‘For Anna Akhmatova’
THIS poem is neither a translation nor an ‘imitation’ of Akhmatova, but a poem in reponse to this immense poet/recognizable woman, and her themes which continue to resonate in a contemporary world infected by war and silencings. I can’t, alas, read Russian; as I AM a translator, from French, the idea of constructing poems from literal translations of world-renowned (and frequently translated) texts, while incapable myself of hearing or perceiving the nuances in language, form and sonority involved, the echoes and the connotations behind the lines, did not seem to me to be translation as I understand it. Having heard the resonant and pertinent versions produced for Poetry International by the other poet participants, I realise I was perhaps simply not equal to the task.
Page(s) 31
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