The Stephen Spender Prize 2015 in Association With

The Stephen Spender Prize 2015 in association with for poetry in translation The Stephen Spender Prize 2015 for poetry in translation in association with Joint winners of the Winners of the Commended 14-and-under category Open category 14-and-under commended No first prize is awarded in the Thomas Delgado-Little Open category ‘The Victims Won’t Speak’ this year by Carmen Conde (Spanish) Anissa Felah ‘The Cicada and the Ant’ by Jean de la Fontaine (French) Victoria Fletcher ‘The Song about the End of the World’ by Czesław Miłosz (Polish) Viktoria Mileva Euan Ong ‘Farewell’ ‘In Circulation’ Grace Guthrie by Nikola Vaptsarov by Alain Bosquet ‘Birthday’ by Sulpicia (Latin) (Bulgarian) (French) 18-and-under commended Winners of the Sarah Hudis ‘Writing in the Sand’ 18-and-under category by Iwan Llwyd (Welsh) Anna Leader ‘Hamburg–Berlin’ by Jan Wagner (German) Euan McGinty ‘Strong in the Rain’ by Miyazawa Kenji (Japanese) Alexandra Seizani-Dimitriadi ‘The Monogram’ by Odysseus Elytis (Greek) Joint first Joint first Second Chloe Taylor Beatrix Crinnion Anna Leader Francisca Gale ‘Despair Is Seated on a Bench’ ‘Allegro’ ‘Weeds’ ‘Long-Distance by Jacques Prévert (French) by Tomas Tranströmer by Jan Wagner Conversation’ (Swedish) (German) by Anestis Evangelou Open commended (Greek) Ken Cockburn ‘Search’ by Christine Marendon (German) Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather ‘Title Colon Dictation’ by Michael Schönen (German) Anne Stokes ‘Peonies at Pentecost’ by Monika Rinck (German) Michael Swan Third Third ‘A Dream about My Mother’ by Henrik Nordbrandt (Danish) Maud Mullan Martin Bennett ‘A Lament at the Door’ ‘Acherontia Atropos’ by Callimachus by Guido Gozzano (Ancient Greek) (Italian) 3 ollectors of statistics will be glad to know that in 2015 There is room in this booklet to print only the winning Cwe received more entries than ever before but from a entries, but you can read the commended entries and mere 46 languages, well short of the 53 recorded in 2013. download previous booklets by visiting stephen-spender. Although there were some languages new to the competition org. Also on the website are some examples of activities – including Friulian (sometimes known as eastern Ladin), involving poetry translation, not all from taught languages; Frisian and Maltese – French dominated as usual, and German if you are unfamiliar with isiNdebele praise poetry, have a continued to hold its own against Spanish and Italian. There look. We will continue to build up this resource and I am was a small surge in Greek and Ukrainian entries; one excited to be working on this with a poet-in-residence whose imagines translators from those languages turning to poetry young EAL (English as an Additional Language) pupils took to escape the horrors carried by the newspapers. to poetry translation so enthusiastically that one has been The Stephen Spender Trust did its bit to cheer people up in voted joint winner of the 14-and-under category. early March, celebrating slightly tardily the tenth anniversary As well as recording the Trust’s heartfelt gratitude to of the prize in the splendour of the Royal Institution, the prize’s sponsors, the Old Possum’s Practical Trust and an evening made possible by the generosity of the Old the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation, to the Possum’s Practical Trust. The programme featured 26 winning Guardian, and to Josephine Balmer, Katie Gramich, WN translations of poems from Anglo-Saxon, Bengali, Finnish, Herbert and Stephen Romer, this year’s wonderfully wise French, Ancient Greek, Irish, Italian, German, Japanese, and conscientious judges, I’m delighted to announce that Latin, Old English, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Welsh, 2016 will be a landmark year. After much debate and with introduced by Seamus Heaney’s beautiful ‘From the Republic some trepidation, we have decided to take the step of making of Conscience’ in recognition of his support of the Trust the prize worldwide. We have long been aware of the irony until his death in 2013, and rounded off by Stephen Spender’s of inviting translations from any language but restricting joyful ‘Dolphins’. Noma Dumezweni, Patricia Hodge and entry to British and Irish translators. From 2016 everyone Michael Pennington, directed by Joe Harmsworth, brought will be eligble to enter. a new depth of meaning to the poems, providing a master class in reading poetry aloud. If you weren’t able to be there, Robina Pelham Burn do listen to the readings on the Trust’s website. Director of the Stephen Spender Trust Judges’ comments If there was ever of Rabia Balkhi’, Malene Engelund’s Viktoria Mileva, with the latter just any doubt that poetry delicate rendering of second World War nudging ahead for the prize which matters then the entries Danish poet Morten Nielsen, Cristina she shared with Euan Ong’s inventive to the 2105 Stephen Viti’s lyrical account of oppression version of French poet Alain Bosquet. Spender