Poetry Connections India
Poetry Connections is a series of translation workshops run by Literature Across Frontiers in collaboration with our partners bringing together poets from Europe and other regions to translate each other’s work. So far, the workshops have taken place in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, India, Malaysia/Singapore, Morocco and Turkey – in addition to a number of other locations in Europe – and have brought together poets from those countries with European poets writing in a variety of different languages.
Working through a ‘bridge’ language – mostly English – the poets learn about the literary traditions and contemporary contexts in which they write and gain a unique insight into a culture through its poetry. At the same time, they explore the microcosm of each literary text, as well as wider issues of translation practice.
In India, we have so far held workshops since 2009, in the following locations: Neemrana Fort in Rajastan, Adishakti residency near Pondicherry, Santiniketan in cooperation with Kolkata Literary Meet, Hyderabad in cooperation with the Hyderabad Literary Festival, Chandigarh in cooperation with the Chandigarh Literature Festival, Koch in cooperation with the Kochi International Book Festival and in Kozikhode in cooperation with Kerala Literature Festival. Following the workshop, the poets always appear in venues and festivals in other locations. So far readings and performances resulting from our poetry translation workshops in India have taken place in Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozikhode, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur.
A video by D W Gibson of Sangham House and Art Omi Writers’ Residencies, made at the 2010 workshop in Adishakti and at the Poetry With Prakriti Festival in Chennai, captures the spirit of the workshops. The photo above is from a performance after the same workshop in Pune.
Poetry Connections from DW Gibson on Vimeo.