A Note From the Editors

When we encounter problems of understanding or other issues caused by language differences, it is common for us to employ a simple metaphor: the barrier. Like a fence or a wall, an unknown language keeps us out. Ignorance of a foreign tongue doesn’t just prevent us from understanding individual words and phrases, it denies us entry into another culture, another way of thinking, another world. As there is no one who understands all human languages, the language barrier is something that, sooner or later, stops us all. Making it through this heavily defended barrier is possible, but only by following in the footsteps of a guide who has the experience and expertise needed to find the crossing points that lead to the other side of the wall.

This special translation-themed issue of New Verse Review features formal poetry from around the world. Even someone with a rudimentary knowledge of world literature will know that the poetic traditions of the world have employed form of one kind or another for millennia at least, but, in modern times, the elevation of free verse in the West and the cultural dominance of the United States have pushed “formless” poetry into every corner of the globe. Like many of those who enjoy reading and writing poetry in form, we have long wondered what our counterparts are up to in other languages; who is keeping the flame of form burning outside of the anglosphere? 

For this special issue, we reached out to literary translators doing excellent work in a wide variety of languages with a request that, admittedly, would be difficult to accomplish. We didn’t just want to be guided through formal poetry from around the world, we wanted to feature only the work of living poets. Before they could even engage in their craft, these translators had to find poets in their languages who are currently writing in form. After completing that first difficult task, they faced the challenge of taking excellent poems from one language and rendering them into beautiful English poetry. This challenge, as Stephen Sartarelli pointed out in the translator’s note to his translation of Umberto Saba’s Songbook (Canzoniere), “is one of the most daunting a literary translator ever has to face.” The translators whose work is featured in this issue accepted that challenge and brought considerable talent and skill to their work.

In this issue, we are featuring poetry written in 15 languages, by 19 poets, rendered into English by 19 different translators, sometimes alone, and sometimes as translator teams. You will encounter the familiar and expected—from the Italian sonnet to the Japanese tanka—as well as the unfamiliar and unexpected—from the Swahili mashairi to the Armenian haiku. We hope that you will enjoy exploring this collection as much as we have, and be grateful for those translators who have taken the time to guide us across seemingly inaccessible barriers into beautiful new worlds.

Sincerely,

D.A. Cooper and Mary Grace Mangano