Sixteen poets, speaking eight languages, from five different countries, in one city for two days. That’s what one can expect at Poets Translating Poets (PTP), organised by Goethe-Institut in the context of Prakriti Foundation’s event, Poetry with Prakriti.
PTP was initiated in July 2015 by Goethe-Institut Mumbai along with the South Asian Goethe-Institutes, collaborating with the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin/Haus für Poesie and in cooperation with the German commission for UNESCO.
By bringing together poets from across 20 languages through ‘poetic encounters’ in several South Asian locations, the project created a platform for poets from South Asia and Germany to translate each other’s works. The most unique aspect was the use of the ‘Interlinear Translation’ method — a word-to-word translation that elucidates the culture-specific and historical meaning of a word as well as the salient features of a poem. The culmination of this two-year project will be the ‘Poets translating Poets Festival‘ in Mumbai which will showcase 51 poets, 187 poems and 20 languages.
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Poetry with Prakriti, a poetry festival presented in Chennai every year, provides an opportunity for poets from varied backgrounds in multiple languages to read and share their poetry. In adherence with the idea of bringing poetry to the younger generation, there will be readings in colleges across Chennai, in addition to workshops and public presentations.
Poets who are participating include Abdul Rasheed, Ali Akbar Natiq, Anita Thampi, Christian Filips, Daniela Danz, Hendrik Jackson, Lalnunsanga Ralte, Mamta Sagar, Nicolai Kobus, Orsolya Kalász, Sajjad Sharif, Shahnaz Munni, Somasundarampillai Pathanathan, Sukirtharani, Sukumaran and Veerankutty.
Date: November 29 and 30
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Venue: Goethe-Institut Auditorium and other venues
For more information, visit www.goethe.de/ptp