Stephen Spender Prize 2007 for poetry in translation Stephen Spender Prize 2007 Winner of the Winners of the Winners of the 14-and-under prize 18-and-under category Open category Josie Chubb FIRST FIRST ‘Sound of the Bell’ Jenny Harris Allen Prowle by Pierre Reverdy Odes I.IX ‘Poppies’ (French) by Horace by Attilio Bertolucci (Latin) (Italian) JOINT SECOND SECOND Clare Bristow John Richmond an extract from ‘Lemons’ ‘The Wanderer’ by Eugenio Montale (Anglo-Saxon) (Italian) Daniel Hitchens JOINT THIRD ‘A Discussion Peter Zollman of the Poem’ ‘Aeneas and Dido’ by Christoph Meckel by István Baka (German) (Hungarian) Gordon Wallace an extract from Canto V of Inferno by Dante (Italian) Commended Commended Commended Ana O’Shaughnessy-Gutierrez Clare Bristow Elizabeth Stanley J. S. Tennant ‘To an Old Elm Tree’ an extract from ‘The Wife’s Lament’ ‘To the Jew who an extract from by Antonio Machado (Anglo-Saxon) Walked Away’ Metamorphoses XI (Spanish) by Leen Deij by Ovid Alice Malin (Esperanto) (Latin) Jamie Gore ‘Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground’ ‘Tomorrow at Dawn’ and ‘Ode to a Watch at Night’ Mike Mitchell Nicholas Slater by Victor Hugo by Pablo Neruda ‘The Denotation an extract from (French) (Spanish) of Babel’ ‘Orpheus. Eurydice. by Helmut Krausser Hermes’ Emily Tesh (German) by Rilke an extract from Electra (German) by Sophocles Stephanie Norgate (Ancient Greek) an extract from Aeneid II by Virgil (Latin) Jason Warren an extract from Tristia by Ovid (Latin) 3 Introduction It is true that each year the same languages dominate and there are literal fidelity and the equivalence that makes for fidelity of reading no prizes for guessing that these languages are French, German, experience’. It is rare for translators to have the opportunity to Latin and Spanish (in that order), though this year Hungarian explain their approach and justify their decisions and it makes for knocked Italian from fifth place. But each year more languages fascinating reading, sometimes prompting admiring responses from are represented – 37 in 2007 – and while there were no entries the judges at the solutions found. As more than one judge testifies from Bengali, Bulgarian, Sanskrit or Yiddish this year, we saw for below, the commentaries that accompany each entry (an aspect of the first time translations from Catalan, Finnish, Lëtzebuergesch, the prize that A. S. Byatt described as ‘splendidly intelligent’) can Serbian, Slovenian and Ukrainian. The variety of entries, from be not only illuminating but also moving. the utterly familiar to poems encountered for the first time in Thanks must go to this most amiable panel of judges, who were languages with which the judges are not conversant, makes the expert and efficient in equal measure; to Erica Wagner, Literary judging all the more interesting. Editor of The Times, for her invaluable promotion of the prize in The translator Daniel Hahn, whose translation of The Book the weekend book section; and to Arts Council England, without of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa recently won the whose financial support in 2007 this prize would not have run. Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, has written of ‘the eternal Robina Pelham Burn problem faced by every translator – finding the balance between Director of the Stephen Spender Memorial Trust Judges’ comments This year’s entries were Chubb’s translation of Reverdy’s ‘Sound of Norgate’s relocation of Virgil’s Aeneid II to impressive in their divers- the Bell’; it is a short piece but she gave us a a modern battlefield, which both received ity and range, from real sense of a unified poem, not just in her commendations. It was cheering, too, to see languages new to the version but in her thoughtful commentary. poems from different, more oral traditions prize such as Wolof and Other entries which caught my eye in this such as Georgina Collins’s translation of Lëtzebuergesch, to a regard were Jac Rees’s version of Verlaine’s the Senegalese poet Mame Seck Mbacké’s marked increase in entries ‘Song of Autumn’ and Alexander Walton’s ‘Twilight’, our first entry from Wolof, or from the languages of ‘new’ Europe, such ‘October’ by Anatole Le Braz, both of Laurence James’s simple translation of the as Romanian and Hungarian (it was also which showed promise, although in the end Welsh ‘village poet’ Jack Oliver. This is uplifting to see how, despite the recent neither made it on to our winners’ list. what translation does: it brings us new threat to its place on university and school In the 18-and-under category, as in traditions and new worlds, while keeping syllabuses, German proved second only to previous years, we were impressed by the our old ones alive and vital. French in popularity). As ever, entrants’ standard of the classical entries although Josephine Balmer commentaries, too, illustrated an impressive these were noticeably fewer than in the past, range of approach and