Embodying Translation: Poetry’s Lea(r)nings

We are very pleased to welcome translator, poet, essayist and memoirist Erín Moure to lead an online workshop as part of the MPT Labs series.

Places are limited to 8 participants, and priced at £10 for MPT subscribers, or £39 for a combined subscription and workshop place.

This will take place on Zoom, 8th October, 6.30pm-8.30pm BST / UK time. It is open to participants from around the world, but please make sure you're able to participate at this time.

About this workshop

Translation is an “incorporated performance”. It stems from a textual flow through a body already socially and culturally constituted (and in motion, for these do not stay fixed), and that already has corruptions in its own structure which will mar what passes through it. We can best learn about how language (linguaxe) crosses language (lingua) borders by working in a group (more ears!) with poetry.

We’ll work into English, and the workshop welcomes participants with any level of multilingual experience.

Note: If you use AI to make your translation, it will not be incorporated—you will not have done the living, breathing work—and you will have a hard time answering questions and learning. AI does have its uses and we’ll talk about that, but doing your work for you is not one of those uses, so out of respect for all, skip it this time please.

How to prepare for this workshop

Each participant should bring their translation of a poem, approximately 15–20 lines. Alternatively, you may bring a section of a longer piece you wish to work on.

Please prepare your text in a Word document laid out in landscape orientation with two columns: left column for the original text, right column for your translation.

If your poem is in a non-Roman alphabet, please prepare the document with three columns: left column for the original text, centre column for a 'literal' translation of words in English, and a right hand column with your full translation. Please ensure the document is formatted so the entire page is visible on screen during feedback.

Note: please use a Word Doc file (or similar), and not a pdf. You will need to be able to type during feedback and discussion.

About Erín Moure

Erín Moure has written 24 books—poetry plus essay, memoir—and is translator/co-translator of 33 books of poetry into English (from French, Galician, Spanish, Portuguese, Portuñol), plus two into French (from Galician and English). Recent in English: Chus Pato’s A Poem Thinks Itself Out in Final Lines (Pamenar Press, 2024) Chantal Neveu’s you (Book*hug Press, 2024) Andrés Ajens’s So-Lair Storm (Black Sun Lit, 2024). Her own latest: Theophylline: an a-poretic migration via the modernisms of Rukeyser, Bishop, Grimké (Anansi, 2023). Recipient of two Governor General’s Literary Awards in Canada (poetry and translation), she holds two honorary doctorates, in Canada and in Spain, and has been International Translator in Residence at Queen’s College (Oxford) and Woodberry Creative Fellow (Harvard). She lives in Montréal. More at https://erinmoure.mystrikingly.com/