DUAL Poetry Podcast

Translated by Atef Alshaer with Paul Batchelor.

This October the PTC published 'Embrace' a dual-language Arabic and English collection of poems by Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, who has been called one of the foremost Arabic-language poets of his generation. This collection includes many new poems and was translated by Atef Alshaer with UK poet Paul Batchelor.

Listen to three poems from the collection in this podcast.

To get a copy of the book head to the PTC online shop: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/embrace

Direct download: Najwan_Podcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:26pm UTC

Listen to two poems from the Poetry Translation Centre Archive: 'Taste' by Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf translated by Said Jama Hussein with poet Clare Pollard and 'He Tells Tales of Meroe' by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, translated by Atef Alshaer and Rashid El Sheikh with poet Sarah Maguire, selected for Black History Month.

DEALS

Our Black History Month bundle features So At One With You, an anthology of modern poetry in Somali and He Tells Tales of Meroe: Poems for the Petrie Museum by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi from Sudan.

Buy it here: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/black-history-month-bundle

ALSO use the code NAJWAN 2020 to get access to our Online Najwan Darwish ‘Embrace’ Launch event, a copy of the book plus postage and packaging all for £7: http://embrace-launch.eventbrite.com/

Direct download: BHM_2020_Podcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:22pm UTC

This week as part of the PTC’s Resistance Poets series we bring you two poems by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, a Sudanese poet who writes in Arabic.

'Poem of the Nile' was published in The London Review of Books one of the rare occasions the LRB has published poetry translated from Arabic and the first time they featured the work of an African poet.

'They Think I Am a King: Yes, I Am the King' is from a book of poems by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi inspired by the Petrie Museum’s collection of material from Meroe in Sudan. which was nominated for a Ted Hughes Award.

The PTC Resistance Poets season looks at poets as political activists. This selection brings together four poets who are unafraid to engage with the urgent political issues of our day, sometimes explicitly addressing inequity and tragedy were they find it, yet often simply holding a space for reflection and joy amidst dark times and chaos. 

Get the Resistance Poets Book Bundle here: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/resistance-poets

Direct download: Resistance_Poets_Two_Poems_from_Saddiq.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:56pm UTC

Currently, the PTC is looking at Resistance Poets whose work is unafraid to tackle political issues. This week we are bringing you two pomes by Afghan poet Reza Mohammadi who writes in Dari. These were translated for the PTC in 2012 by Hamid Kabir and the Northern Irish poet, novelist and screenwriter Nick Laird.

You can purchase the PTCs Reza Mohammadi’s dual-language Chapbook, containing 10 of his poems in the original Dari alongside the English translations as part of our Resistance Poets book deal.

The book bundle includes 4 books from poets hailing from Eritrea, Brazil, Sudan and Afghanistan reflecting on issues important to them and their culture, but echoing wider global concerns.

Order now from poetrytranslation.org/shop

Direct download: Reza_Two_poems.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:40pm UTC

Translator André Naffis-Sahely worked with Ribka Sibhatu for 10 years leading up to the publication of their PTC World Poet series book Aulò! Aulò! Aulò!

While Ribka translates her own poems from Tigrinya and Amharic into Italian, Andre translates her poems from Italian into English and works tirelessly promoting her work in the anglophone world.

In addition to her work as a lyric poet and human rights activist, Sibhatu has devoted a considerable amount of her creative energies to assembling and recording of Eritrea’s folkloric cannon which is then handed down through the ages in the form of Aulòs.

This podcast brings you Ribka reading her Italian translation of ‘To the Sycamore’ and the fable ‘How African spirits Were Born’ in Tigrinya with André Naffis-Sahely reading his English transitions.

This month the PTC is celebrating resistance poets looking at poets as activists and poetry a space for resistance Our resistance poets book bundle focuses on four writers including Ribka who are unafraid to engage with the urgent political issues of our day, sometimes explicitly addressing inequity and tragedy were they find it, yet often simply holding a space for reflection and joy amidst dark times and chaos.

To order this book bundle go to our online shop.

Direct download: ribka_pocast_2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:44pm UTC

The PTC has just published Aulò! Aulò! Aulò! a collection of poems and fables by Ribka Sibhatu with translations by André Naffis-Sahely as part of our World Poet Series.

Ribka writes in Tigrinya and Amharic, two languages native to Eritrea as well as Italian and French. The poet calls her five languages her stepdaughters. She translates her own work into Italian and Andre, in turn, translates the Italian and English.

