Translation of the Route
Traduccion de la ruta
Published on 19. September 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
128 pages
978-1-78037-699-8 (ISBN)
Description
Translation of the Route is the eleventh collection by the award-winning Argentine poet and translator Laura Wittner. In poems that are precise, frank and finely tuned, Wittner explores the specificities of parental and familial love, life after marriage, and the re-ignition of the self in middle age.
The 'things' of life - bus journeys, potted plants, thunder at night, coffee-stained books, fleeting conversations and the rest - are made full through Wittner's ability to pinpoint in them the consequential, and even the metaphysical, manipulating language with a translator's delicate skill. There are funny, moving pen-portraits of Wittner's two children, suddenly grown, as well as bell-clear descriptions of the task of writing. For this is also a collection about language itself - as an interface, as a surface, and as vital communication.
The poems in this edition, Wittner's first collection available in English translation, have been translated by the Mexican-Scottish bilingual poet and translator Juana Adcock, acclaimed author of Manca and Split. Dual language Spanish-English edition.
The 'things' of life - bus journeys, potted plants, thunder at night, coffee-stained books, fleeting conversations and the rest - are made full through Wittner's ability to pinpoint in them the consequential, and even the metaphysical, manipulating language with a translator's delicate skill. There are funny, moving pen-portraits of Wittner's two children, suddenly grown, as well as bell-clear descriptions of the task of writing. For this is also a collection about language itself - as an interface, as a surface, and as vital communication.
The poems in this edition, Wittner's first collection available in English translation, have been translated by the Mexican-Scottish bilingual poet and translator Juana Adcock, acclaimed author of Manca and Split. Dual language Spanish-English edition.
Reviews / Votes
'Wittner's poems in Adcock's deft translation fold entire but only half-seen narratives into brief glimpses, like interior lives flashing past the window of a moving train. They are delivered with a misleading directness - a garrulous voice at your ear, its utterances appearing quotidian but imbued with the weird and cryptic. We sift for clues. How to decipher a particular coffee stain, the distant tinkle of broken glass, arcane road signs, a particular shade of fallen leaf, the shadows cast by dancing laundry? Wittner is alert to these strange messages, curious about them all, and willing to embrace the not-knowing. I could read these poems every day and still find the new in them. -- Martha Sprackland Poems of the radiant everyday. In Juana Adcock's warm translation, Laura Wittner's chatty, witty voice comes through with gorgeous clarity. Reading this book is like listening to a wise, beloved friend over coffee. -- Clare Pollard 'What I really love about these poems is their clarity. They give a luminescence to the most concrete of objects. They show us how individual moments in a normal day can be the occasion for celebration, or reflection on a whole lifetime. They make me look again at the cup in my hand or the view from my window that I thought I knew. -- Sarah HeskethMore details
Edition
Bilingual 'facing page' edition
Language
English
Spanish
Place of publication
Tyne and Wear
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
204 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78037-699-8 (9781780376998)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2024
Bloodaxe Books
€16.49
Available for download
Persons
Laura Wittner is an award-winning poet and translator from Argentina. Her books of poetry include El pasillo del tren (1996), Los cosacos (1998), Las ultimas mudanzas (2001), La tomadora de cafe (2005), Lluvias (2009), Balbuceos en una misma direccion (2011), La altura (2016), Lugares donde una no esta (2017) and Traduccion de la ruta (2020). She has also published more than 20 books for children, most recently Cual para tal (2022), ?Y comieron perdices? (2023) and Se pide un deseo (2023). Translation of the Route, Juana Adcock's translation Traduccion de la ruta is published by the Poetry Translation Centre with Bloodaxe Books in a dual language Spanish-English edition in 2024. As a literary translator Wittner has translated books by Leonard Cohen, David Markson, M. John Harrison, Cynan Jones, Claire-Louise Bennett, Katherine Mansfield and James Schuyler, among many others. She lives in Buenos Aires.
Juana Adcock is a Mexican poet, translator and editor based in Scotland. She is the author of Manca (Tierra Adentro, 2014), Vestigial (Stewed Rhubarb, 2022) and Split (Blue Diode, 2019), which was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was included in the Guardian's Best Poetry of 2019. She is co-editor of the anthology of poetry by Latin American women Temporary Archives (Arc Publications, 2022), and her translation of the Me'phaa poet Hubert Matiuwaa's The Dogs Dreamt (Flipped Eye, 2023) received a PEN Translates award. She has also translated Lola Ancira's The Sadness of Shadows (MTO Press, 2024).
