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.

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.

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.

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.