A run down of the Manchester Translation series 2024
If you could not attend this year’s Manchester Translation series, do not worry! In this article you will find all the activities that were organised in the second edition of our event. This year, we had the wonderful opportunity of welcoming Modern Greek poet Eleni Kefala and translator of over nine languages, Peter Constantine. Here is a summary of what happened:
1. Collaborative Translation Workshop
The week leading up to World Poetry Day (21st of March) began with a Collaborative Translation Workshop organised for Manchester Metropolitan Students and moderated by our guest speakers. Peter Constantine provided a ‘crib’, or basic word-for-word translation of a poem by Eleni Kefala. After that, the groups were tasked with teasing out different wordings and phrasings for the translation. From these different versions, they collaboratively created a single translation with guidance from the visiting translator. What was great about this workshop was that you did not need to have previous knowledge of the source language, nor experience in translation!
2. Lost Wor(l)ds: Intersemiotic Translations Exhibition
Did you know that Peter Constantine is one of the last speakers of Arberishte, a sister language of medieval Albanian? Through his artwork, he raises awareness of language extinction, which UNESCO warns could eradicate 90-95% of our world’s languages by the end of the century. In Lost Wor(l)ds:Intersemiotic Translations, he shows the struggles and interactions between human figures and pre-Homeric Ancient Greek hieroglyphs. Through these interactions, Constantine reconnects with long-forgotten words and reminds us of the close link between language, identity, and humanity.
The exhibition was launched on the 20th of March, and it was displayed at the Manchester Poetry Library until the 20th of April.
3. Hand-printed Broadsides Workshop
Manchester Metropolitan Students got to learn a new creative skill in this workshop organised by Dr Brian Sneeden and Professor Sarah Cleave. They created the most beautiful hand-printed broadsides of Kefala’s poetry, which were displayed at the Poetry Library alongside Constantine’s art.
4. A conversation with Cyprian poet Eleni Kefala and translator Peter Constantine
We celebrated World Poetry Day with a poetry reading of Time Stitches, written by Eleni Kefala and translated into English by Peter Constantine. Our guest speakers read excerpts from the original and the translation, after which they discussed the role that literature, translation, and visual art have in our current geopolitical moment.
It was another great year for the Manchester Translation series. We cannot wait to announce what we have planned for next year!
About the Speakers
Eleni Kefala is a senior lecturer in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Saint Andrews. Her second poetry collection, Time Stitches, was awarded the State Prize for Poetry in Cyprus.
Peter Constantine is a distinguished translator, writer, artist, and activist dedicated to preserving and promoting linguistic diversity. His English translation of Time Stitches featured in the Words Without Borders’ ‘8 Poetry Collections in Translation to Read in 2022’ and was awarded the 2022 Elizabeth Constantinides Prize
About the Host
Brian Sneeden is a poet, literary translator, and editor. His poetry and translations from the Modern Greek have received many awards and recognitions, including the Iowa Review Award in Poetry, the NEA Literature Translation Fellowship, the World Literature Today Translation Award for Poetry, and the PEN/Heim Translation Grant. His most recent translation, Giannisi’s Chimera, is forthcoming from New Directions in 2024. He is a lecturer in creative writing and publishing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