The collaboration has been going for a decade since André began translating her work in 2010. At that time Sarah Maguire, founder of the PTC, invited him to lead a series of workshops on Sibhatu’s poetry.

Ribka’s work includes short lyric poems and her more recent longer political works. Alongside her poetry Ribka has worked to collect and record the folkloric canon of the horn of Africa, a body of oral literature that was handed down for generations These stories are known as Aulòs, literally meaning:

Please give me permission, I have something to say in rhyme!

So today we will be playing you one poem and one fable so you can get a sense of the breadth of her work, this means it is a long 20-minute podcast. Enjoy.

Direct download: Ribka_Podcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:51pm UTC

This week the podcast features two poems by Cuban poet Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, both from her 2013 collection Sucking The Stone. The first of these, The Law of Dynamics, sees the poet explaining to Galileo why he can't to the Macarena. (Why? Because it is 'a dance for Satyrs and other sex-mad creatures.') while the second poem, one of two in the collection to share the volumes name, Sucking The Stone, references Lapis Lazuli the semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense blue colour.

You can find more poems from Sucking The Stone on the PTC's free online audio archive of Legana's poems: https://soundcloud.com/alittlebodyaremanyparts.

Also, the podcast announces details of our upcoming Online Tour with Eritrean poet and refugee-rights activist Ribka Sibhata. Find out more here: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/events/series/ribka-sibhatu-tour

 

 

Direct download: legna_law_and_stone.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:30pm UTC

This week we have two poems by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias 'Farmer's Treasure' and 'An accumulation of dry matter that is slow after flowering but intensifies during the lactic phase' both from her collection Gimmer Spray.

The exceptional skill and formal dexterity that marks Rodríguez Iglesias’s work in Spanish has been expertly brought to life in English by Abigail Parry, an award-winning poet whose debut collection Jinx was published by Bloodaxe in 2018, working in collaboration with bridge-translator and writer Serafina Vick.

You can find our free online active of Legna's poems here: https://soundcloud.com/alittlebodyaremanyparts

A little body are many parts by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias and the hammer and other poems by Adelaide Ivanova have both shortlisted for the first-ever Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Get them both for just £15  here: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/derek-walcott-poetry-prize-shortlist-bundle

Find our more about our online Ribka Sibhatu Tour mentioned in the podcast here: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/events/series/ribka-sibhatu-tour

 

 

 

Direct download: LEGNA_JUNE_21.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:45pm UTC

Contemporary Cuban poetry is as diverse and indefinable as contemporary poetry in any other country, but Legna does belong to a particular generation of poets. Generación O, formed mainly of poets born after 1975, is founded on the shared experience of growing up after the fall of the Soviet Union, when Cuba was launched into extreme deprivation. This week's two poems highlight Legna's use of humour.

The DUAL POETRY PODCAST is focusing on her work for the next few weeks as we release a free online audio archive of poems from her PTC collection 'A little body are many parts' you can explore the archive here: https://soundcloud.com/alittlebodyaremanyparts

'A little body are many parts' has been shortlisted for the first-ever Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Get our Derek Walcott Poetry Prize Shortlist Bundle for just £15.

Direct download: The_Good_Life_and_Kabuki_Theatre.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:59am UTC

The Cuban poet Legna Rodríguez Iglesias was born in Camagüey in central Cuba in 1984 and currently lives in Miami, Florida. As well as poetry she has written theatre, short stories, children’s books and a novel. Her poetry has been translated into Portuguese, German, Italian and English.

The DUAL POETRY PODCAST is focusing on her work for the next few weeks as we release a free online audio archive of poems from her PTC collection 'A little body are many parts'.

This week we are bringing you two poems 'The Day I' and 'Red Room' both originally published in her 2012 Spanish language collection The Perfect Moment.

'A little body are many parts' an overview of poems from Legna Rodríguez Iglesias' career translated by Serafina Vick and Abigale Parry has been shortlisted for the first-ever Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry.

Get our Derek Walcott Poetry Prize Shortlist Bundle for just £15: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/derek-walcott-poetry-prize-shortlist-bundle

Direct download: legan_The_day_I_and_red_room.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:44am UTC

The DUAL POETRY PODCAST continues with its focus on the Cuban writer Legna Rodríguez Iglesias who burst onto the Cuban literary scene with all the ferocity of a stampeding elephant aged 19.

This week we are bringing you two poems, Pure Jazz and Maggot People, that originated in her 2017 title Miami Century Fox, a collection of 51 Petrarchan sonnets.

