Modern Poetry in Translation, devoted to fostering new talent and original connections across the world of poetry has launched its Secret Agents of Sense feature, with a selection of newly translated Polish verse in English
In order to promote the issue, three events focused specially on Polish poetry at the 25th Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.
Best known for translating into English, Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese and Steven Seymour also translate English and American poems into Polish and Russian. In a special talk with the audience they shared their experience of what the difference is in the case of the two languages. They also share what has drawn them to poets like Gillian Allnut, Billy Collins, Carol Ann Duffy and Charles Simic.
Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese also joined leading contemporary poet Wojciech Bonowicz and Sasha Dugdale – the editor of Modern Poetry in Translation – to discuss the prevailing contemporary aesthetic and to read some of its defining poems. The meeting seeked introducing the new wave of poetry that has emerged in Poland since Herbert, Miłosz and Szymborska.
The first Aldeburgh Poetry Festival coincided – to the day – with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Wojciech Bonowicz, Nikola Madzirov and Steven Seymour have first-hand experiences of the political, cultural and social changes of the last 25 years. As part of the festival, they explored the effects of this historic event on poetry in Poland, Macedonia and Russia?
Poets and translators first published in MPT have continued elsewhere in volumes of their own. Their readings mix young and old, different styles, and many languages. MPT seek new audiences, new collaborations, to connect poetry with the world people live in here and now. The MPT premise is that poetry and translation matter: they come from and act upon the lives people live.
Aldeburgh Poetry Festival is the UK’s pre-eminent annual celebration of national and international contemporary poetry. The 25th Aldeburgh Poetry Festival weekend took place 8-10 November 2013 welcoming a fresh line-up of 30 poets from seven countries.
Elzbieta Wójcik-Leese was born in Poland and now lives in Copenhagen. A leading translator of contemporary Polish poetry, she also translates from English. In 2011 her translations featured on the London Underground. Nothing More (2013) is her selection from Krystyna Miłobędzka; Salt Monody (2006) presents Marzanna Kielar. She co-edited Carnivorous Boy Carnivorous Bird: Poetry from Poland (2004) and co-wrote Metropoetica. Poetry and Urban Space: Women Writing Cities (2013). As a Fulbright scholar, she examined Elizabeth Bishop’s archives, which resulted in Cognitive Poetic Readings in Elizabeth Bishop: Portrait of a Mind Thinking (2010).
The event was supported by Polish Cultural Institute and Modern Poetry in Translation.