Am I trying to make a very accurate translation, or a looser ‘version’? Am I going to experiment with aspects such as layout or imagery, or try to mirror the original? What aspects of the original poem do I need to keep and what am I willing to lose to make a poem that feels like the real thing in English?.Has the form changed between the original and the bridge translation? If so, why?.Do I have any questions or uncertainties? Is there anything I might want to research online?.What are my favourite things about this poem? Are there particularly powerful lines or images I need to bring out?.What do I think this poem is trying to say?.We would like you to read through the all the versions of the poem and ask yourself: This is a chance to really engage with an endangered literature listen to its sounds pay attention to the different ways in which it encourages us to think. By letting the poem cross these generous, connective translations, you can perhaps make a third – your own. So, below, you can see Irma Pineda’s Spanish version as well as Wendy Call’s ‘bridge’ into English. Her translator Wendy Call has created a ‘bridge’ translation into English, which we are asking you to adapt, co-creating a translation with Wendy Call and Irma Pineda.Īs many indigenous Mexican writers are also fluent in Spanish, it is often the first language they are translated or self-translated into, and the Spanish translations can act as a ‘bridge’ – allowing for new versions of poems in multiple languages that often wouldn’t otherwise exist (fluent translators of many indigenous languages being few in number). Though her poem is in Isthmus Zapotec, you don’t need to know Zapotec to take part in this challenge. We were also interested in her work with Irma Pineda, who writes in Isthmus Zapotec, and are thrilled that she has made a bridge translation of one of Pineda’s poems for this challenge. Wendy Call’s wonderful translations of Zoque poet Mikeas Sánchez appear in our issue, along with her co-translations of Juana Karen Peñate, who writes poems in the Tumbalá variant of Ch’ol, a Mayan language spoken in Chiapas. Poetry is one of the ways by which such languages can be preserved, its writing often a work of activism as well as care. 63 of those languages are indigenous, and many are critically endangered due to both a history of colonialism, and those who would still extract resources from indigenous ancestral lands. This summer’s issue of Modern Poetry in Translation – If No One Names Us: Focus on Mexico – led me, as editor, to read poems translated from a number of Mexico’s 68 national languages. Congratulations, too, to the longlisted poets whose work impressed the judge: Issy Adams, Daniel Clark, Sonika Jaiganesh, Divya Mehrish, Filippo Rossi and Amy Wolstenholme. Congratulations to the winners, whose poems you can read in the sidebar. This time, we’re asking you to (co-)translate a poem by Irma Pineda, writing in the endangered language of Isthmus Zapotec, with the help of translator Wendy Call and MPT editor Clare Pollard, who introduces the challenge… This challenge is now closed. We’re delighted to team up with Modern Poetry in Translation for the third time, and once more offer you the chance to be published in this world-leading journal, and take part in a workshop with its editor.
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