[Nicholas F.]

Hi all,

Does anyone know where I might find recordings of poems in Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, French, etc.? I've found some good stuff on YouTube, but I'd really like to have files downloaded to my computer. The poems don't have to be famous (or the work of a famous poet), but I'll need access to English translations as well.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. I don't need a massive archive, just a handful of poems in various languages.

Nick

p.s. The idea is to get my poetry students thinking about sound and rhythm--which will be easier, I hope, if they don't understand the language of the poem under consideration. I think they'll be surprised by how much engagement begins with the ear.

[Matt Q]

Nicholas,

Creating auido files from YouTube videos is very easy and only takes a few seconds. http://www.youtube-mp3.org/ is just one of many websites that will do it for free; you just paste in the URL of the video.

There are recordings of almost 1000 poems in German here at Gesprochene Deutsche Lyrik, but no English translations, though of course you may be able locate translations elsewhere.

Best

Matt

[Maryann Corbett]

Nick, you can also find on Youtube many recordings of readings of Dante's Commedia, especially the Inferno. I'm sure you can choose the English translation you prefer. I believe, but don't know for sure, that those can be downloaded.

I especially like the performances of Vittorio Gassman, like this one of Canto I, but if you google "Dante Inferno reading," or instead of "reading" the Italian "legge," you'll find lots to choose from.

Editing back: And here's a non-Youtube recording of a reading of the opening of Virgil's Aeneid. The link on this page is to what looks like an mp3 file. (Incidentally, the reader is Robert Sonkowsky, who was my teacher in medieval Latin a million years ago.)

[Nicholas F.]

Thanks so much, Matt and Maryann. These are great resources!

Nick

p.s. If my students respond well to the whacky assignment I'm concocting, I'll let you know.

[AZ Foreman]

If you aren't requiring that a native speaker do the reading, my blog contains audio recordings of me reading the original texts of some of the poems I translate. I'll message you a selection.

[Seree Zohar]

There's also any number of YouTube downloaders free on the net so you can keep any recordings you like.