News and blogs from Arc Publications https://www.arcpublications.co.uk Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:12:55 GMT Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:00:00 GMT On Holocaust Memorial Day people come together in towns and cities across the UK to remember the victims of the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945, when 6 million Jews were systematically murdered, as were thousands of disabled people, Roma people, gay men, political opponents of the Nazis, and many others. Many Holocaust victims were never able to tell their stories, and the reading, like the anthology, also includes poems from the next generation, who speak in their names.

In our annual readings we remember that genocide did not stop in 1945, and so we also recall more recent events in Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Palestine, and elsewhere.

By reading these poems, we can help to make sure that the voices of those who speak out against genocide are not silenced.
Past readings, while always taking Poetry of the Holocaust: An Anthology as their basis, have also included poems from collections by other publishers, as well as from Arc books by Matilda Olkinaite (The Cerulean Bird, translated by Laima Vincë), Paul Celan (Eye of the Times, translated by Jean Boase-Beier), Volker von Törne (Memorial to the Future, translated by Jean Boase-Beier and Anthony Vivis), Ro Mehrooz (Poems Written Through Barbed-wire Fences, translated by the poet and James Byrne), Mourid Barghouti (Midnight and Other Poems, translated by Radwa Ashour), and Dilawar Karadaghi (My Country's Hair Turned White, translated by Jiyar Homer and Mike Baynham), among others. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/poetry-for-holocaust-memorial-day-tuesday-27-january-2026-317 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/poetry-for-holocaust-memorial-day-tuesday-27-january-2026-317 Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:50:36 -0100
NO, I DON’T HAVE A HOME OR THE STRENGTH TO SPEAK

[Extract]
Even with eyes, we were blind. Even with a mouth, we were silent.
They washed our brains with illiteracy. What else is to be washed? What?

Root-cut, severed, forced to dry out in the sun.
So much we have suffered. What else is there to suffer? What?

No moon, no stars. What else is there? What?
Is there any light in my life? What can I see? What?

No space underfoot. No strength to speak. What do I have to say, what?
When no-one listens, who do I speak to? What would I say, what?

from
Poems Written Through Barbed-wire Fences by Ro Mehrooz (bilingual edition),
translated from the Rohingya by the poet and James Byrne,
forthcoming 1 November 2024 ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/national-poetry-day-316 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/national-poetry-day-316 Thu, 03 Oct 2024 16:14:36 -0100
Razmik was an extraordinary, charismatic, larger-than-life figure, known and revered throughout Armenia. We became aware of this on the first of our three visits to Armenia when an 8-year old boy out on a school trip in Yerevan ran up to him to ask him ‘Are you Mr Davoyan?’, then shouted in great excitement to his classmates who immediately surrounded him. The very same day, when we were visiting a church in the countryside outside the capital, an old man, worse for wear from drink, recognised Razmik and implored us all to come to his house for a meal. Indeed everywhere we went, Razmik was recognised by young and old alike and greeted with enthusiasm – everyone knew his poetry.

Through Razmik’s poetry we were introduced to a culture so very different from ours and learnt of a history that is still rarely talked about outside Armenia. His long poem, Requiem, is, in part, a response to, and a reflection upon, the Armenian Genocide of 1915, and far from being bitter and recriminatory, it is full of wisdom and acceptance and hope for the future. Razmik’s poetry is by turns monumental (as though hewn out of Armenia’s rocks like many of its ancient churches) and intimate, direct yet mystical, and resonates with a uniquely Armenian voice.

Razmik will be mourned and greatly missed inside Armenia and by Armenians everywhere and here too at Arc, for as well as losing an exceptional poet, we have lost a very dear friend.

"from Requiem (Arc, 2016)

Thoughts explode and blossom within me
And flowers emerge
On the delicate stems of my feelings.

These colourful flowers of my love,
Threaded through with the whisper of birth,
Open for you in the thickness of the dark.
They fill the world with the music of the soul.
I have become an eye, an ear, a spirit,
In which blossoms burst,
Flowers open,
In which is woven the inexplicable tale
Of the colourful beauty of love.

