Absinthe #16: Gastão Cruz

"Breath"

                         Mas il mio dio se ne va in bicicletta

The boys of whom Sandro Penna speaks

are already dead or old and no longer flee

on bicycles that were the image

of desire in the days of summer

with their living wheels swift spokes

moving toward the inaccessible

place where only the sullied

final breath of all summers

might reach their bodies, rare, mercurial


from Absinthe #16, translated by Alexis Levitin

ALTA Conference in Kansas City

A few weeks ago Jessica, Logan, and I packed the car up and drove 13 hours from Detroit down to Kansas City to attend the conference of the American Literary Translators Association. This is definitely my favorite conference and it was great to see some of our old friends and to meet new ones too.

While at the conference I recorded a few brief videos with several of the attendees and will be sharing them on this blog over the course of the next few weeks.

Usually when I go to the ALTA conference the highlight for me is attending the bilingual readings organized by Alexis Levitin, and this year was no different. My favorite session was the Germanic languages reading, particularly Emily Banwell's translation of a novel excerpt by Rayk Wieland and Roger Greenwald's hilarious reading of his translation of poems by Niels Frank. I would definitely recommend picking up Roger's translation from Book Thug.

An odd moment occurred when Open Letter Books publisher Chad Post and I were grabbing an early coffee before one of the sessions ended. A group of electricians (from another conference) walked by the coffee and treats table and, after noticing a sign mentioning that the snacks were for the ALTA conference, one man said "literary translators" in a disdainful tone one might use when referring to a group of people as "assholes!"

Not sure what that was all about.  

Absinthe Names New Editor

Logan David Hayes has been named as the new assistant editor at Absinthe, effective May 4th, 2010. It is expected that he will take over as managing editor in 2028.

Logan's appointment confirms Alexis Levitin's belief than one does not need to be able to read or write to be an editor at Absinthe.

Absinthe editors Jessica Bomarito and Dwayne Hayes are very happy with the arrival of the new editor.

Literary Translation on Youtube

At the past ALTA conference in Minneapolis, I recorded a few panels as well as some interviews I did with translators there. The idea is for these videos to eventually form part of the revamped ALTA website. Meanwhile, I'll be putting them up on Youtube. You can now see Alexis Levitin, who translates Portuguese poetry (including the work of Eugenio de Andrade), discuss translation at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_VHgXPDLjg. He addresses how he got into translation, the importance of translation, translation and the ego, and the value of being a member of ALTA. I'll be posting more clips soon.