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 TRANSLATION CAFÉ 

CTITC
CENTER FOR THE TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY TEXT

MTTLC
MA Programme for the TRANSLATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY LITERARY TEXT

TRANSLATION

CAFÉ

Review of Contemporary Texts in Translation and E-Learning

Nr.32/April 15, 2008

Director: LIDIA VIANU

© CTITC

    MTTLC

ISSN 1842 – 9149

Issue Editor: LIDIA VIANU and ANDREEA DIACONU

Board of  Advisors:

RUTH FAINLIGHT

GEORGE SZIRTES

ADAM SORKIN

JOHN MOLE

These translations  are an online seminar of literary translation, part

of Lidia Vianu’s course [Guide to Contemporary Literature and Its Translation],

and a session of E-Learning in the MA Programme for the Translation of the

Contemporary Literary Text, directed by Lidia Vianu.

The texts have also been discussed in translation group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/translationcafe/ 

poetry pRO

A collaboration between Lidia Vianu, Professor of contemporary British literature at the English Department of the University of Bucharest, and poetry p f, a growing showcase of poets writing in English, some fully accomplished with several published collections, others at the start of their poetic careers.

Lidia Vianu:  www.e-scoala.ro/lidiavianu/index.html

poetry p f:      www.poetrypf.co.uk/

CONTENTS

Barbara Dordi

Barbara Dordi was born in the north of England. She was awarded an M.A. in Creative Writing by Lancaster University for her collection Leaping the Fall. She has taught English and Theatre Studies in schools in Lancashire and Kent and creative writing in further education establishments.

She wrote poems to accompany her husband’s paintings of The Saxon Shore Way which the couple walked in 1995. They toured Kent libraries for 3 years with the Shore Way exhibition, giving illustrated talks and poetry readings promoting their first illustrated poetry book, Saxons in the Garden (Sawd Books). Since then she has produced four illustrated poetry pamphlets, Airing Cupboard, Apple and Eve, Ève et la Pomme (a variation of Apple and Eve written in French) and Presences – this last a collaboration with Michael Curtis.

In 2000 Barbara launched the poetry journal Equinox which publishes work by nationally known poets alongside that of new writers. As well as editing and writing reviews, she writes articles on living in France and makes and exhibits ceramic sculpture, a passion she has not indulged in for over twenty years.

The arts, gardening and philosophy inform most of Barbara’s poetry which has been successful in competitions as well as being published in magazines, anthologies and on the Internet. She is a member of a Kent poetry group, a French poetry group which meets once a month near Carcassonne, and Lumineuse, a women’s writing group consisting of France-based English writers.

For the last 7 years Barbara and her husband have divided their time between Kent and the south of France where they have renovated an old agricultural building and created a Mediterranean garden. Poems and paintings which emanated from this project have found expression in Entre-Deux – Two Francophiles in Alaigne, written in English and translated into French. The vine-clad hills; conversing with villagers; singing in the local choir; reading and writing poetry in French; Barbara finds country life in the Midi extremely seductive.

Beginning with issue 8 in October 2007, Barbara is the editor of The French Literary Review —an A5 illustrated magazine which publishes stories, poems and articles with a French connection.

Review comments on publications:

Saxons in the Garden – Poems of the Saxon Shore Way
Sawd Books, 1995. ISBN 1-872489-15-X  £4.95

"...Many characters from Kent’s long history are recalled, from Hengist and Horsa to the Duke of Wellington and General Gordon; literary figures are not overlooked. There is nostalgia for the desecrated and once green open country, and visions of the old barges in full sail as she observes the rotting hulks on the banks and mudflats of the Medway.

Some poems are humorous, even acerbic, but most are ethereal as she paints pictures with her words. The colour illustrations by her husband are both abstract and figurative...

Brenda Hook, 1996, The Ramblers Association

Airing Cupboard, - Poems by Barbara Dordi. Pamphlet Poets, 1999 ISBN 1-902529-03-0 £3.20

"...It is clear to see why this poet has been so consistently published. For me, poetry must, above all, be coherent and accessible. The poems in this collection satisfy such criteria. We get 19 well-written poems from a poet who knows what she wants to say and, as importantly, knows how to say it.

...There is an engaging mixture of allegory and gritty realism, of nostalgia and irony, but all in sensible proportion. Furthermore, the range of styles employed in this collection adds to rather than detracts from the whole.

John Dench, Writer and Small Press Publisher, The Providence Press, May 1999

P R E S E N C E S, Barbara Dordi & Michael Curtis, Picture Poems ISBN 0-9536800-2-9 £4.95

The result of an unusual and exciting collaboration, Presences is a finely made poetry pamphlet of work... memories, ancestors, ‘angels’, vision or other metaphysical speculations...  The ... sequence reveals echoes and allusions that spark between the texts. Ten of the poems find colourful and vibrant expression in paintings by Russi Dordi, who also designed the cover.

Equinox, March 2005

Entre-Deux - Two Francophiles in Alaigne, Barbara & Russi Dordi, Picture Poems/Hayward Design, ISBN 0-9536800-3-7

"When Barbara and Russi Dordi bought a house in France, their neighbours in the unspoiled village of Alaigne in the Midi were very welcoming. On discovering that the couple were artists, they insisted that they exhibit at the Fête de la Fleur the following May. Barbara was so enamoured by the landscape and people that she had already written a few poems recording her feelings, so since nobody in the village spoke English, she translated the work ready for the exhibition. When Russi had illustrated her poems, the couple made a pamphlet as a convenient way of recording their first year in Alaigne, as well as showing their neighbours exactly how they felt about living in France. The exhibition was a great success, largely due to the portrait of Albert, their immediate neighbour, which is very true-to-life, and of which he is enormously proud, so much so that he invited his relatives from neighbouring villages to view it!. The pamphlet is now a book since it has been updated to include more recent work from both artists. There are now over 20 colour illustrations and further poems about the Languedoc and its people, in both English and French."

Equinox, September, 2005

Translations of Moving On by: Dan Mateescu, Aprilia Zank, Elena Carmen Bobocescu, Ileana Botescu Sireteanu, Cristina Nistor, Liviu Martinescu, Mihaela Guzu, Simona Elisabeta Catana, Ruxandra Buluc, Oana Teodoroiu, Stefania Rahira – Tinte, Monica Sonea, Corina Chelmus, George Cojocaru, Roxana Mindrican, Hilda Vekony, Ramona, Zamfirescu, Oana Ionescu, Dana Nicorici, Vlad Gandila, Elena Daniela Radu