Prize have in communist Albania from Gëzim That said, there were some excellent dispelled it. As in pre- Hajdari, and Pavlo Shopin’s timely ‘You Greek and Latin entries from unusual vious years, many entrants submitted and I Are Refugees’ from Ukrainian poets such as Sulpicia, amusingly translations of poems that held a deep poet Serhiy Zhadan. reimagined by Grace Guthrie. And resonance for them. Yet perhaps more As in previous years, our Open prize- in the 18-and-under category, Maud noticeable, even among our younger winners introduced us to wonderful Mullan’s drawing out of an epigram by entrants, were the translations that new poetry – the true gift of transla- Callimachus just edged her two versions showed us how poetry can respond tion – from Francisca Gale’s compact of Horace. But, again, our joint first to worldwide conflict and tragedy, if but perfectly-formed ‘Long-Distance prize winners, Beatrix Crinnion and the most moving – and successful – of Conversation’ by Greek poet Anestis Anna Leader, translated contemporary these combined the political with the Evangelou to Martin Bennett’s extract languages, Tomas Transtrőmer’s Swedish personal. Thirteen-year-old Thomas from Guido Gozzano’s overlooked and Jan Wagner’s German respectively. Delgado-Little, for example, com- fragmentary Italian epic. Meanwhile, our list of commendations mended for his translation of Carmen This trend for contemporary poetry included Japanese, Greek and Welsh, all Conde’s Spanish Civil War poem ‘The was particularly noticeable in our two beautifully translated by Euan McGinty, Victims Won’t Speak’, recounted how younger categories where classical Alexandra Seizani-Dimitriadi and Sarah his own great-grandfather had died works have long been dominant. In Hudis. A personal favourite which did for the Republican cause. In the Open the 14-and-under category, we were not quite make the final cut was Helen category, I was also moved by Clare impressed by two young Bulgarian Chen’s ‘Charon’ from Chinese poet Bei Pollard’s heart-stopping ‘The Last Poem translators, Teodor Egriderliev and Xiao Huang, bringing us in to the 21st 4 Judges’ comments century by contemplating the powers I also learned a great deal from works by contemporary poets I had of Google. the translators’ commentaries, which not previously read, including Monika Poems about translation itself were a ranged from the perfunctory to the Rinck and Christine Marendon, each of common theme this year, many reflect- profound. One entrant rather too whom has a distinctive voice and style, ing the prisms of layering language on candidly declared that ‘The original captured with a deft and sensitive touch language. Of these I was most entranced did not rhyme, which meant one less by their respective translators, Anne by Edward Clarke’s version of Nicola thing to worry about’, while another, Stokes and Ken Cockburn. Gardini’s beautiful ‘Emily in Mondello’ Anna Leader, astutely observed of her At the end of the process, and the in which the Italian poet muses on his translation of Gaston Miron’s ‘Poème lively and enlightening discussion with own engagement with Emily Dickinson. de séparation’ that ‘The difficulty of my fellow judges, I am left with unfor- On the minus side, there also appeared translating this poem was resisting the gettable lines of poetry echoing through to be a marked increase in the use of urge to “explain” it.’ my head: ‘weeds always sneak back Google Translate. But most of all, it Not all the translations managed like old guilt’ (Jan Wagner, translated was lovely to see our entrants having to become poems in English. There by Anna Leader); ‘Let the wind howl, fun with rhyme and word play, from were some which remained stubbornly let the wind swither / Someone shall Michaela Pschierer-Barnfather’s ‘Title prosaic, often those by translators be Agamemnon, somebody his killer’ Colon Dictation’ in the Open competi- locked in a lethally close embrace (Odysseus Elytis, translated by Alasdair tion to eight-year-old Anissa Felah’s with their originals. In the younger Gordon); ‘Another sentence. Tears are ‘The Cicada and the Ant’. I thank them age category there were sometimes quick to come / To one already set far all for brightening these particularly problems with register, especially in the apart, / As if pain on pain had stripped gloomy summer days this year with commentaries. Future entrants might life from her heart’ (Anna Akhmatova, their invention – and enthusiasm profit from avoiding the hideous word translated by Miriam Ettrick). Josephine Balmer ‘relatable’ and might also bear in mind Next year, I will have a better idea the literary nature of the competition: of what to expect, namely, a box full of This was my first year there’s nothing wrong with translating unexpected and delightful discoveries. as judge for the Stephen a French rap song, but judges are not Katie Gramich Spender poetry transla- really impressed by how many views tion prize.

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