Last year in partnership with Bloodaxe Books the PTC co-published 'A little body are many parts' an overview of poems from Legna Rodríguez Iglesias 8 Spanish language collections with translations by Serafine Vick and Abigale Parry and this year it was shortlisted for the first ever Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. 

Get our Derek Walcott Poetry Prize Shortlist Bundle including both Legna's collection and the second shortlisted book published by the PTC 'the hammer and other poems' by Award-winning poet Adelaide Ivánova’s fro just £15.

Direct download: legna_maggt_people_pure_jazz.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:06pm UTC

This week's podcast brings you 'I must ask you' & 'Mad Dog Pack' both translated by Abigail Parry and Serafina Vick for Legna Rodríguez Iglesias' PTC publication 'A little body are many parts' which brings together poems from seven different collections of Legna's poetry.

The collection has been shortlisted for the first annual Derek Walcott Prize for a full-length book of poems published in 2019 by a living poet who is not a US citizen.

You can find out more about the translation process on the PTC blog, were one of the translators Serafina Vick has written a piece called 'Mistrustful Trust - Musings on Translating Legna Rodriguez Iglesias'. Find it here: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/articles/mistrustful-trust-musings-on-translating-legna-rodriguez-iglesias

The Dual Poetry Podcast is (normally) one poem in two languages from the PTC. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: MAd_Dog_Pack_I_must_ask_you.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:34pm UTC

This week the Dual Poetry Podcast is breaking its form to bring you two poems rather than one. 'Thirty heads a day' & 'Graduate' were both translated by Abigail Parry and Serafina Vick for the PTC publication 'A little body are many parts' which brings together poems from seven different collections of Legna's poetry.

The collection has been shortlisted for the first annual Derek Walcott Prize for a full-length book of poems published in 2019 by a living poet who is not a US citizen.

You can find out more about the translation process on the PTC blog, were one of the translators Serafina Vick has written a piece called 'Mistrustful Trust - Musings on Translating Legna Rodriguez Iglesias'. Find it here.

The Dual Poetry Podcast is (normally) one poem in two languages from the PTC. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: Legna_Two_Poems_May_2020.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:39pm UTC

This week's poem is by Shakila Azizzada from Afghanistan. The poem is read first in English translation by Mimi Khalvati and then in Dari by Shakila herself. 

Shakila has spent many years in the Netherlands and her poetry reflects both her Afghan heritage and her European influences. She also writes in Dutch and translates her own poetry both ways.  She is a very musical poet,  tender and intimate, but also uncompromising in her political poems, and sometimes surreal – a poet of range and courage.  Many of the poems, or parts of them, were relatively straightforward to translate and, perhaps because of the European influence, seemed to slip happily into English.  Shakila’s voice is not as adorned as some poetry in Farsi that I have read, and is idiomatic and sometimes humorous or satiric.  I speak colloquial Farsi and this of course was a great help as, with Zuzanna’s help, I could understand most of the original.  Zuzanna also recorded a tape for me of the poems we were working on and this, more than anything else, helped me to try and find equivalent idioms while replicating the musical phrases.

If you would like to take part in the PTC workshop survey mentioned in the podcast introduction, please follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVydXD-N6nP-hSiZ7QYKAjWrJqCukmeQQPxcHWk_HPwZ8bDA/viewform

The Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: A_feather_2020.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:33pm UTC

This week’s poem is by Partaw Naderi from Afghanistan. The poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Dari by Partaw Naderi.

Partaw Naderi studied science at Kabul University and was imprisoned in the notorious Pul-e-Charki prison by the Soviet-backed regime for three years in the 1970s shortly after he’d begun to write poetry.

He is now widely regarded as one of the leading modernist poets in Afghanistan, the lyrical intensity of his work coupled with his bold use of free verse distinguishing him as a highly original and important poet.

The Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: PTC_Partaw_My_Voice_COVID_INTRO.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:05am UTC

This week’s poem is by Reza Mohammadi from Afghanistan. The poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Dari by Reza.

The prize-winning poet, Reza Mohammadi - widely regarded as one of the most exciting young poets writing in Persian today - was born in Kandahar in 1979. He studied Islamic Law and then Philosophy in Iran before obtaining an MA in Globalisation from London Metropolitan University.

You have been listening to the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre.

If you enjoy our podcasts and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us.

Direct download: Spring_Covid.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:45pm UTC

This is one of two prayer-poems from Diana's PTC Chapbook 'Begining to speak'

Diana Anphimiadi quickly distinguished herself as an unusually imaginative, original talent in the Georgian poetry scene. Her work refuses the formulaic or expected response, wrong-footing readers with its wit and delicacy. In her acclaimed 2013 collection, Personal Cuisine, for instance she explores the traumatic experiences of recent years, yet the narrative unfolds as a patchwork of recipes, poems and stories.

