[Adam Elgar]

Calling all translators!

International Translation Day is coming around again. The feast of Saint Jerome, our patron, is on September 30th, and we aim to celebrate the occasion with a guess-the-translator event. Last year we emulated the pains of martyrdom by requiring participants to work on a language outside their normal scope. That particular torment can feature again this year too, if wished – why not, if it’s good for our souls? –
But by popular consent the specific theme for 2010 is the translation of poems by women.
And since, as an ancient Church Father, Jerome was a hideous misogynist, what better way to take revenge than by celebrating the achievements of women as poets?

This is how it will work:

Any time during the first four weeks of September, PM or email me as many translations as you like of work originally by women, which I will post on ITD itself, September 30th. Please include the original text and a prose crib – and if the original is in a language with a non-Roman script, a transliteration would be helpful too.

First off, I post only the translation with no names of original poet or translator, or indication of original language. We comment on the quality and interest of the poetry and speculate for a day or two.

Then I post the original and crib, but withhold the translator’s name a bit longer. Cue expressions of amazement, linguistic quibbles, further speculation....

Then there’s a vote for best 3, and finally the translators are revealed to universal astonishment and admiration.

There is no screening process and no external judging. All comers are welcome.

My email address is aethelgar (at) gmail.com – or PM if you prefer.

We had a lot of fun last year. The more entries the merrier.
I hope that members who specialise in earlier centuries will not be disadvantaged by this year’s theme, and will be able to move into different territory, or unearth some little known women writers from the far past.

[AZ Foreman]

What about poems where the gender of the author is unknown but commonly presumed by scholars to be female?

[Adam Elgar]

I think we can give them the benefit of the (female) doubt - attrib. fem. is fine!

[Seree Zohar]

universal indeed!

If I find anyfink in Strine from a Crocodoil Dundette, I'll do that!

[Adam Elgar]

good on yer Seree - poetry's strictly for Sheilas anyway...

[Petra Norr]

What about a male poet with long hair? Will that suffice?
I love the idea of only translating poems by women, but as far as I can make out, there are virtually no female formal poets in Europe. Now that's a slight exaggeration, but not really when you consider that for every female formal poet you find, there are about 500 male ones.
But shed the formal attire, of course, and there's women as far as the eye can see. Free verse abounds with females. Now if only I liked translating free verse... (-:
--
PS: If anyone wants to discuss (after the event, I guess) what it's like to hunt for females in the world of formal poetry, and -- *gulp* -- the character and content of the poetry you find, I'll be happy to oblige.

[Adam Elgar]

Great info, Julie - I shall copy it over to Translation too.

[Marion Shore]

Petra, if you want to move a little further out of your comfort zone, go back to the past. Plenty of Dead White Female poets who wrote in form.