Feature by Northings
Argyll to Israel
1 Sep 2007 in Highland, Writing
The Art of Translation
RODY GORMAN describes his participation in the Poet to Poet project in Israel and Cove Park
I WAS INVITED to take part in the Poet to Poet translation project in Israel and Cove Park by Loch Long, Argyll in April and May 2007. Under this project, selected poets work in pairs to produce translations of each other’s work, sometimes in a mutually enriching literary endeavour and at other times more like a form of charades.
The languages involved in the project in 2007 were Arabic, English, Gaelic and Hebrew, and the other participants from Britain were Polly Clark, Antony Dunn and W. N. Herbert.
The other participants were Ayman Agbaria from Umm Al-Fahm and Nidaa Khoury, a Melkite Catholic Arab – I think I’ve got that correctly – from Fasuta in Galilee, near the border with Lebannon (both writing predominantly in Arabic) and Yael Globerman and Amir Or (both from Tel Aviv and writing predominantly in Hebrew). Amir Or’s poetry has been extensively translated into English.
To read the full text of Rody’s article (8,000 words), download the pdf from the link below.
© Rody Gorman, 2007