*

Leave our family tree standing
On the blue hills of memory.
Leave it…
It will teach you how to live,
Leave it,
To scatter perfume for you
From its myriad lips



" ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/rip-razmik-davoyan-315 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/rip-razmik-davoyan-315 Wed, 19 Jan 2022 18:09:12 -0100
To add a personal note, here is a photograph of Louis, Mirjam and Tony (taken by Angela on one of our trips to Amsterdam) and a picture of Louis and Angela (taken by Tony at the RNCM). We have very happy memories of our times with this remarkable and charismatic man. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/in-memoriam-louis-andriessen-314 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/in-memoriam-louis-andriessen-314 Fri, 23 Jul 2021 16:51:04 -0100
It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death on the 3rd of May of the Scottish poet, Brian Johnstone. Arc published Brian’s three full collections, The Book of Belongings, Dry Stone Work, and the last book, The Marks on the Map, appearing only weeks before his death.

Brian is of course known for the crucial role he played in the late nineties in establishing StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry festival, held every March in St Andrews, and it was my pleasure and privilege to work alongside him in planning a new Scottish Poetry Festival. From the very beginning Brian, who had a lot of experience in organising poetry readings throughout Fife, had ambitious hopes for what has become StAnza (the cunningly-spelled title was his idea). We were keen to make the festival international in scope, and Brian had the vision and energy to see how this could be achieved. He saw immediately that it would be crucial to the festival’s success to involve the newly rebuilt Byre Theatre, and to make it our hub, and he used his gifts of persuasion to convince the theatre management of this new idea, namely that poetry would in fact bring big audiences. Following advice to make the festival independent of the University, we were able to attract our own funding, and Brian had a tremendous gift for persuading people to back the festival. This was because he believed in it so strongly and funders recognised that commitment and were brought on board.

Brian was a man of great generosity and human warmth, with a gift for making friends. With his artist wife, Jean, he welcomed many visiting poets to their house in the Fife countryside. He was a dedicated poet with a distinctive, often melancholy voice and a passion for memorialising what others might overlook. His interest in music and art led him into fruitful collaboration. Brian will always be remembered as the man who made StAnza happen.

ANNA CROWE, Honorary President & former Artistic Director of StAnza ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/a-tribute-to-brian-johnstone-313 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/a-tribute-to-brian-johnstone-313 Mon, 10 May 2021 13:32:55 -0100
This appreciation from The National is just one of the many that have appeared in the past week:
Tributes pour in for Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti

He will be greatly missed. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/mourid-barghouti-rip-312 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/mourid-barghouti-rip-312 Wed, 03 Mar 2021 17:57:34 -0100
earth,
let me know once more
the scent of your grass
and the rushing of trees
in your forests, –
let me swim once more
to the light-filled banks.
let the still grey bark of your pines
be my friend again.
for now it all is drowning
in blood-filled fog.
the leaves scream,
and the sun pierces.

earth,
let me know once more
the scent of your grass.

" Rajzel Zychlinski, translated from the Yiddish by Jean Boase-Beier.
From Poetry of the Holocaust: An Anthology

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day this year, we’re highlighting a number of our titles by poets whose writing has been shaped by the Holocaust.

Poetry of the Holocaust: An Anthology edited by Jean Boase-Beier & Marian de Vooght

This anthology aims to give a fuller picture than do most Holocaust anthologies of the poetry that arose from the Holocaust. Here there are poems from languages that are less often associated with the Holocaust (such as Norwegian or Japanese), and there are poems by, or about, those victimised for perceived disabilities, or because they were gay, or because their political or religious beliefs made them targets of Nazi hatred.