You have been listening to the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre.

If you enjoy our podcasts and would like to support the work of the Poetry Translation Centre then please visit poetrytranslation.org/support-us.

Direct download: DIANA_COVID.mp3
Category:poetry -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

Today's poem is 'Aural ' by David Huerta from Mexico.  The poem is read first in English translation by Jamie McKendrick and then in Spanish by the original poet.

Also, this week we have details of the PTC's first-ever online workshop season looking at the work of Yoruba Poet & political activist Ọláńrewajú Adépọ̀jù. 

Sign up for these workshops here: https://buff.ly/3c28IY8

 

Direct download: AURAL_COVID.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:52am UTC

This week's poem is 'Empty Town' by the Chinese poet Yu Yoyo. In her afterword to Yu Yoyo's collection My Tenantless Body the poet Rebecca Tamás notes that Yoyo's concerns are often the global, concerns of those whose future is at stake in an uncertain world.

All this week the poet and artist Ella Frears is joining our PTC YouTube Takeover with a series of videos that mix the language of the YouTube Makeup Tutorial with seen short reflections on Yu Yoyo's book My Tenantless Body. Check them out here.

Get a copy of this book of Yu Yoyo's book My Tenantless Body from the PTC website.

This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: Empty_Town_Covid_Intro_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:07pm UTC

Today’s poem is Fertile Truce the title poem from Legna Rodríguez Iglesias’ 2012 collection. It was translated for the PTC in 2019 by the award-winning poet Abigail Parry and the Havana based writer Serafina Vick.

The poem refers to the national flower of Cuba, the Mariposa or white ginger lily. Also in this poem, you will hear the use of the English term 'grandfather' in place of the Spanish 'Abuelo' 
This plays on the idea of foreign intrusion and interference:
a vexed issue for Cuba’s revolutionary generation.

You can buy our collection of Legna Rodríguez Iglesias' work from our online store: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/a-little-body-are-many-parts

The Dual Poetry Podcast is one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

 

Direct download: Fertile_Truce_final.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

here is a constant struggle in Turkey between being oneself and having to fit into a mould – a mould shaped by nationalistic values and imposed by a majority – which makes daily life extremely difficult for people who come from one of the many minority communities. This state of struggle and in-betweenness is described in the poem ‘Uniform’ – from school days dressed in ‘mouse grey’ skirts all the way to adulthood.

The human suffering, the yearning for love and hope, portrayed in Karakaşlı’s poems is the daily reality for people in many parts of the world. Beyond specific historical and cultural contexts, Karin Karakaşlı’s poetry is a beautiful expression of the human soul: with all its darkness and light, including all the many shades of emotions and thoughts in between, seeking to build a common language through poetry.

Canan Marasligil, from her introduction to Karin's Chapbook History-Geography

The Dual Poetry Podcast is one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: uniform02.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

This week’s poem is 'Orphan' by Asha Lul Mohamad Yusuf from Somalia/Somaliland. The poem is read first in English translation by Clare Pollard and then in Somali by Asha.

Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf is a powerful woman poet in a literary tradition still largely dominated by men. She is a master of the major Somali poetic forms, including the prestigious gabay which presents compelling arguments with mesmerising feats of alliteration.

The Dual Poetry Podcast is one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: PTC_Caasha_Orphan_4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:15am UTC

Translated by Nukhbah Langah and Lavinia Greenlaw.

This week’s poem is by Noshi Gillani from Pakistan. The poem is read first in English translation by Lavinia Greenlaw and then in Urdu by novelist Kamila Shamsie.

The candour and frankness of Gillani's highly-charged poems is unusual for a woman writing in Urdu and she has gained a committed international audience, performing regularly at large poetry gatherings in Pakistan, Australia, Canada and the US. Unknown outside the Pakistani community, the translations here mark her introduction to an English-speaking audience.

The Dual Poetry Podcast is one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: PP_Noshi_To_Catch_Butterflies_4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:59am UTC

Bejan Matur is the most illustrious poet among a bold new women’s poetry emerging from the Middle East. Her poetry engages directly and concretely with the struggles of her people, and yet there is also a mysticism in her writing, a closeness to nature, an embracing of mythology – a dialogue with God.

This poem and many others that appear in Bejan's PTC World Poets Series book 'Akin to Stone' with translated by TS Elliot Award-winning poet Jen Hadfield and bridge translator Canan Marasligil.

