Programme
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
IN POETRY AND PRACTICE
November: Poetry translation contest in the Lesbók, the weekly cultural
supplement of the Morgunblaðið newspaper.
Thursday, December 13: Guests arrive. Reception and registration.
Friday, Dec. 14:
University of Iceland Reception Hall.
Conference tackling the subject: Multilingual literature, utopia or reality?
Poets, translators and scholars reflect on the question.
Afterwards a reception by the Mayor of Reykjavík in Höfði House.
Saturday, Dec. 15:
Reykjavik City Library. Workshops dedicated to poetry translation and the
preparation of next day's readings and performances.
In the morning the workshops have definite subjects:
Form and poetry translation
Multilinguality and poetry translation
Minority languages and poetry translation
International marketing of poetry
Problems and power of poetry on the world wide web
New forms, slams and visual poetry
The "exotic" world of the Orient
After lunch, a walk to the National Library in Reykjavik to see the exhibition
Viele Kulturen—Eine Sprache.
In the afternoon we will work with languages specifically (and or set up
workshops with subjects arising on the spot)
Translation into and from English
Translation into and from German
Translation into and from Spanish
Translation into and from French
Translation into and from Scandinavian languages
Translation into and from Icelandic
Poems and people will be taken on a trip to various places in the city for
filming and recording.
Sunday December 16: Short trip to the "Blue Lagoon", the hot springs in
Krísuvík and Kleifarvatn-lake.
After six p.m. a poetry festival with readings, music and food.
Monday, Dec. 17:
Departure.
Foreign guests who have already confirmed their participation
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Andreas F. Kelletat, University of Mainz. Professor Kelletat
has written extensively on poetry and translation. He is a member of the
Molsak-group of literary translators and scholars.
Mustafa Al-Slaiman, translator and interpreter, University of Mainz. Mr AlSlaiman has translated numerous German poets into Arabic and published
articles on arabic migrant authors in Germany. Al-Slaiman is a member of the
Molsak-group and has edited two multilingual issues of the Molsak journal.
Ahmed Farouk, author and translator. Mr Farouk has published short stories
and essays in Arabic and written plays in German. Translations include works
by Handke and Kafka. Currently working on a translation of Hundejahre by
Günter Grass. Farouk is a member of the Molsak-group and has been coeditor of two issues.
Manfred Peter Hein, poet, translator, scholar. Mr Hein has published several
volumes of poetry, an autobiographical novel in addition to scholarly works
and articles. He has also translated Finnish poetry and prose in volumes in
addition to editing the praised Auf der Karte Europas ein Fleck, a collection of
poetry in translation of the avant-garde in Eastern Europe from 1910-1930,
perhaps proof positive that poetry can only be lost without translation! Hein
was the first holder of the Huchel prize for poetry (1984).
Dr John Corbett is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Dept of English
Language at the University of Glasgow. He has taught in Scotland, Italy
and Russia. He has published on literary linguistics and translation
studies in relation to Scottish literature, his most recent book being
'Written in the Language of the Scottish Nation' (1999). He is currently
working on a book on intercultural language education.
Dr. Tom Cheesman, lecturer at the University of Swansea. He has published
books on ballads and is currently working on transnational literature in the UK
and Germany. He has published articles on lesser spoken languages in
Europe and also poetry translations for Molsak among others. Current
interests: 'world' literature, diaspora/minority languages, writers in exile,
politics of translation.
Dr. Joachim Sartorius, poet and translator, formerly general secretary of the
Goethe Institut in Germany. Currently director of the Berlin Arts Festival. Dr.
Sartorius has published numerous volumes of poetry and also edited the
anthologies Atlas der modernen Poesie and Minima Poetica multilingual
collections of world poetry. He is one of the editors of Sprache im technischen
Zeitalter.
Karin Graf, literary agent and translator. Ms Graf has translated authors like
Wallace Stevens, V.S. Naipaul, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf and Salman
Rushdie. She founded the first literary agency in Germany for German
speaking authors, Graf & Graf.
Dr. Christopher Whyte, lecturer University of Glasgow. Dr. Whyte is the author
of a prize-winning collection of Gaelic poems Uirsgeul/ Myth (Glasgow 1991),
edited the anthology An Aghaidh na Sìorraidheachd: Ochdnar Bhàrd Gàidhlig
/ In the Face of Eternity: Eight Gaelic Poets (Edinburgh 1991) and has
published four novels in English: Euphemia MacFarrigle and the Laughing
Virgin (London 1995), The Warlock of Strathearn (London 1997), The Gay
Decameron (London 1998) and The Cloud Machinery (London 2000). He is
an enthusiastic translator of mainly modern poetry, from a variety of European
languages, into both Gaelic and English.
Birgit Veit, translator. Ms Veit is an expert on Joseph Brodsky, but has also
translated poets like Marina Zwetajewa, Michail Jerjomin, Sergej Wolf, Jelena
Schwarz, Jewgeni Mjakischew, Lew Rubinstein, Dmitri Netschajenko, Albert
Lejn, Wjatscheslaw Kuprijanow, Andrej Wosnessenskij, Jewgeni
Jewtuschenko, Olga Martynova, Oleg Jurjew.
Christa Schuenke, translator. Ms Schuenke is best known for her translations
of Shakespeare's sonnets but has also translated poets like John Donne,
John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley along with a number of prose authors.
She has been awarded the Wielandspreis among other prizes.
Kito Lorenc, a poet in the west-slavic language Sorbic. Sorbic is a minority
language in Eastern Germany. Mr Lorenc is a poet and translator in his native
Sorbic and German and he has also translated/rewritten poetry into German
from Icelandic.
Daniel Weissbort directed the MFA Program inTranslation at the University of
Iowa for many years. He is now back in the UK where he is a Research
Fellow in the English Department of King's College London. Currently he is
working, with Ástraður Eysteinsson on a Historical Reader in Translation
Studies and on a book on Ted Hughes and Translation, both for OUP. Anvil
Press will shortly publish his translational memoir of the late Joseph Brodsky,
"From Russian with Love" and "Letters to Ted", a collection of poems
addressed to the late Poet Laureate, with whom (in 1965) Weissbort founded
the magazine "Modern Poetry in Translation", which he is still editing.
Prof. Dr Gert Kreutzer studied Nordic philology, German and Latin. Since
1990 director of the Institute for Nordic Philology at the University of Cologne.
He has published books and articles on Nordic literature and culture, both
ancient and new and also many translations of Icelandic poetry and prose. He
is editor of the series "Isländische Literatur der Moderne" at Kleinheinrich
Press, also editor of the journal ISLAND and co-editor of the journal
Skandinavistik. He is Knight of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon.
Ástráður Eysteinsson is professor of comparative literature at the University of
Iceland and a translator. He has published numerous articles on translation in
addition to the book Tvímæli. Þýðingar og bókmenntir (1996). He is also a
major Kafka translator and in cooperation with Eysteinn Þorvaldsson he has
translated many of Kafka's most important works into Icelandic.
Þorsteinn Gylfason is professor of philosphy at the University of Iceland and
translator. He has published articles and books on the philosophy of language
in addition to poetry translations in journals and books. He is the founder and
was the editor of the series Lærdómslistarit of the society Hið íslenska
Bókmenntafélag, a series which includes most of the important translations of
classical philosophical works into Icelandic.