You can hear the editors Jean Boase-Beier and Marian de Vooght reading from the anthology

While I am Drawing Breath, by Rose Ausländer
translated from the German and introduced by Anthony Vivis & Jean Boase-Beier

‘There were two ways to respond to that unbearable reality’ wrote Rose Ausländer thirty years later, remembering the Czernowitz ghetto under the Nazis. ‘Either one could despair entirely, or one could occupy a different, spiritual reality […] while we waited for death, there were those of us who dwelt in dreamwords – our traumatic home amidst our homelessness. To write was to live.’

Memorial to the Future, by Volke von Törne
translated from the German by Jean Boase-Beier

Volke von Törne was born in 1934, the son of a unit commander in the SS. Today, he is remembered internationally for his work as a Director of the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste), an organisation founded in 1958 with an admission of German guilt for the war and the Holocaust and a pledge to make reparation. Von Törne’s poignant poetry is a powerful and moving articulation of the psychological burden still carried by countless people today through no fault of their own.

Recycling, by Tadeusz Rózewicz
translated from the Polish by Barbara Plebanek & Tony Howard

‘Rózewicz is a poet of chaos with a nostalgia for order. Around him and in himself he sees only broken fragments, a senseless rush… his world is situated between the holocaust of the last war and the threat of future annihilation.’ Czeslaw Milosz

‘I am haunted by the vision of history and politics which I draw from Rózewicz.’
Tom Paulin

Sometimes a Single Leaf, by Esther Dischereit
translated from the German by Iain Galbraith

‘From these splinters, flowers bloom: where the dead lie, trees grow and we must walk among them. In these poems, Esther Dischereit, whose mother was one of the few who survived the Holocaust in hiding within Nazi Germany, lays the present over the past with piercing effect.’ Preti Taneja

SPECIAL OFFER: 25% off all the above titles for ONE WEEK ONLY (until 3 February 2021). ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/holocaust-memorial-day-27-january-2021-311 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/holocaust-memorial-day-27-january-2021-311 Wed, 27 Jan 2021 11:24:49 -0100
Arc has published collections by both these poets before, and to celebrate these new titles, we are, until the end of August, offering their previously published books at a special price equivalent to a 40% discount. We hope that, as well as being tempted to buy their new collections, you will take advantage of this special offer. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/new-collections-by-john-kinsella-and-gerdur-kristny-300 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/new-collections-by-john-kinsella-and-gerdur-kristny-300 Sun, 16 Aug 2020 15:17:13 -0100
Because producing an anthology of this nature is very expensive (apart from production costs there were some rights payments to be made and fees and complimentary copies to be sent to translators and relatives of the anthologised poets) we decided to crowd-fund, and were overwhelmed by the generosity of those who supported the project, and helped us to exceed our target by almost double the amount we asked for. Since then, we have held a number of presentations by the Editors of the anthology, Jean Boase-Beier and Marian de Vooght, which have made a huge impact on audiences. All of which have resulted in praise for the anthology and have elicited many heartfelt comments from readers, not an insignificant number of whom have been personally affected by the Holocaust.

But where are the reviews? We are puzzled that an anthology of this importance has only resulted in two reviews (a very short one by Keith Richmond in the ASLEF Journal and a detailed and perceptive one by Lou Sarabadzic in the online journal Asymptote), despite the fact that we sent out numerous review copies to leading newspapers, journals and poetry magazines. And while we are quite resigned to Arc titles not being featured in round-ups in the national press of recently published poetry books (is this because we don't have anybody working for us in London?), we thought that a book of this significance and impact might at least get a mention. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/27-january-2020-holocaust-memorial-day-294 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/27-january-2020-holocaust-memorial-day-294 Mon, 27 Jan 2020 12:41:03 -0100
"This month, our Inpress Translated Book of the Month is the multilingual poetry anthology Poetry of the Holocaust, edited by Jean Boase-Beier and Marian de Vooght and published by Arc Publications.

This is a new, very innovative anthology, which aims to be more comprehensive than previous publications on the topic. It includes poems about the Holocaust written in many languages — German, Dutch, Polish or Yiddish, but also Greek, Norwegian, Japanese — and not only those written by Jewish Holocaust victims across Europe but also those written by people who were targeted on other grounds.

