The Poetry Translation Centre gives the best contemporary poems from Africa, Asia and Latin America a new life in the English language, working with diaspora communities for whom poetry is of great importance.
First I spot nine colours
Next I read eight names
I hear thirty different speeches
With eighteen disparate views
And thirteen different…
Sagaal midab baan arkaa,
Siddeed magac baa ku xiga,
Soddon hadal baan maqlaa,
Siddeed iyo toban af iyo
Saddex iyo toban wajoo
Saantoodu madowdahoo
Sidaa u wareegayoo
Silloon baan eegayay.
Waxaan ma siyaasad baa?
Subxaanyaa laga matalay;
…
15th November
This week’s Poem Podcast is from Somali poet Jaamac Kadiye Cilmi. The poem ‘Politics’ is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then in Somali by Jaamac himself.
1st November
W.N. Herbert, co-editor of ‘So At One With You’, an anthology of the last fifty year of Somali poetry, reflects on editing the book and his own relationship with the Somali poets he has translated.
13th November
Last November the poet, and founder of the Poetry Translation Centre, Sarah Maguire died. Her friend, the poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, wrote this obituary for her in the Arabic newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
The Poetry Translation Centre works with leading poets and translators to share poetry from around the world with people across the UK. If you have read and enjoyed one of our poems please support us by making a donation today.