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The 39th Poetry International Festival: 7th-13th June 2008 in the Rotterdam Schouwburg
Editorial: June 2008
June 02, 2008
We’ve also uploaded the results of a collaborative art project on the festival theme. In Spring 2008, third-year students from the Image & Language Department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, School of Arts in Amsterdam were asked to visually interpret poetry by selected Indian writers based on the PIW-India December 2007 issue on Place.
In connection with this we’re also publishing work by Arundhathi Subramaniam and an interview with her by Jules Mann.
And now more on the festival poets whose works and new translations you’ll find on the site. Five very different poets from the Netherlands will be performing: H.H. ter Balkt, disorderly poet of decline; Maria Barnas; Remco Campert, veteran festival goer whose previous performance is online; Henk van der Waal, poet of erudition and complicated forms; and Peter van Lier, whose poem ‘Psalm 105’ will be used for the Chinese Whispers project.
From neighbouring Belgium, the Flemish poet Miriam Van hee will be reading, as well as her countryman from Wallonie, William Cliff whose rebellious stance recalls Verlaine and Rimbaud. Three more French-speaking poets join the roll-call: Philippe Beck, with a philosophy background, the experimental avant-gardist Jean-Michel Espitallier, and Linda Maria Baros, originally from Romania but now based in Paris.
Continuing south there’s Andrea Gibellini from Italy, and from even warmer climes, Roni Margulies from Turkey. Mirta Rosenberg from Argentina and Juan Manuel Roca from Colombia make up the South American contingent. Mangalesh Dabral joins us from India and Shoichiro Iwakiri from Japan.
Northern Europe is represented by Scandinavians Gerður Kristný from Iceland whose poetry is beautifully evocative and crystalline, and Finn, Risto Oikarinen whose writing is visceral and provocative. Silke Scheuermann is a talented young poet from Germany. The fruit of Eastern Europe comprises lyrical poets, Szabolcs Várady (Hungary) and Adam Zagajewski (Poland). Finally our English-speakers are acclaimed poet, James Fenton from the United Kingdom and the highly-talented Robert Gray from Australia.
During the festival I’ll report on the translation work taking place, following on from last month’s article, The Art of Poetry Translation, and looking at the insights poets themselves can bring to the challenge of conveying style, voice, and for example, symbolism, into another language and often, culture. The Chinese Whispers project will also be uploaded onto the site as Peter van Lier’s poem journeys into languages such as Hindi, Japanese and French and returns to Dutch, in all probability radically transformed.
My third festival is also my final issue as editor of PIW. I’ve enjoyed my work here immensely, most particularly the opportunity it has given me to discover poetry from the farthest reaches of the earth and to discuss this poetry with the regional editors and translators. I’ll continue to follow the monthly publications as a reader and a fan. The name of the new editor should be announced shortly but in the interim Wendy Davies will provide next month’s editorial. Live streaming on PIW:
Log on and tune in each day for live recordings of the poetry readings.
English translations of the poems being performed will be shown alongside the film footage.
Sunday 8th June
21.45-22.45 CET: William Cliff, Peter van Lier, Roni Margulies, Silke Scheuermann.
Monday 9th June
21.45-22.45 CET: Maria Barnas, Philippe Beck, James Fenton, Andrea Gibellini.
Tuesday 10th June
20.15-21.15 CET: William Cliff, Risto Oikarinen, Henk van der Waal.
21.45-22.45 CET: A different window on Zimbabwe, a special programme in partnership with the PIW-Zimbabwe domain featuring Irene Staunton, Comrade Fatso and Togaro Muzanenhamo.
(A special edition of unpublished Zimbabwean poetry will also go live on PIW on June 10th.)
Wednesday 11th June
20.15-21.15 CET: Maria Barnas, Shoichiro Iwakiri, Roni Margulies, Mirta Rosenberg.
21.45-22.45 CET: Linda Maria Baros, Mangalesh Dabral, Szabolcs Várady.
Thursday 12th June
20.15-21.15 CET: Robert Gray, Shoichiro Iwakiri, Juan Manuel Roca, Risto Oikarinen.
21.45-22.45 CET: Remco Campert, Nathan Zach (TBC), Adam Zagajewski.
Friday 13th June
20.15-21.15 CET: Mangalesh Dabral, Jean-Michel Espitallier, Silke Scheuermann, Miriam Van hee.
