FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 20 April 2012 AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE CASA DELLE LETTERATURE DI ROMA CAPITALE ANNOUNCES A TWO-DAY SERIES OF READINGS AND CONVERSATIONS ABOUT TRANSLATING MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETRY ON 3 & 4 MAY 2012 Giorgio Vasari, Uomo che legge alla finestra, affresco Museo statale di Casa Vasari, sala del Trionfo e della Virtù Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali – Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici, Paesaggistici, Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici di Arezzo “C’è più onore in tradire che in essere fedeli a metà” / “There is more honor in betrayal than in being half faithful” – Giovanni Giudici (1924-2011), from his poem “Una Sera Come Tante” / “An Evening Like So Many Others” Rome - The American Academy in Rome is pleased to present Translating Poetry: Readings and Conversations, a two-day event featuring a series of readings and conversations by international writers and translators that will explore the translation of modern and contemporary Polish and Italian poetry into English, as well as the translation of English-language poetry into Italian. The events will take place on Thursday 3 May at the Academy’s Villa Aurelia and on Friday 4 May at the Casa delle Letterature in the historic center of Rome. The sessions will be in English or Italian (Polish poetry will also be read in its original language) and simultaneous translations of public conversations (in English and Italian) will be available. Karl Kirchwey, poet and Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome, said, “2011 at the AAR featured a major tribute to Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky, former Trustee of the Academy, and the world premiere performance of a new play by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. Building on this foundation, in 2012 we are pleased to present an ambitious series of readings and conversations on the subject of Translating Poetry. Given the rapidity and volatility of communications across cultures and between countries, in the contemporary world, surely there can be few subjects more complex and fascinating—but also more relevant—than that of the translation of modern and contemporary poetry, since poetry in its essence is the most distilled and untranslatable of literary forms. We are fortunate to have gathered with us in Rome not only two major Polish poets and ten leading Italian poets, but also a cast of distinguished translators, many of them also poets, to present and explore the beauty of poems in Polish, Italian, and, English. We are also delighted to be collaborating in this series of programs with Rome’s dynamic literary center, the Casa delle Letterature.” On 3 May the Academy’s William B. Hart Poet-in-Residence Robert Hass, who is also the leading American translator of Polish Nobel Laureate poet Czesław Miłosz, will be joined by Polish poets Julia Hartwig and Adam Zagajewski and American translator Clare Cavanagh in a bilingual reading and discussion (in English) of work by poets including Hartwig, Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Wisława Szymborska, and Zagajewski. During the evening of May 3 and continuing on May 4, the conference will focus on Geoffrey Brock's new anthology The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012). Italian poets including Edoardo Albinati, Antonella Anedda, Franco Buffoni, Patrizia Cavalli, Franco Loi, Valerio Magrelli, Lucio Mariani, Maria Luisa Spaziani, and AAR Italian Affiliated Fellows Massimo Gezzi and Guido Mazzoni will read from their own work, as well as from work by Italian poets such as Bartolo Cattafi, Franco Fortini, Eugenio Montale, Giovanni Pascoli, Cesare Pavese, Clemente Rèbora, Nelo Risi, Umberto Saba, and Andrea Zanzotto. English versions of the Italian originals will be read by translators including Damiano Abeni, Sarah Arvio, Geoffrey Brock, Moira Egan, Jamie McKendrick, Anthony Molino, and Susan Stewart. Jennifer Scappettone, will read from her translations of Amelia Rosselli. Several of these poets and translators will participate in a public conversation (in English) on May 4 about the particular challenges of translating modern and contemporary poetry from Italian into English. On May 4, there will also be a bilingual reading of poems by Lord Byron, Anne Carson, Seamus Heaney, John Keats, William Shakespeare, and others as they have been translated by Italian poets and translators including Damiano Abeni, Antonella Anedda, Franco Buffoni, Patrizia Cavalli, Moira Egan, Massimo Gezzi, and Guido Mazzoni. Following this reading, there will be a public conversation (in Italian) about the process of translating English-language poetry into Italian. Seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Simultaneous translation will be available. Translating Poetry: Readings and Conversations is made possible through generous gifts by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Price, by American Academy Trustee Emerita Nancy M. O’Boyle, and with the support of the Casa delle Letterature di Roma Capitale, Istituto Polacco di Roma, and the Polish Book Institute. Collaborating institutions include the Keats-Shelley House and the British Council. Event: Translating Poetry: Readings and Conversations Event: Translating Poetry: Readings and Conservations Date/Time: Thursday 3 May, 6pm - 11pm Date/Time: Friday 4 May, 4:30pm - 9:30pm Schedule: Schedule: 6:00pm - 7:30pm ~ Modern and Contemporary Polish 4:30pm - 5:30pm ~ English and American Poetry in Poetry in English Translation: a Bilingual Reading and Italian Translation: a Bilingual Reading Conversation (in English) 5:30pm - 6:30pm ~ Translating English and 8:00pm - 9:30pm ~ Break American Poetry into Italian: a Conversation (in Italian) 9:30pm - 11:00pm ~ Modern and Contemporary Italian Poetry in English Translation: a Bilingual 6:30pm - 7:00pm ~ Public reception Reading, Part 1 7:00pm - 8:30pm ~ Modern and Contemporary Location: Italian Poetry in English Translation: a Bilingual American Academy in Rome Reading, Part 2 Villa Aurelia Largo di Porta San Pancrazio, 1 8:30pm - 9:30pm ~ Translating Modern and www.aarome.org Contemporary Italian Poetry into English: a Conversation (in English) Location: Casa delle Letterature Piazza dell'Orologio, 3 www.casadelleletterature.it Press contact: Email: [email protected] tel.: +39 06 5846431 or +1 212 751 7200 ext. 345 The American Academy in Rome, a leading overseas center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities, has for over 118 years offered support, time, and a collaborative environment to some of America’s most gifted artists and scholars. Through a national juried competition, the Academy offers up to 30 Rome Prize fellowships in architecture, design, historic preservation and conservation, landscape architecture, literature, musical composition, and the visual arts; as well as in ancient studies, medieval studies, Renaissance and early-modern studies, and modern Italian studies. The Academy also appoints Italian Fellows in the arts and humanities. The Fellows, who live in a dynamic and interactive community set high up on the Janiculum, are joined by a select group of Residents, distinguished artists and scholars invited by the Director. Founded in 1894 and chartered as a private institution by an act of Congress in 1905, the Academy is supported by gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and competitive grants from the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. Of the 30 foreign academies in Rome, only the American Academy relies entirely on private rather than government support. www.aarome.org .