This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: DPP_Bejan_Matur_growing_up_in_two_dreams.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

This week’s poem is by Abdellatif Laabi from Morocco. The poem is read first in English translation by Andre Naffis-Sahely and then in French by Abdellatif.

The prize-winning Moroccan poet, Abdellatif Laâbi, is widely acknowledged as being one of the most important poets writing today. Laâbi was born in Fez in 1942. He began writing in the mid-1960s, publishing his first novel in 1969. In 1966 he founded the renowned literary magazine Souffles, a journal of literature and politics that was to earn its editor an eight-year prison sentence (from 1972 to 1981) under the authoritarian reign of Hassan II. Once released from jail, Laâbi left Morocco in 1985 and has lived in Paris ever since.

This is part of our rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: PTC_Im_a_Child_of_this_Century__3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

Salome Benidze is a poet, writer, blogger and translator. Her poetry has received many prestigious awards and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Born in 1986 in Kutaisi, Salome grew up during the turbulent decade of the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed and many new countries emerged from its ruins. In Georgia these years were marked by civil war, a downturn in the economy, widespread corruption and rampant crime. As a consequence, a great number of people were forced to emigrate in order to earn their living. The majority of these migrants were women, many of whom had to leave their young children with relatives and live in exile from their homeland, often working abroad for decades in order to provide for their families.

This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: Salome_Benidze_The_Story_of_Flying_2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

This week’s poem is by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi from Sudan. The poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Arabic by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi.

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is one of the leading African poets writing in Arabic today. He has gained a wide audience in his native Sudan for his imaginative approach to poetry and for the delicacy and emotional frankness of his lyrics. This poem is included in a chapbook of poems by Al-Saddiq, in our shop you can also find his first English collection entitled 'A Monkey At The Window' published 2016 by PTC and Bloodaxe Books.

This is part of our rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: PTC_Saddiq_Small_Fox_4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

This week's poem is by Bejan Matur. The poem is read first in English translation by Jen Hadfield and then in Turkish by Bejan herself.

Bejan Matur is the most illustrious poet among a bold women’s poetry emerging from the Middle East. Her poetry engages directly and concretely with the struggles of her Kurdish people, and yet there is also a mysticism in her writing, a closeness to nature, an embracing of mythology – a dialogue with God.

This poem and many others that appear in her PTC chapbook 'If This is a Lamnet' were translated by TS Elliot Award-winning poet Jen Hadfield and bridge translator Canan Marasligil.

Direct download: REVISED_BEJAN_MATUR_EVERY_WOMAN_KNOWS_HER_OWN_TREE_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

This week's poem is by David Huerta from Mexico. The poem is read first in English translation by Jamie McKendrick and then in Spanish by David himself.

David Huerta's poems frequently turn on images that are experiences in themselves. In an eerie piece, he describes a poem by Gottfried Benn:

A flower fell apart in the middle of an autopsy
and the doctor who'd cut open the corpse
saw how those petals landed among the inner organs.

This may only be a poem, but it takes hold of the speaker, removing him from his daily obligations. It is ‘something I must / come to terms with it won't be easy but I have to do it'.

If ‘Poem by Gottfried Benn' recalls the violence of ‘Nine Years Later', it also revisits the earlier poem's cathartic purpose. Huerta turns away from questionable generalizations about history to concentrate on the experience of the individual. But he doesn't stop there; he casts a steady gaze back on the self that is the repository of that experience. This is not confessional poetry and he pokes fun at the autobiographical figure with his ‘imperious solipsistic moustache, / the hirsute landscape of minor characters'.

Direct download: PP_David_Poem_by_Gottfried_Benn_3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

This week’s poem is 'With a Red Flower' by Azita Ghahreman from Iran. The poem is read first in English translation by the poet Maura Dooley and then in Farsi by Azita. 

Her published book 'Negative of a Group Photograph' brings together three decades of poems by the leading poet Azita Ghahreman, it was also translated by Dooley and Elhum Shakerifar.

find the book in our shop: https://www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/negative-of-a-group-photograph

This is part of our rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: PP_Azita_With_a_Red_Flower_4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00am UTC

This week’s poem is by Corsino Fortes from Cape Verde. The poem is read first in English translation by Sean O'Brien and then in Portuguese by Corsino Fortes. 

This is part of our new rebranded weekly release: the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast on iTunes or wherever you download.

Direct download: PTC_Corsino_Postcards_from_the_High_Seas_4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:27pm UTC