In Another Voice: Recent Episodes
In Another Voice
Our very special collaboration with the Stephen Spender Prize! The Stephen Spender Trust runs an annual competition for poetry in translation, doing very important work promoting translation in the UK. Give this episode a listen to hear the winning poem from the 2021 Open category winner, Harry Man, as well as interviews with Harry and the original Norwegian poet, Endre Ruset, and with judge Khairani Barokka, for an insight into what it is like behind the scenes of the biggest poetry translation competition in the UK.
In this very special episode we share the results of our very own translation competition! Thanks to funding from the University of St Andrews School of Modern Languages, we were able to focus on the work of three non-anglophone poets working in the world today, and challenge anyone in the world to translate their poems into English. In this episode, you’ll hear the winning translations, as well as an interview with all three poets about working as a non-anglophone poet, about translation, and about how the pandemic affected their work.
We have so many people to thank for this episode, which this little list can hardly do justice: Poets: Chloé Savoie-Bernard, Xenia Dyakonova, Jairo Martín de la Fuente
Translators: Daniel Clark, Lou Sarabadzic, Huw Davies
Readers: Tahra Sebti, Isabella Redmayne, Zoë Morrison-Griffiths, Claire Borradaile, Melodie Lewis, Axel Kacoutié, Coggin Galbreath, Caitlin Morris, Maddie Lee, Phoebe Mazzier, Rory McGuirk, Charlotte Bae, Reece Anderson, Una McGeough, Don Cellini, Lisa Ireland, Maria Goikhberg
Graphics: Joanna Joannou
Sound Design: Kyra Ho
Original Music: Maxence Fulconis
and everyone who participated. Thank you.
Head to our website at https://www.inanothervoicepodcast.com/episodes/episode-6-translation-competition for more details
In this episode we talk about Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a super famous poet who wrote in Urdu and Punjabi. His poetry was innovative and timeless, and the poem we've focused on is the celebrated ہم دیکھیں گے - Hum Dekhenge - We Shall See. We then talk to the brilliant Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil. _____________ Hum Dhekenge: ہم دیکھیں گے
لازم ہے کہ ہم بھی دیکھیں گے
وہ دن کے جس کا وعدہ ہے
جو لوحِ ازل پہ لکھا ہے
ہم دیکھیں گے
جب ظلم و ستم کے کوہِ گراں
روئی کی طرح اُ ڑ جائیں گے
ہم محکوموں کے پاوٗں تلے
یہ دھرتی دھڑ دھڑ دھڑکے گی
اور اہلِ حکم کے سر اوُپر
جب بجلی کڑ کڑ کڑکے گی
ہم دیکھیں گے
جب ارضِ خدا کے کعبہ سے
سب بت اُٹھوائے جائیں گے
ہم اہلِ صفا مردودِ حرم
مسند پر بٹھلائے جائیں گے
سب تاج اُچھالے جائیں گے
سب تخت گرائے جائیں گے
بس نام رہے گا اللہ کا
جو غائب بھی ہے حاضر بھی
جو منظر بھی ہے ناظر بھی
اُٹھے گا انالحق کا نعرہ
جو میں بھی ہوں اور تم بھی ہو
اور راج کرے گی خلقِ خدا
جو میں بھی ہوں اور تم بھی ہو
ہم دیکھیں گے
لازم ہے کہ ہم بھی دیکھیں گے
ہم دیکھیں گے _____________ We shall see
Certainly we shall see
That promised dawn
Etched on the slate of eternity
When the crushing mountain of tyranny
Will blow away like cotton wool
When underneath the feet of the enslaved
This earth's beating heart
Shall tremble and shake
When the lightning
Will strike down those who lord over us
When from the House of Allah
All false gods shall be cast off
We the faithful, the dispossessed
Will rise to our seat of sovereignty
Each crown knocked off, will go
Each throne brought down, will go
Only Allah's name will reverberate
He who is the Seen and the Unseen
The Spectacle and the Witness
And the cry will rise
'I am the Truth'-
And that is me
And that is you
Now,
The Children of God will rule
And that is me
And that is you _____________
Translator: Zehra Kazmi
Guest: Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil
Sound Design: Kyra Ho
Readers: Shaista Ghazali, Raj Shekar Sen, Sajeea Bhatti, Taniya Hassan, Nia Babaar, Satyabahma Rajoria, Mallika Balakrishnan, and Zehra Kazmi.
Theme Music: Maxence Fulconis
The February episode is dedicated to Sappho, an Ancient Greek poet born (probably) around 620 BCE. We discuss her life, what we don't know of it, her truly fantastic poems, the original meaning of 'lesbian', and the sacrificial nature of translation.
Poem: 'Fragment 31'
Interviewee: Daniel Mendelsohn
Translator: Brooke Braden Poem Readers: Isabella Redmayne, Zehra Kazmi, Henry Waterson Sound Design: Simon Drummond Theme Music: Maxence Fulconis
In this episode we hear the poem we've translated as 'I like that you are aching not for me', or 'Мне нравится, что Вы больны не мной' originally.
We also talk to Professor Alyssa Gillespie about Tsvetaeva's work and Gillespie's translation process.
Credits: Translator - Alisa Matyunina Poem Readers - Alisa Matyunina and Maria Goikhberg Interviewee - Professor Alyssa Gillespie Poem Scorers - Devon Riegel and Nate Collins Theme Music - Maxence Fulconis Sound Design - Kyra Ho Producers - Kyra Ho and Maria Goikhberg
Pascoli - late 19th and early 20th century Italian poet. Big deal in Italy. Not so well known everywhere else.
Poem: 'Bologna, November 2nd' Translators: Marina Della Putta Johnston, Taije Silverman, Emma Bussi. Interviewer: Emma Bussi Guest: Marina Della Putta Johnston Readers: Lucia Guercio, Maddie Lee, Isabel Wideman Poem scorer: Simon Drummond Theme music: Maxence Fulconis Producer: Maria Goikhberg and Kyra Ho Sound design: Kyra Ho
Marie Krysinska was an innovator of French free verse poetry. Join us and our guest, Prof. Seth Whidden, as we read and discuss the poem Nature Morte/Still Life.
For more info, head to our website: inanothervoicepodcast.com Credits:
Producer/Translator: Kyra Ho
Producer/Translation Editor: Maria Goikhberg
Readers: Caitlin Morris, Kiera Obi, Lea Hachem, Mallika Balakrishnan, Timo Marchant
Theme Music: Maxence Fulconis
Poem Scorer: Devon Riegl
Guest: Professor Seth Whidden https://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/people/seth-whidden