Saturday, September 25, 2010

Indian, French poets to translate each other’s works

For poetry lovers in the city, this weekend will be a rare, multi-lingual treat — three poets from Mumbai, coming together with three from France, reading some of each others’ best contemporary verse in English, French and even Marathi. The French poets Caroline Sagot-Duvaroux, Danielle Memoire and Franck Andre Jamme, have been in the city for the past five days, having their work translated into English and Marathi by three Mumbai bards in intense workshops at the Alliance Francaise.

“It’s important to have poets translate other poets, since they can best convey a poetic musicality and cadence,” said poet Sampurna Chattarji, who, along with Mustansir Dalvi, has translated the French verses into English. These were then further rendered into Marathi by poet Hemant Divate.  

The intense translation workshops as well as the public readings on September 25 and 27 are part of ‘Import/Export’, a translation exchange programme organised by the International Centre of Poetry, Marseille (cipM), a French poetry forum. Every year, the programme promotes inter-cultural translation between poets from Marseille and another city, and for this year’s Mumbai-Marseille edition, cipM has collaborated with the Delhi French Embassy and the PEN All-India Centre.

Full report here Hindustan Times

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