Poetry in Expanded Translation

Translation may seem like a simple matter of transposition between languages, but the translation of poetry in particular reveals the fascinating complexity and richness that comes from the interface of different languages and cultures. Language itself is constantly changing, and experimental forms of poetry have embraced the complex relations between words, meanings and the spaces they inhabit. As twenty-first century poetry expands into the possibilities of different media through international readings, performances and festivals, it also expands possibilities for translation. Poetry has always circulated internationally. The network will challenge the widespread view of autonomously monolingual poetic traditions while discovering how exchange between languages works in artistic terms, and how it brings cultural particularities into view.

This network will bring together practitioners and critics of poetry and translation with visual and sound artists to discover new ways of creating and interpreting language across art forms and cultures. It will analyse the impact of experimental traditions that continue to forge links between different languages, and will discover new ways of presenting poetry to multilingual audiences. Through its link with the Poetry Library in London's Southbank Centre, it will invite active involvement from readers and practitioners of poetry beyond academic contexts.

Though located primarily in a UK and European context, with a special focus on Wales and France, the network will be attentive to non-European influences and the co-existence of diverse cultures and languages. At a time when technologies such as machine translation are enabling communication, the apparent untranslatability of poetry makes it a crucial site for the creative exploration and understanding of intercultural difference.

The network will discover how poetry travels internationally, by examining international links and legacies that connect poetry across languages. Examples include the influence of early twentieth-century Dada performances on contemporary sound poetry or the adoption of mathematical procedures inspired by the 1960s French Oulipo writers by UK and American poets. How might these cross-currents engage with the multiple linguistic communities of contemporary Europe? How these exchanges in experimental practice shaped by race, class and gender? How does collaboration contribute to intercultural dialogue? What political questions are raised by a cross-border ethics of translation?

How do visual forms contribute to transition between languages? The network will consider collaborations between poets and visual artists that explore equivalences of word, form and image in intersemiotic translation, that is, translation that substitutes sign systems or art forms rather than one language for another. How do these, as well as emerging hybrid forms enabled by new technologies, expand possibilities for intercultural dialogue? In a visual environment where there is much competition for attention, what is distinctive about the role of poetry?

The closing conference will examine the role of sound in translation. What does it mean to listen to poetry in another language? In performance work that combines different media, what is the relation between translation and the political, physical or ecological dimensions of listening? How might considerations of noise open up new ways of listening to other languages? How can translation reveal different ways in which the poem 'listens'? How helpful is a musical comparison or vocabulary in discussion of the sound of a poem in translation? Conversely, what is meant when we talk about music as a language? Can the relationship between poet and translator be compared with that of composer and performer? The closing conference will investigate these and other questions, developing new knowledge about how to present poetry to contemporary international audiences.

Impact Summary

Beneficiaries from the research include the following:

1. Users of the Poetry Library

The main UK non-academic partner will be the Saison Poetry Library at the South Bank Centre. With its substantial holdings of modern and contemporary poetry in English, as well as its comprehensive collection of poetry in translation, the Library caters to the specialist researcher as well as to the casual poetry reader and is the ideal partner for this network. As an institution that regularly engages with the public in a wide-ranging programme of poetry-related events, it is also fitting that the network use the Poetry Library for the first of its programme of events. The network will benefit the Poetry Library by exploring innovative ways of engaging the public in translation and enhancing the international dimension of the reading experience. Through sharing the outcomes of the project, these benefits will become available to other libraries with similarly energetic programmes of outreach, for example the Scottish Poetry Library.

2. Practitioners in the creative arts

The network will aim to develop and theorise new and emerging areas of practice that will enable poets, artists, musicians and translators to better understand each other's work and the complex ways in which interdisciplinary creation contributes to artistic and cultural life. It will develop new international connections, particularly between the UK and France. The relationship between the senses and language, which is core to the project's structure, is little understood. By considering visual and sound elements through the frame of translation, the network will resolve some of the misconceptions that sometimes make it difficult to work across art forms and provide a new language for collaboration.



3. International and bilingual audiences

The main non-UK partner is the Kunsthalle in Mulhouse, which will benefit from the development of an event designed to explore interfaces between poetry and the visual. The combination of practice and theorization in the seminar and performance will contribute to deepened understanding of how cross-artform interactions may be used productively in a multilingual context. The project will contribute to a longstanding collaboration between the Université de Haute Alsace and the Kunsthalle by bringing an external, international perspective to bear on it. Similar insights will be gained from the conference in Bangor, where the new Bangor University Arts and Innovation Centre, Pontio, will benefit from the exploration of poetry and sound in the bilingual context of north Wales. The involvement of partners involved with different arts venues (the South Bank, the Kunsthalle and Pontio) will enable exchange of ideas and an enhanced understanding of how audiences may be build across different areas of interest.

Organisations such as the Arts Councils of Wales and England will benefit from insights into cross-cultural collaboration that will facilitate the international dimensions of their work, and certain projects that they fund such as literature festivals. Better knowledge of how to present literature in translation and how to maximise audiences for performance events by combining art forms will be helpful in internationalizing the whole creative sector in the UK and raising aspirations for its future. Through contact with Literary Europe Live, the network will contribute to these ongoing aims.

Overall, the public will benefit from the creation of new and innovative works of art that address specific cultural contexts. Perceived barriers to the enjoyment of poetry from different languages will be challenged. The participatory element of the network, building in particular on activities at the Poetry Library, will allow members of the public to shape and interact with the research as it develops.