Jean Boase-Beier, one of the anthology's editors, has answered our questions thoroughly to tell us more about this big, very important project, how it differs from previous ones, and what it means, from a personal, human, historical and technical point of view, to translate and study Holocaust poetry."

• Read the full interview
• Look Inside the book
• For further info or to order a copy, click here. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/interview-jean-boase-beier-on-poetry-of-the-holocaust-289 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/interview-jean-boase-beier-on-poetry-of-the-holocaust-289 Thu, 22 Aug 2019 15:26:10 -0100
"It allows shoppers to see what life is like for people who have fled Myanmar.

LONDON, Aug 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British shoppers were given the chance to experience the world's largest refugee camp on Monday when a charity attempted to recreate the jungles of southern Bangladesh - home to nearly a million displaced Rohingya - in a London mall.

The interactive installation by the British Red Cross allows shoppers to see what life is like for the refugees, who fled Myanmar in their hundreds of thousands during a brutal military crackdown in 2017.

Nearly two years after the crackdown, the Red Cross said it wanted to ensure the public did not forget the Rohingya and raise awareness of their plight as the monsoon rains lash their flimsy shelters."

• Read A Corner of the World's Largest Refugee Camp Pops Up in London Shopping Mall, published in Global Citizen.

Arc published I am a Rohingya this month. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/a-corner-of-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-pops-up-in-london-shopping-mall-288 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/a-corner-of-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-pops-up-in-london-shopping-mall-288 Tue, 20 Aug 2019 12:27:43 -0100
Jade Cuttle reviews I am a Rohingya in the Daily Telegraph.

• 'The talented poets living in the world's largest refugee camp' ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-talented-poets-living-in-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-290 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-talented-poets-living-in-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-290 Thu, 01 Aug 2019 13:44:21 -0100
'Border poetry' depicts the life led by conscript soldiers and their officers in the remote and barren borderlands to China's north-west. The Great Wall overshadows their struggles and privations, as they battle against nomadic tribes and inclement weather.

'Poetry of chaos and loss' is a type of poetry that relies on eyewitness accounts of the many occasions when China has been torn apart by external invasions on the one hand, or internal rebellion on the other. One of its greatest exponents is Yuan Haowen, who somehow survived the Mongols' annihilation of the Jin dynasty, and then lived for several decades under the Yuan. Over fifty other poets are represented.

To give you an idea of what to expect, here are two poems that, for reasons of space, we were not able to include in the anthology:
]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-iron-flute-war-poetry-from-ancient--medieval-china-286 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-iron-flute-war-poetry-from-ancient--medieval-china-286 Tue, 23 Jul 2019 13:57:48 -0100
HB: What led you to work with classical Chinese poetry?

KM: The back story, for what it's worth, is as follows. Like anyone who studied Eng Lit at university, I was familiar with Pound's Cathay and Waley's translations. But that was it. I never followed it up in later life: not until I was in my mid 40s, when by sheer chance (Serendipity being the presiding deity who's ruled my life so far) I stumbled across a slim little UNESCO-sponsored hardback called Poems of Solitude in a local second-hand bookshop, a volume which was both beautifully produced and fetchingly cheap (£4.50). I bought it more for the illustrations than the poems (which were in fact Michael Bullock's lovely translations*). But I then put it on my bedside table, and would just dip into one or two of the poems it contained each night. They blew me away. How could they sound so modern, and yet have been written nearly two thousand years ago? I sought other translations of Chinese poetry, and quickly realized two things: a) the same Chinese poem could call forth from each translator a dramatically different poem in English, and I wondered why this was the case (it's not true of European poetry in translation); b) we seemed to have been living through a Golden Age of translation from Chinese and Japanese and Korean literature, and why had I never before noticed? One thing led to another. I started teaching myself Chinese. My wife found me a private tutor. I then started studying modern Mandarin at SOAS. Gradually I became better and better acquainted with classical Chinese at the same time, and began making my own increasingly confident translations.

