Developed in partnership with the poet Amarjit Chandran, the archive includes the recordings of established and less well-known poets, both young and old, such as Imtiaz Dharker, Mimi Khalvati, Kit Fan and Saradha Soobrayen reading a selection of their poems. Launched on 12 April, the website will also provide access to the poetry readings as well as a downloadable educational resource pack, including contextual material and background information on the themes raised by the project, serving as a learning tool for teachers and young learners.
Many of the recordings were undertaken in the British Library studio but some were recorded in the poets’ homes. A poetry reading was recorded in English or in the language of composition, often with an English translation. Each reading was followed with a short interview covering the poets' personal and creative histories, and the issue of poetry in translation generally.
Highlights from Between Two Worlds include:
• David Morley, whose work uses many Romani words and phrases, reads his long poem ‘Kings’, the first time the complete work has been recorded
• Saradha Soobrayen reading her poem 'Mo Ti Bébé' in both English and Mauritian Creole versions
• Satyendra Srivastava reading his poem 'Sir Winston Churchill Knew My Mother' in both Hindi and English versions
• Kurdish poet Choman Hardi reading 'Escape Journey, 1988', a poem selected for the GCSE English syllabus
Between Two Worlds features poetry from a broad variety of countries including: Mexico; Ukraine and Turkey and poets reading in languages such as Russian (Yuri Kolker, Oleg Borushko, Nigar Hasan-Zadeh, Lydia Grigorieva, Ravil Bukharaev); Chinese (Liu Hongbin); Urdu (Saqi Farooqi); Punjabi (Amarjit Chandan) and Kurdish (Choman Hardi).
“The word in print is illuminating and the sound of the word digitally recorded is equally fascinating as it resurrects the writer's work every time it is played”, commented project partner Amarjit Chandan. “The project gave me an opportunity to come closer to my fellow poets of different tongues and cultures, sharing our life and creative experiences of post-war literary Britain.”
Stephen Cleary, Curator of Drama and Literature Recordings at the British Library said: “Between Two Worlds was developed to record for posterity a wide range of poets who would together exemplify that multiplicity of diverse voices and backgrounds. The British Library is gratified that the recorded poets were generous enough to allow the Library to make the poetry recordings freely available to all via the Library’s web site.”
The Library has extensive holdings of poets in performance, either recorded live or featuring on commercially issued CDs and LPs. Significant collections include: the master tapes of the British Council's series ‘The Poet Speaks’, which comprises readings and interviews covering over 200 poets, recorded between 1955 and 1975; and the National Poetry Centre readings recorded by the Sound Archive from 1979 to 1989.
Between Two Worlds aimed to record poets who are unrepresented or under-represented in existing Library holdings and other collections such as the Poetry Archive recording project spearheaded by Andrew Motion.
It is expected that the material generated by the project will also be of interest to academics researching in the area of non-Anglophone poets who work in England, and of scholars active in the field of modern poetry in translation more generally.
A free poetry reading will take place at the British Library to celebrate the project on 12 April including readings from Imtiaz Dharker, Lydia Grigorieva, Ravil Bukharaev, Saqi Farooqi and Mimi Khalvati.
-Ends-
Notes to Editors
Countries represented:
The poets came from many different countries of origin including: Hungary; Turkey; Tatarstan; Iran; India; Chile; Pakistan; UK; Iraq; Azerbaijan; Hong Kong; Southern Kurdistan (Iraq); Mexico; Bulgaria; China; Ukraine; Russia and Poland.
Poets recorded:
Poets recorded so far include: Moniza Alvi; Fadhil Assultani; Ravil Bukharaev; Oleg Borushko; Amarjit Chandan; Adam Czerniawski; Diego de Jesus; Imtiaz Dharker; Eduardo Embry; Kit Fan; Moris Farhi; Saqi Farooqi; Omar García-Obregón; George Gömöri; Lydia Grigorieva; Choman Hardi; Nigar Hasan-Zadeh; Liu Hongbin; Kapka Kassabova; Mimi Khalvati; Esmail Khoi; Yuri Kolker; Gwyneth Lewis; David Morley; Mohan Rana; Roberto Rivera-Reyes; Sudeep Sen; Saradha Soobrayen; Satyendra Srivastava and Saadi Yousef.
Partner information:
Amarjit Chandan, the Library's partner in the project, was born in Nairobi but grew up in India. He has published eight collections of poems in Punjabi and has edited several anthologies of world poetry, including two collections of British Punjabi writings, Away from Oneself and Lost Between Two Shores, and has experience of translating a wide range of poets into Punjabi. Amarjit migrated to this country in 1980 and has lived in London since then. In 2005 Amarjit donated his personal audio archive to the British Library.
Advisory board:
The other members of the advisory board for the project are Fiona Sampson (Editor Poetry Review), Professor Stephen Hart (Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies, UCL), Valentina Polukhina (Professor Emeritus of Russian Literature, University of Keele) and Siân Williams ('Outside In: Children's Literature in Translation' project). It was the role of the advisory board to select the 30 poets to be recorded over the three-year course of the project.
- See more at: http://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2011/april/dual-cultures-between-two-worlds-poetry-and-translation#sthash.pypPUQDX.dpuf