engagement, with particularly from Greek. However, Jenny Judging this prize is as those who provided fascinating discussions Harris’s striking haiku version of the Horace exciting as it is pleasurable. of technical strategies sitting alongside those Odes I.IX was an exceptionally worthy I enjoyed reading the who had a more personal story to offer, and winner, a bold and beautifully readable hundreds of translations almost all revealing how poetry in translation version of a poem which can throw the most and commentaries, and – not to mention the practice of translation experienced of classical translators. Choosing enjoyed also the excitement itself – strikes deep at the heart of many between extracts from longer works and of the final judges’ meeting entrants’ lives (Gordon Wallace’s account of complete, shorter poems is always a difficult and the revelation of the names of the the comfort offered by Henri de Régnier’s task but in Clare Bristow’s versions of winners. This year the judges came quickly poetry during his wife’s decline from Anglo-Saxon, again notoriously difficult to to a consensus, though we all had our special Alzheimer’s was particularly moving). Many translate, and Daniel Hitchens’s confident favourites. I noted with particular pleasure entries also illustrated the wider, political translation of Christoph Meckel’s tricky some of the splendid Italian translations, importance of translated poetry, such as ‘A Discussion of the Poem’, we found two three of which found their way onto our Elizabeth Stanley’s ‘To the Jew who Walked skilled exponents of each task. I was also very Open winners list. I also enjoyed those Away’, translated from Esperanto and impressed with Emily Tesh’s commended candidates who sent in two versions of the commended in the Open Category, or Karen extract from Sophocles’ Electra which same poem, exploring different stylistic and Margolis’s translations of Selma Meerbaum- illustrated an impressive understanding of linguistic techniques that made me look Eisinger, written shortly before the poet’s dramatic dialogue. again at the originals. death in a Nazi labour camp at the age of Our Open category seemed aptly The commentaries are fascinating, eighteen. It was heartening, too, to read of named this year as, in a field of even but because they reveal the processes by which several entrants who were making their first perhaps less immediately striking entries translators arrive at their final version and attempts at poetry translation, discovering than previously, each of us initially found provide an account of what they have learned how it can enrich their experience as both different candidates for commendation. In through translating. Some translators take readers and writers. the end we were all agreed on the quality pains to explain their strategies, others This was, of course, particularly the of Allen Prowle’s beautifully executed confess to more intimate relations with case for our entrants in the 14-and-under translations of Attilio Bertolucci. We were a poet or a poem. It was very moving to category where this year the judges’ also impressed by new ways of looking at learn how translating a particular poem had shortlists were – for once! – in agreement. ancient texts such as Jason Warren’s radical helped some people cope with bereavement We were all struck by the deftness of Josie condensing of Ovid’s Tristia or Stephanie or terminal illness, and testifies to the 4 Judges’ comments eternal power of literature to heal. There Judging The Times translators often struggle with. The were a number of translations of poems Stephen Spender Prize for boldness to be radical, as in the wonderful about the Holocaust, written in many the first time, I was struck haiku versions of Horace, is exceptional. languages, some extremely powerful, and not only by the evident Hardest was, perhaps inevitably, the Open one of the winning entries, a translation enthusiasm for poetry competition. I was sorry that I could not from the Hungarian of a poem by István from an impressive array persuade my fellow judges of the merits of Baka, retells the painful story of Dido and of languages, but also the Mike Mitchell’s brilliantly sassy translation Aeneas in a particularly memorable and willingness of contestants to stretch the of Helmut Krausser’s ‘The Denotation of utterly contemporary manner. possibilities of English and find new ways Babel’, a real discovery for me, and regretted As with last year’s entries, there were of saying. Many contestants translated well- too that my own enthusiasm for a haunting some very strong translations of classical known poems; though translating a ‘classic’ version by Angus Turvill of the Japanese poems, especially in the 18-and-under presents difficulties of its own; not least of poet Nomura Kiwao’s ‘A Gentle Hinge’ category. I am convinced that this reflects which is the rich shadow-life such a poem was not shared by my colleagues.