HB: How is translating a poem different from translating other material?

KM: Poetry demands, not more artistry than translating prose, but perhaps a little more sheer stylistic flair. All I mean by this, is that any successful translation must result in a poem that works reasonably well in the target language: well enough to stand on its own, I guess. Formally it will demand a surer sense of rhythm, metre, rhyme (in my case usually, though not always, internal) etc.

HB: Do you have a process you follow for the translations?

KM: My process is explained in some detail in the Introduction to my anthology: character by character (or, where necessary, binome by binome), often using a grid, and consulting a range of dictionaries and Chinese commentaries; and then, sometimes in a rush, and sometimes over several more weeks, hammering the literal translation into something more idiomatic and attractive in English.

HB: What particular difficulties are there in translating classical Chinese into English?

KM: Classical Chinese is an extraordinarily concise language, employing something a bit like the sort of condensed syntax that used to be called for when people still sent telegrams. It rarely uses pronouns, for instance, and the tenses are usually absent. This throws up interpretative challenges, of course; but never has it been truer that these challenges translate into wonderful creative opportunities. Allusions to Chinese history, mythology, religious doctrines (Daoist or Buddhist), to the Confucian Classics, or to other earlier poetry can easily trip the Western translator up (this is where the Chinese commentaries really come into their own).

HB: Where did you find the poems for The Iron Flute?

KM: Most of the poems for this anthology came from the following sources: well-known Chinese anthologies and other collections, either printed or electronic; my own library; the SOAS library; and in a few cases from just trawling the Chinese web for certain key terms, which I know I'd expect to find in any Chinese war poem. (Is this cheating?) It's taken many years to get this far. I've still got both on my PC and on my own bookshelves an awful lot of Chinese war poems that I've not yet got round to translating!

• Incidentally, I e-mailed Michael Bullock shortly before he died, and told him what sort of life-changing effect his little book had had on me. He wrote back, and sent me his most recent book of verse inspired by Chinese poetry. A great honour. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-iron-flute-an-interview-with-kevin-maynard-285 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-iron-flute-an-interview-with-kevin-maynard-285 Thu, 30 May 2019 12:16:06 -0100
Because of the high regard in which Razmik Davoyan is held in Armenia (for decades, his children's poems have been part of the school curriculum and there is always somebody in the street who wants to shake his hand or talk to him in a cafe), our visit caused a lot of interest. We were interviewed for newspapers and the television -- how had we come across Razmik's work? what did we find most attractive about his poetry? did we have plans to publish further work by him in the future? -- and even had a very enjoyable 45-minute meeting with the President of Armenia and his wife at which the conversation covered everything from poetry on mobile phones, to British history, to fairy stories.

The presentation of the Arc edition of Requiem on our final night was a very moving affair. Before a large audience, Tony made an introductory speech about how Arc had come to publish Razmik's poetry in Armine's excellent translations in the first place, and I read some short sections of the poem in English, before Razmik read the central section, 'Give Me My Eyes...', followed by Armine reading her translation of the same section. The evening concluded with a priest representing the Catholicos of the Armenian Orthodox Church (the equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury) talking about the importance of the poem in relation to Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, and saying a short prayer. And finally, as everybody was about to leave, a close friend of Razmik's came onto the stage and paid an impromptu heartfelt tribute to him as a poet and a man, which, judging from the applause, expressed the feelings of the entire audience.

The presentation evening was filmed in its entirety, and apparently snippets have already appeared on television in Armenia. We haven't yet received the final film, but we did record Razmik and Armine reading from Requiem at home, and you can see this here.

