Wordquake: Poetry, Place, Memory and Translation.
A poetry reading and discussion with Jean Portante
Teras Conference Room 3, 6pm (ends 7pm) Friday 4th May
In spring 2009 an earthquake devastated central Italy, leaving communities broken
and houses still standing but on the point of collapse. What happens to memory when
places are destroyed? Jean Portante, whose ancestors came from the affected Abruzzo
region, has explored this question in what he describes as ‘earthquaked’ language. Yet
the language of his poems is not his first, Italian, but French, since earlier economic
upheavals had sent his family north to find work in the steel mines of multilingual
Luxembourg. It’s a French, however, that is disrupted by the different breath and
rhythm that come from a hidden memory of Italian.
Dr Zoë Skoulding (School of English) will be engaging Jean Portante in discussion on
these and related issues, as well as reading her translations of his poems. She will also
be presenting the latest issue of Poetry Wales, which includes a special focus on poets
who write in languages other than their first.
Jean Portante’s poetry, novels, stories and plays have been translated and published
worldwide. He has translated numerous poets into French from Spanish, German,
Italian and English. In 2003 his book L’Etrange langue won the Mallarmé award in
France, and in the same year he was given the French Grand Prix d’Automne de la
Société des Gens de Lettres for his life's work. In 2011 he was awarded the Batty
Weber Prize in Luxembourg, in 2012 the Fondane Prize in Paris, and he is a member
of the Académie Mallarmé. His selected poems, La Cendre des mots. is published by
Editions le Castor Astral (2005). Other recent books include Le Travail du poumon
(Editions Le Castor Astral, 2006), En réalité, (Editions Phi, 2008), and La réinvention
de l'oubli (Editions le Castor Astral, June 2010). As a novelist, his works include Mrs
Haroy ou la mémoire de la baleine (Editions Phi, 1993), which explores the
experience of immigration. In Reality, a selection of his poems translated into English
by Zoë Skoulding, will be published by Seren Books in 2013.
This event is free and will be held mainly through the medium of English. All are
welcome.
With thanks to the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture for their support.