Claudia Ott: 'Gold on Lapis Lazuli - The 100 Most Beautiful Oriental Love Poems'
By Mohamed Massad
Bonn, Germany - Following publication of her much praised German translation of The Thousand and One Nights, translator and musician Claudia Ott has turned her attention to the poetry of the Middle East in Gold on Lapis Lazuli, an anthology of 100 poems from three millennia of Middle Eastern love poetry. Qantara.de freelance correspondent Mohamed Massad talked to Ott about the beauty and diversity of poetry from this region.
Your latest publication is an anthology of poetry, Gold on Lapis Lazuli. Where did the idea for this book come from? Claudia Ott: First of all, for me, it was the many poems in The Thousand and One Nights that constituted the heart of the text.
Despite all the excitement of the stories, it is the magic of the poetry that really attracts and holds the listeners and readers, particularly in the original Arabic text.
I have long wanted to publish something that would do justice to the beauty of the poetry, considered so important in the East, particularly something on the genre of love poetry which is, after all, one of the central themes of poetry in all cultures – Middle Eastern poetry especially! One could almost say that the language of love is the language of the Middle East.
Second, I was commissioned to write Gold on Lapis Lazuli – The 100 Most Beautiful Oriental Love Poems by the publisher C.H. Beck as part of The 100 Most Beautiful… series. The series includes titles such as Mankind's 100 Most Beautiful Prayers and The 100 Most Popular German Poems.
The title, Gold on Lapis Lazuli, by the way, comes from an Andalusian-Arab poem which describes the twinkling of stars in a dark blue sky. The metaphor also appears in ancient Egyptian love poetry and again, of course, in the The Thousand and One Nights.
What criteria did you use to select the 100 most beautiful oriental poems?
Each of the 14 themed sections contains a selection of poems from all periods. Of course, it is still a subjective selection. Some of the poems became important to me personally during the course of my studies, or in the years I spent in the Middle East, while others are connected with personal encounters and experiences. And some are there just because I like them. Then there are poems that just had to be included, because they are too well known to be left out of such an anthology.
I chose poems from seven different languages, so not all of them were translated by me. Only a few of them are by me, in fact. My main contribution is a short history of the translations and adaptations from eastern languages that have been done by writers such as Martin Luther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Rückert or Annemarie Schimmel, to more recent works by the likes of Kurdish poet Adel Karasholi and Turkish poet and essayist Zafer Senocak.
In spite of the level of interest, the number of translations of Arabic literature into German is still relatively small. Why is this and how can this situation be rectified?
Unfortunately, political books currently dominate the market and people's perceptions of the modern Middle East. There are many more books published about the Middle East than there are translations of Arabic (or Persian, Turkish, Afghan, etc.) literature. Something similar can be observed with regard to the kind of interest that is given to literature.
While we will read a book in English, French or Russian because we want to read a good book, we tend to read books from Arab countries because we want to find out something about the Arab world.
Why this is so, I cannot say, but it certainly cannot be entirely divorced from the politically charged situation in the Middle East. What I would like to see is Arab literature attracting many more literary readers. It certainly deserves greater recognition!
What sort of a role would you say literary translation has in helping to bring cultures together?
A crucial one. The importance of translators and their work for the dialogue between literatures was something that was made clear to us at a writers' forum in Dubai last year. A great deal has been and continues to be said on this matter.
Translation requires the existence of a real, cooperative relationship and mutual interest between those involved. Unfortunately, however, we still too often encounter a complacent and rather arrogant attitude on the part of the prevailing European literary establishment. The training of literary translators in Eastern languages is certainly something that needs to be intensified and expanded. There are still far too few of them around.
* Mohamed Massad is a freelance writer for Qantara.de. Dr. Claudia Ott is assistant professor at the Institute for Non-European Languages and Cultures of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. This abridged article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from Qantara.de. The full text can be found at http://www.qantara.de/ .
Source: Qantara.de, 30 April 2009, http://www.qantara.de/ Copyright permission is granted for publication.
Mayda del Valle at the White House Poetry Jam
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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Saturday, May 2, 2009
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The rhyme and reason of Great Britain's first female laureate
Telegraph
Carol Ann Duffy has been named as the new Poet Laureate, the first woman to be appointed in the 341-year history of the post.