I'm writing this blog on Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, 24 April. Today, most of the population of Yerevan, as well as those living further afield, will visit the Genocide Memorial on a hilltop at the edge of the city and leave a flower, and for days afterwards, there will be a huge floral carpet of red and white surrounding the monument and its eternal flame, as pictured on the front cover of Requiem. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/arc-visits-armenia-284 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/arc-visits-armenia-284 Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:35:39 -0100
Tony Curtis - Late Night Poetry at the Queen

Much-loved Irish poet Tony Curtis will be reading from his most recent collection, Approximately in the Key of C. His poetry captures the small beauties found in the imbalances and imperfections we take for granted, with each poem discovering those moment-by-moment truths that together compose a life and give it meaning.

FREE ADMISSION
Fri 16th Nov, 9:30pm
Queen's Hotel, Todmorden
More details

Skald: The Viking Warrior and a Reykjavik Murder

Hear celebrated journalist-poet Gerður Kristný read from her new work, Drápa: A Reykjavík Murder Mystery, and encounter the seething verses of two Viking-era warrior poets in this compelling event held in the atmospheric Todmorden Unitarian Church.

Tickets £5
Thu 22nd November, 7:30pm
Unitarian Church, Todmorden
More details ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/arc-poets-at-the-inaugural-todmorden-book-festival-283 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/arc-poets-at-the-inaugural-todmorden-book-festival-283 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 13:11:44 -0100
Looking back, the poem 'Cherry Time', first published in 2004, brings out some of the preoccupations that were pushing me in this direction: fatherhood, home-building, loss, the nature of time, knowledge, memory. Most of the poems in this book have been written since then. Some reflect on early life, or on the mysteries of parenthood, others mourn the loss of family members or friends, or register the wonder of some event or natural phenomenon. Still others are concerned with a notion of translation – in its broadest, protean sense – as a living current of preservation through transformation. Some of the poems themselves look like versions of work by writers in various other languages ('after' Montale, Su-Tung-Po, Yves Bonnefoy and so on), but such poems build solely on a phrase or two of an existing poem, and, judged by any conventional criteria, would not be allowed to call themselves translations. In the end it is not for me to decide what these poems are about. In truth, they were not written 'about' anything at all. They have their origins in what the philosopher Ernst Bloch called "the darkness of the lived moment", and have hopefully preserved something of that darkness while, through writing rather than purpose, becoming something else again.

Iain's new book, The True Height of the Ear, is published on 31 July 2018

Register your interest here to receive an email reminder upon publication ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/some-thoughts-on-the-true-height-of-the-ear-282 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/some-thoughts-on-the-true-height-of-the-ear-282 Mon, 09 Jul 2018 15:48:48 -0100
While Naïr notes the tales of the Mahabharata bled into her consciousness in the same manner it did for many South Asian children, through stories passed down from older generations, or else manifested in popular culture through plays, films and comics, her specific idea for how to approach the epic was more directly inspired by two adaptations released in 2010. Both of these examined the story from an entirely new angle, and so sparked in Naïr the desire to put her own spin on the tale. And this she does, presenting the story of the Mahabharata through poems which give the reader an insight into nineteen different perspectives, not given the centre stage in the original. Out of these nineteen, sixteen are women, and by magnifying and refracting the voices of figures formerly confined to the periphery of the original tale Naïr presents a refreshing new feminine vision of the Mahabharata.

Naïr gives voice to both those women who play larger roles in the Kuruksetra conflict, such as Satryvita, the fisher-queen matriarch of the Kuru dynstasty, and Amba/Shikhandi, the wronged princess who is reborn to take revenge in the final battle, as well as those who are shunned altogether by the original narrative, like Poorna, the handmaiden who despite her pivotal role is not even given a name in the original. A significant feature of this shift in perspective, is that in Until the Lions these women are granted a greater level of agency than they were in antiquity. In the Mahabharata, Satryvita's father negotiates greedily to secure her and her future son's place on the throne, however in Naïr's version Satyavati does it of her own volition. This twisting of the original narrative gives its female characters depth, and allows the reader to feel more keenly the motivation for their actions, as well as the inevitable pain they would often bring.

