the "old days".

What do we do now - and where do we do it? How do we build on this excellent event?

Julie's additional challenges put me in mind of the occasional "cribfests" on the Translation forum and how they sharpened one's head-pencils.

[Maryann Corbett]

Thanks, Alex, and congratulations to everybody here, but especially, as we keep saying, to Julie. I'm hoping to get my head sufficiently together to tackle the next Meleager insect.

(For whatever it might be worth, I have a few thoughts to add to my poem thread, later this morning, I hope.)

[Adam Elgar]

Thanks Julie for a really excellent job as DG, and congratulations to all who took part. And thanks for the votes! It's great to be up there with the wonderful Maryann.

Ann, the good old days were great. Shame things have gone v quiet over there. I've just not had any poetry-translating time, and it seems others have been too busy as well. Except Martin of course, to whom I apologize for neglecting his Czechs.

[Gregory Dowling]

I wish I'd had more time to participate in this event - even just as a spectator and voter. I have at least been able to look in and enjoy the entries and the comments and I'd like to add to the congratulations to the winners and the thanks to all the participants - and especially I'd like to join in the heartfelt thanks to Julie for her great work as DG.

[Skip Dewahl]

Congratulations, Adam, and I hope that your lessened responsibilities are what have given you the added concentration to scale the ladder higher than your cohorts, but perhaps it's just that you have honed your skills to the point that no amount of distraction can have any possibility of derailing your art. Maryann and Janice, I'm glad to see your hard work reaping praise, as well.
Again, Julie needs to be lauded for her organization and, above all, her detailed analyses of the translations, which, even without the privilege of voting, would have been more than enough to make this worthwhile as a master class in evaluation.