Writing in the Telegraph, William Langley notes that "For 350 years the post of Poet Laureate, created by Charles II as a pat on the peruke for Dryden’s soapy stanzas about the Restoration, has been filled by men who wished they had stuck to writing. The job pays poorly, comes with an obligation to commemorate important state occasions, and consistently produces work that, down the decades, has proved fit only for the jeers of posterity."
Carol Ann Duffy has been named as the new Poet Laureate, the first woman to be appointed in the 341-year history of the post.
Writing in the Telegraph, William Langley notes that "For 350 years the post of Poet Laureate, created by Charles II as a pat on the peruke for Dryden’s soapy stanzas about the Restoration, has been filled by men who wished they had stuck to writing. The job pays poorly, comes with an obligation to commemorate important state occasions, and consistently produces work that, down the decades, has proved fit only for the jeers of posterity."
Monday, April 20, 2009
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W. S. Merwin awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for poetry
W. S. Merwin won his second Pulitzer Prize for poetry for “The Shadow of Sirius”, a work the Pulitzer committee described as "...collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory."
Merwin's publisher, Copper Canyon Press, describes The Shadow of Sirius:
The nuanced mysteries of light, darkness, temporality, and eternity interweave throughout Merwin's newest collection of poems. "I have only what I remember," he admits, and his memories are focused and profound - well-cultivated loves, the distinct qualities of autumnal light, memories of Pennsylvania miners, a conversation with a boyhood teacher, and "our long evenings and astonishment." From the universe's chiaroscuro shadows, Merwin once again calls upon the language of surprise to illuminate existence. He is writing at the peak of his powers.
His book of poems The Carrier of Ladders was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1970.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “Watching the Spring Festival,” by Frank Bidart (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a book of lyric poems that evinces compassion for the human condition as it explores the constraints that limit the possibility of people changing the course of their lives, and “What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems,” by Ruth Stone (Copper Canyon Press).
Related
W.S. Merwin biography
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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Fanny Howe to receive $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
Reading Fanny Howe—both the poetry and the prose—one has the sense of a life that has been inhabited so intensely and lovingly that even her smallest fragments seem steeped in that experience
CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is pleased to announce that poets Fanny Howe and Ange Mlinko are the winners of its sixth annual Pegasus Awards.
Howe is the recipient of the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Established in 1986 and presented annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition, the Ruth Lilly Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets, and at $100,000 it is one of the nation’s largest literary prizes. Poet and critic Ange Mlinko is the winner of the Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism. The prizes will be presented at the Pegasus Awards ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Tuesday, May 19.
In announcing the Lilly Prize, Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine, said: “Fanny Howe is a religious writer whose work makes you more alert and alive to the earth, an experimental writer who can break your heart. Live in her world for a while, and it can change the way you think of yours.”
“The selection of Fanny Howe as this year’s winner of the Lilly Prize does honor to the traditions—of excellence, importance, and discovery—that the prize has stood for since it was established over 20 years ago,” said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation.
The Poetry Foundation issued the following statement in making the award: “Reading Fanny Howe—both the poetry and the prose—one has the sense of a life that has been inhabited so intensely and lovingly that even her smallest fragments seem steeped in that experience. Her poetry can be elusive and hermetic, and then abruptly and devastatingly candid; it is marked by the pressures of history and culture, yet defiantly, transcendently lyrical. She is a demanding and deeply rewarding artist, and her body of work seems larger, stranger, and more permanent with each new book she publishes.”
Fanny Howe, 68, has written many books of poetry, including Gone (University of California Press, 2003), Selected Poems (UC Press, 2000), On the Ground (Graywolf Press, 2004), and The Lyrics (Graywolf, 2007). She has also written novels, five of which have been collected in one volume called Radical Love. At age 17 Howe left her home in Boston for California and has since spent her life there and in England, Ireland, and Massachusetts. In recent years she has won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has written two collections of essays, The Wedding Dress (UC Press, 2003) and The Winter Sun (Graywolf, 2009). Howe has three grown children and six grandchildren; she currently lives on Martha’s Vineyard.
Ange Mlinko is the third recipient of the Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism. The $10,000 prize is awarded for poetry criticism that is intelligent and learned as well as lively and enjoyable to read. Mlinko, 39, is the author of two books, Matinees (Zoland Books, 1999) and Starred Wire (Coffee House Press, 2005), which was a National Poetry Series winner in 2004 and a finalist for the James Laughlin Award the following year.
