Jacek Dehnel, photo: Lech Gawuc / REPORTER/East News
The world’s biggest festival of poetry gathers artists from all of the participating nations of the 2012 Olympic games in London. Representing Poland is the young and acclaimed Jacek Dehnel, who makes his appearance thrice during the event
Poetry Parnassus gathers a record number of different languages and poets, and each one the participants writes up a poem especially for the occasion. All of the verses from 204 countries are to be published in a collection entitled The World Record. International Voices From Poetry Parnassus, released by the Bloodaxe Books Ltd on the 28th of June, 2012.
The Poetry Parnassus festival evokes the tradition of the ancient games, which also included the particiapation of artists, and it is part of the London 2012 Festival. This festival forms a cultural programme which runs alongside the summer Olympic Games, encompassing a total of 12 000 events from the 21st of June through to the 9th of September.
The programme of Poetry Parnassus features poetry readings, workshops, discussions, and talks with poets selected in an audience poll. The festival’s discussion series run under the Around the World theme, and they take on the form of Round Table talks. Two Nobel laureates also join in the talks: Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian playwright, writer and poet, who was the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986, and the literary critic, translator and poet from Ireland, Seamus Heaney, who was presented with a Nobel in 1995.
Jacek Dehnel takes part in three events of the Poetry Parnassus festival. The first is a tournament of simultaneous poetry readings, entitled New World Order, which invite promising young scribes. Dehnel joins in the session together with Kei Millar, a 1978-born writer and poet from Jamaica, who is currently a lecturer at the University of Glasgow.
The second highlight of Dehnel’s presence in London is poetry-karaoke session, wherein each one of the participants reads a poem from Irish, Welsh, Scottish and English classics translated into their own mothertongue. Dehnel recites the verses from Philip Larkin (1922-1985), which he himself transcribed into Polish. Larkin is a significant figure for the young poet, as he had devoted his master’s thesis to the Polish translations of his writings by Stanisław Barańczak, and in 2008, he published a collection with his own translations of Larkin.
The last event Jacek Dehnel takes part in is an evening entitled The Shuffle. It is a highly popular happening which takes place every last Saturday of the month, and it is hosted by the Poetry Café in Covent Garden. The artists participating in The Shuffle constitute a very international group: Adam Horovitz from London (born in 1971), Michelle McGrane from South Africa (born in 1974), Cheryl Moskowitz (born in 1959) who comes from Chicago and lives in London, Eli Tolaretxipi (born in 1962) who writes in the Basque language.
Born in 1980, Jacek Dehnel is a poet, writer and translator from English into Polish (Philip Larkin, George Szirtes, W.H. Auden) and Russian (Osip Mandelstam). Besides literature, he also pursues painting and "the art of living", the latter involving copying the dress and behaviour of a dandy. This styling for times bygone has also been central to Dehnel's core work, although over time other elements have appeared. The most laconic summary of his writing has been offered by Maciej Robert, who said: "Dehnel has never fitted the image of Polish contemporary literature". He is a laureate of numerous prizes, including the 2005 Kościelski Foundation Award and the 2006 Polityka Passport Award. His latest work entitled Saturn, a novel about life in the shadow of Fransisco de Goya’s genius and the destructive pressure of a despotic father on his son, has been translated into English by Antotnia Lloyd-Jones, and is due to be released in September, 2012.
Details of events with the participation of Jacek Dehnel:
- 28th of June, 2012, 6:45 pm - New World Order
Purcell Room;
Meeting with the audience as part of the simultaneous reading tournament
- 29th of June, 2012, 2 pm - Poetry Karaoke - UK Special
The World School, Clore Ballroom; no admission charge
- 30th of June, 2012, 7 pm - The Shuffle
Queen Elisabeth Hall Front Room; no admission charge
Details of the Poetry Parnassus publication:
The World Record. International Voices From Poetry Parnassus
edited by: Neil Astley i Anna Selby
with an introduction from Simon Armitage
published by: Bloodaxe Books Ltd opn sale from the 28th of June, 2012
138 x 216, 320 pgs, paper back
ISBN 978-1-852249-38-0
www.bloodaxebooks.com
The Poetry Parnassus events take place from the 26 th of June through to the 1st of July, 2012
Editor: SRS
Source: www.polishculture.org.uk, southbankcentre.co.uk, www.bloodaxebooks.com, www.dedalusbooks.com