In her varied use of poetic forms, Naïr conveys the distinctiveness of each narrative she presents with great attention given to the idiosyncrasies of each character's anger or grief, whether it be relentless, chaotic or controlled. For example, when writing from the joint perspective of Amba and - as she is reborn following her death - Shikhandi, Naïr recreates this sense of two bodies and two voices both being occupied by the same soul by alternating between forms within the poem, as well as switching typeface and colour tones to suggest a shift from past to present, as one incarnation leads into another. Similarly, when writing from the perspective of Mohini in Jeremiad for the Debris of Stars, the poem visually evokes the emotions of the voice speaking as the text grows and shrinks, and words such as "curse" seem almost to fluctuate between being whispered and shouted from the page.

For those not already familiar with the Mahabharata, its sprawling scope may be off-putting; however there is thankfully a dramatis personae included which proves extremely useful in keeping track of the characters and how they relate to one another. There certainly is a lot going on in Until the Lions: Echoes from The Mahabharata, and that is precisely what makes it such an enriching read. It is a thing of beauty, a wonderful feminist revision of an Indian epic, which serves to deepen the reader's emotional investment in the original. Naïr's attentive and unflinching verse illuminates stories which previously existed only in the shadows of the Mahabharata and deftly weaves them back into the epic's narrative, giving a voice to those history has all too often ignored. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-forgotten-voices-of-the-mahabharata-281 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-forgotten-voices-of-the-mahabharata-281 Fri, 20 Apr 2018 10:56:01 -0100
From this collection, it certainly seems that Baratynsky's life and work were comparable to those of his contemporaries - his biography reads like a novel of exile and redemption, and of finding meaning through philosophy, as many great writers did during his period. Baratynsky came from a noble family which had fallen from favour; as an individual, he fell even further after stealing from a fellow student in St. Petersburg. While he would eventually return to favour, even being able to call Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky a friend, his exile led him to travel Europe, taking him to Finland, France, Italy and Germany, interacting with Romanticism and German philosophy. The influence this had on his work can be seen in how he combines the impersonal tone typical of the 18th century with the more Romantic themes of selfhood and real, personal reactions to the events which had an impact on his life. For example, in the opening poem of Half-Light, addressed to the Prince, Baratynsky states his intention to recall the memories of his past exactly as they were, filled with both 'inward strife' and 'exalted love'. The deeply personal nature of the poems is again revealed in those he dedicated to Pushkin, a close friend, 'Autumn' and 'Novinskoe', the former of which demonstrates the pain felt after the death of a friend, but from a certain distance, as he uses the allegory of the encroaching winter to symbolise his pain. A broader Romantic influence can be seen in his references to antiquity in 'Rhyme', 'Achilles', and 'The Last Poet', while the influence of French Romantic Rousseau is visible in his staunch refusal to present himself in a more favourable light, seen in 'The Admission'. While Baratynsky may have striven to use an impersonal tone in his poems, the collection France has bought together paints a very solid picture of a man deeply affected by his experiences in life.

Regarding the technicality of the translations, France has clearly put a lot of thought into how best to present these poems to a modern audience. In his introduction to the collection he refers to Jill Higg's earlier translations of Baratynsky, and her dedication to maintaining the original meter and rhyme of the poems. France chooses a different method, opting for 'close' over direct translations, with the main goal of evoking the same sentiments in a modern reader as would have existed for Baratynsky's contemporaries. While I cannot comment on the extent to which France may have adjusted the language or structure of the originals, I can say with certainty that he achieved his main goal. From knowing nothing of Baratynsky before picking up this collection, I put it down with the feeling that not only would I from now on hold his work in great esteem, but I understood and could empathise with the inner workings of this 19th century poet. ]]> https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-rightful-place-of-yevgeny-baratynsky-280 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/the-rightful-place-of-yevgeny-baratynsky-280 Mon, 05 Mar 2018 11:58:18 -0100 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/menno-wigman-279 https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/blog/menno-wigman-279 Thu, 01 Feb 2018 16:10:29 -0100