The Poetry Foundation issued the following statement in announcing Mlinko’s award: “From Sappho to the Language poets, from Nicolas of Cusa to The Brady Bunch, Ange Mlinko’s criticism is brilliantly wide-ranging; it is eclectic and astringent yet always lucid and generous. We are pleased to recognize a young critic whose distinctive sharp wit and formidable power have helped revitalize the art of writing about poetry.”
Mlinko was born in Philadelphia and currently lives in the lower Hudson Valley, where she raises her two sons. She has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and mathematics from St. John’s College and an MFA from the Creative Writing Program at Brown University. Her poetry and criticism have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry and the Poetry Foundation website, the London Review of Books, The New Yorker, Bookforum, and The Nation, where she also writes an occasional column on language called Lingo.
The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honors a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition. Established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly, the annual prize is sponsored and administered by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. The previous recipients are Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Anthony Hecht, Mona Van Duyn, Hayden Carruth, David Wagoner, John Ashbery, Charles Wright, Donald Hall, A.R. Ammons, Gerald Stern, William Matthews, W.S. Merwin, Maxine Kumin, Carl Dennis, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Linda Pastan, Kay Ryan, C.K. Williams, Richard Wilbur, Lucille Clifton, and Gary Snyder.
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit http://www.poetryfoundation.org/ .
CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is pleased to announce that poets Fanny Howe and Ange Mlinko are the winners of its sixth annual Pegasus Awards.
Howe is the recipient of the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Established in 1986 and presented annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition, the Ruth Lilly Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets, and at $100,000 it is one of the nation’s largest literary prizes. Poet and critic Ange Mlinko is the winner of the Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism. The prizes will be presented at the Pegasus Awards ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Tuesday, May 19.
In announcing the Lilly Prize, Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine, said: “Fanny Howe is a religious writer whose work makes you more alert and alive to the earth, an experimental writer who can break your heart. Live in her world for a while, and it can change the way you think of yours.”
“The selection of Fanny Howe as this year’s winner of the Lilly Prize does honor to the traditions—of excellence, importance, and discovery—that the prize has stood for since it was established over 20 years ago,” said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation.
The Poetry Foundation issued the following statement in making the award: “Reading Fanny Howe—both the poetry and the prose—one has the sense of a life that has been inhabited so intensely and lovingly that even her smallest fragments seem steeped in that experience. Her poetry can be elusive and hermetic, and then abruptly and devastatingly candid; it is marked by the pressures of history and culture, yet defiantly, transcendently lyrical. She is a demanding and deeply rewarding artist, and her body of work seems larger, stranger, and more permanent with each new book she publishes.”
Fanny Howe, 68, has written many books of poetry, including Gone (University of California Press, 2003), Selected Poems (UC Press, 2000), On the Ground (Graywolf Press, 2004), and The Lyrics (Graywolf, 2007). She has also written novels, five of which have been collected in one volume called Radical Love. At age 17 Howe left her home in Boston for California and has since spent her life there and in England, Ireland, and Massachusetts. In recent years she has won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has written two collections of essays, The Wedding Dress (UC Press, 2003) and The Winter Sun (Graywolf, 2009). Howe has three grown children and six grandchildren; she currently lives on Martha’s Vineyard.
Ange Mlinko is the third recipient of the Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism. The $10,000 prize is awarded for poetry criticism that is intelligent and learned as well as lively and enjoyable to read. Mlinko, 39, is the author of two books, Matinees (Zoland Books, 1999) and Starred Wire (Coffee House Press, 2005), which was a National Poetry Series winner in 2004 and a finalist for the James Laughlin Award the following year.
The Poetry Foundation issued the following statement in announcing Mlinko’s award: “From Sappho to the Language poets, from Nicolas of Cusa to The Brady Bunch, Ange Mlinko’s criticism is brilliantly wide-ranging; it is eclectic and astringent yet always lucid and generous. We are pleased to recognize a young critic whose distinctive sharp wit and formidable power have helped revitalize the art of writing about poetry.”