For more information on the festival programme, visit www.poetry.nl
Well, it’s finally here. A fantastic line-up of international poets including some real home-grown talents and all of it to be found here on PIW this month. We will be providing in-depth coverage of the festival each day with live broadcasts of the international poetry programmes, interviews with the poets and specially-recorded Poetry Clips. Audio and video footage will be made available on the site after each event.
See the Poetry Clips made during the festival here.We’ve also uploaded the results of a collaborative art project on the festival theme. In Spring 2008, third-year students from the Image & Language Department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, School of Arts in Amsterdam were asked to visually interpret poetry by selected Indian writers based on the PIW-India December 2007 issue on Place.
In connection with this we’re also publishing work by Arundhathi Subramaniam and an interview with her by Jules Mann.
And now more on the festival poets whose works and new translations you’ll find on the site. Five very different poets from the Netherlands will be performing: H.H. ter Balkt, disorderly poet of decline; Maria Barnas; Remco Campert, veteran festival goer whose previous performance is online; Henk van der Waal, poet of erudition and complicated forms; and Peter van Lier, whose poem ‘Psalm 105’ will be used for the Chinese Whispers project.
From neighbouring Belgium, the Flemish poet Miriam Van hee will be reading, as well as her countryman from Wallonie, William Cliff whose rebellious stance recalls Verlaine and Rimbaud. Three more French-speaking poets join the roll-call: Philippe Beck, with a philosophy background, the experimental avant-gardist Jean-Michel Espitallier, and Linda Maria Baros, originally from Romania but now based in Paris.
Continuing south there’s Andrea Gibellini from Italy, and from even warmer climes, Roni Margulies from Turkey. Mirta Rosenberg from Argentina and Juan Manuel Roca from Colombia make up the South American contingent. Mangalesh Dabral joins us from India and Shoichiro Iwakiri from Japan.
Northern Europe is represented by Scandinavians Gerður Kristný from Iceland whose poetry is beautifully evocative and crystalline, and Finn, Risto Oikarinen whose writing is visceral and provocative. Silke Scheuermann is a talented young poet from Germany. The fruit of Eastern Europe comprises lyrical poets, Szabolcs Várady (Hungary) and Adam Zagajewski (Poland). Finally our English-speakers are acclaimed poet, James Fenton from the United Kingdom and the highly-talented Robert Gray from Australia.
During the festival I’ll report on the translation work taking place, following on from last month’s article, The Art of Poetry Translation, and looking at the insights poets themselves can bring to the challenge of conveying style, voice, and for example, symbolism, into another language and often, culture. The Chinese Whispers project will also be uploaded onto the site as Peter van Lier’s poem journeys into languages such as Hindi, Japanese and French and returns to Dutch, in all probability radically transformed.
My third festival is also my final issue as editor of PIW. I’ve enjoyed my work here immensely, most particularly the opportunity it has given me to discover poetry from the farthest reaches of the earth and to discuss this poetry with the regional editors and translators. I’ll continue to follow the monthly publications as a reader and a fan. The name of the new editor should be announced shortly but in the interim Wendy Davies will provide next month’s editorial. Live streaming on PIW:
Log on and tune in each day for live recordings of the poetry readings.
English translations of the poems being performed will be shown alongside the film footage.
Sunday 8th June
21.45-22.45 CET: William Cliff, Peter van Lier, Roni Margulies, Silke Scheuermann.
Monday 9th June
21.45-22.45 CET: Maria Barnas, Philippe Beck, James Fenton, Andrea Gibellini.
Tuesday 10th June
20.15-21.15 CET: William Cliff, Risto Oikarinen, Henk van der Waal.
21.45-22.45 CET: A different window on Zimbabwe, a special programme in partnership with the PIW-Zimbabwe domain featuring Irene Staunton, Comrade Fatso and Togaro Muzanenhamo.
(A special edition of unpublished Zimbabwean poetry will also go live on PIW on June 10th.)
Wednesday 11th June
20.15-21.15 CET: Maria Barnas, Shoichiro Iwakiri, Roni Margulies, Mirta Rosenberg.
21.45-22.45 CET: Linda Maria Baros, Mangalesh Dabral, Szabolcs Várady.
Thursday 12th June
20.15-21.15 CET: Robert Gray, Shoichiro Iwakiri, Juan Manuel Roca, Risto Oikarinen.
21.45-22.45 CET: Remco Campert, Nathan Zach (TBC), Adam Zagajewski.
Friday 13th June
20.15-21.15 CET: Mangalesh Dabral, Jean-Michel Espitallier, Silke Scheuermann, Miriam Van hee.
For more information on the festival programme, visit www.poetry.nl
© Michele Hutchison
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