Juana Adcock is a Mexican poet, translator and editor based in Scotland. She is the author of Manca (Tierra Adentro, 2014), Vestigial (Stewed Rhubarb, 2022) and Split (Blue Diode, 2019), which was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was included in the Guardian's Best Poetry of 2019. She is co-editor of the anthology of poetry by Latin American women Temporary Archives (Arc Publications, 2022), and her translation of the Me'phaa poet Hubert Matiuwaa's The Dogs Dreamt (Flipped Eye, 2023) received a PEN Translates award. She has also translated Lola Ancira's The Sadness of Shadows (MTO Press, 2024).
Content
I. TEN REAL ANSWERS TO FICTIONAL QUESTIONS
Why we women get oven burns 8
Why on bad days we look at holiday photos 10
Why it shouldn't rain on Sunday nights 12
Why we talk when we talk about love 14
Why it's urgent to get out on the road 16
Why remedies over time betray us 18
Why it is advisable to read in bars 20
Why we must reconstruct ourselves all the time 22
Why when I like a song a lot I need to print the lyrics 24
Why if they knock me down a thousand times I get up 26
II. THE IMPERFECT IS OUR PARADISE
Kayak 30
Love poem 32
To a god unknown 34
The taxi stops at the lights 36
Rothkos 38
Sunday noon 40
Shadow 42
Good morning, Kenneth 44
I wake up at 6 46
Month 48
Iguazu 50
Iguazu: says my daughter 52
You are here 54
To be in a museum 56
Reading DL on the 108 58
They zoom into photos in a chat 60
They walk seven blocks to the subway 62
They are blinded for a second whilst correcting a poem 64
They try out things on holiday 66
They make their voices vibrate at 6 68
They interrupt our talk to do something urgent 70
They peer into potted plants and confirm their beliefs 72
III. TRANSLATION OF THE ROUTE
Ma 76
Thursday, nighttime 78
I once again held a lemon in my hand 80
We turned onto Libertador 82
Dinner 84
The origin 86
What is that lovely book 88
The dark things 90
The fragile things 92
My daughter likes the wind 94
In front of the bay of San Juan in Puerto Rico 96
Clearing 98
Reminder from sanity 100
My baby 102
Down Loiza Road (with Mara and Nicole) 104
Scene 106
Late in the afternoon 108
Far from home 110
Williams and me 112
So much depends 114
How it is 116
My son tells me his dream on our way to school 118
When we travel, time expands: 120
Translation of the route 122
About the authors 126
Why we women get oven burns 8
Why on bad days we look at holiday photos 10
Why it shouldn't rain on Sunday nights 12
Why we talk when we talk about love 14
Why it's urgent to get out on the road 16
Why remedies over time betray us 18
Why it is advisable to read in bars 20
Why we must reconstruct ourselves all the time 22
Why when I like a song a lot I need to print the lyrics 24
Why if they knock me down a thousand times I get up 26
II. THE IMPERFECT IS OUR PARADISE
Kayak 30
Love poem 32
To a god unknown 34
The taxi stops at the lights 36
Rothkos 38
Sunday noon 40
Shadow 42
Good morning, Kenneth 44
I wake up at 6 46
Month 48
Iguazu 50
Iguazu: says my daughter 52
You are here 54
To be in a museum 56
Reading DL on the 108 58
They zoom into photos in a chat 60
They walk seven blocks to the subway 62
They are blinded for a second whilst correcting a poem 64
They try out things on holiday 66
They make their voices vibrate at 6 68
They interrupt our talk to do something urgent 70
They peer into potted plants and confirm their beliefs 72
III. TRANSLATION OF THE ROUTE
Ma 76
Thursday, nighttime 78
I once again held a lemon in my hand 80
We turned onto Libertador 82
Dinner 84
The origin 86
What is that lovely book 88
The dark things 90
The fragile things 92
My daughter likes the wind 94
In front of the bay of San Juan in Puerto Rico 96
Clearing 98
Reminder from sanity 100
My baby 102
Down Loiza Road (with Mara and Nicole) 104
Scene 106
Late in the afternoon 108
Far from home 110
Williams and me 112
So much depends 114
How it is 116
My son tells me his dream on our way to school 118
When we travel, time expands: 120
Translation of the route 122
About the authors 126