Mlinko was born in Philadelphia and currently lives in the lower Hudson Valley, where she raises her two sons. She has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and mathematics from St. John’s College and an MFA from the Creative Writing Program at Brown University. Her poetry and criticism have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry and the Poetry Foundation website, the London Review of Books, The New Yorker, Bookforum, and The Nation, where she also writes an occasional column on language called Lingo.
The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honors a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition. Established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly, the annual prize is sponsored and administered by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. The previous recipients are Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Anthony Hecht, Mona Van Duyn, Hayden Carruth, David Wagoner, John Ashbery, Charles Wright, Donald Hall, A.R. Ammons, Gerald Stern, William Matthews, W.S. Merwin, Maxine Kumin, Carl Dennis, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Linda Pastan, Kay Ryan, C.K. Williams, Richard Wilbur, Lucille Clifton, and Gary Snyder.
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine and one of the largest literary organizations in the world, exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit http://www.poetryfoundation.org/ .
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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Sandra Beasley awarded 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize
DC Poetry Examiner
Writer Joy Harjo has chosen Sandra Beasley's I Was the Jukebox as the winner of Barnard College's 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize for the best second collection of poems by an American woman poet. The biennial Prize, awarded jointly by Women Poets at Barnard and the publisher W.W. Norton & Company, includes publication of the work and a free public reading at Barnard. I Was the Jukebox will be published by W. W. Norton in April 2010.
Writer Joy Harjo has chosen Sandra Beasley's I Was the Jukebox as the winner of Barnard College's 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize for the best second collection of poems by an American woman poet. The biennial Prize, awarded jointly by Women Poets at Barnard and the publisher W.W. Norton & Company, includes publication of the work and a free public reading at Barnard. I Was the Jukebox will be published by W. W. Norton in April 2010.
Self Publisher Lulu.com Launches Lulu Poetry
Self-publishing site Lulu has launched a Poetry site, http://www.poetry.com/ , where users can connect with other poets and digitally publish their own verse at no cost.
A verse with apologies to Joyce Kilmer
April 14, 2009 (Raleigh, NC)
Now even Joyce Kilmer would assure you and me
We will indeed see a poem lovely as a tree
For Lulu.com launches today
A site on which poetry is on display
It is Lulu Poetry and for poets there will be
Contests to enter, money to win- never a fee
Poets can connect with others and in poetry immerse
And realize success by publishing their verse
http://www.poetry.com/ was the name
Of a company no more– Lulu simply bought the domain
It’s being completely re-hauled and built anew
To bring the high quality associated with Lulu
A place for poets to create, meet and share
With widgets and resources it’s all right there
Need a glossary, some techniques or a word that rhymes?
It’s all at Lulu Poetry -it won’t cost you a dime
“It’s great for all poets,” said Bob Young, Lulu CEO
“if you want to be discovered – this is the place to go!”
“With ratings and reviews – it’s a platform for their work
And at Lulu they can publish – it’s really quite a perk!”
Although launching now, changes will continue to come
As Lulu adds more offerings – this site will be plum.
With the power of Lulu.com - weRead too
Poets can find success and audiences true.
Now we’ve come to the end of our press release rhyme
Need more information? Contact us anytime!
A verse with apologies to Joyce Kilmer
April 14, 2009 (Raleigh, NC)
Now even Joyce Kilmer would assure you and me
We will indeed see a poem lovely as a tree
For Lulu.com launches today
A site on which poetry is on display
It is Lulu Poetry and for poets there will be
Contests to enter, money to win- never a fee
Poets can connect with others and in poetry immerse
And realize success by publishing their verse
http://www.poetry.com/ was the name
Of a company no more– Lulu simply bought the domain
It’s being completely re-hauled and built anew
To bring the high quality associated with Lulu
A place for poets to create, meet and share
With widgets and resources it’s all right there
Need a glossary, some techniques or a word that rhymes?
It’s all at Lulu Poetry -it won’t cost you a dime
“It’s great for all poets,” said Bob Young, Lulu CEO
“if you want to be discovered – this is the place to go!”
“With ratings and reviews – it’s a platform for their work
And at Lulu they can publish – it’s really quite a perk!”
Although launching now, changes will continue to come
As Lulu adds more offerings – this site will be plum.
With the power of Lulu.com - weRead too
Poets can find success and audiences true.
Now we’ve come to the end of our press release rhyme
Need more information? Contact us anytime!