UCI Celebrates Poetry in Translation
Julie Littman | Jun 05, 2006 | Comments 0
Faultline, a journal of art and literature, celebrated the launch of its 15th volume with a reading at the UC Irvine bookstore on June 1. The program featured poetry by Paul Beilstein in a section called ‘Poetry in Translation’ and fiction by Geoffrey Wolff.
This reading featured an experimental section of translated poetry and also commemorated Wolff’s retirement from UCI.
Paul Beilstein, who received his Master of Fine Arts in poetry from UCI last year, began the reading with recitation of his poems ‘Losing a Staring Contest to Death’ and ‘Paradise.’
‘You really get a wonderful sense of what a mental process is by reading [Beilstein's] poems,’ said Sarah Cohen, the poetry editor for Faultline. ‘They do that with extraordinary wit and tenderness.’
Following Beilstein’s reading, professors fluent in different foreign languages read poems by European authors and their English translations.
Cohen said that Faultline has paired up with the International Center for Writing and Translation to provide a space for translations.
‘There aren’t many outlets among magazines and journals in this country for publishing literary translations,’ Cohen said. ‘This is something that helps Faultline stand out.’
The poetry selection began with Adriana Johnson, a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature. She recited the poems ‘Lagoon’ and ‘Happiness’ by Gastao Cruz, translated by Alexis Levitin.
Professor Anke Beindarra from the Department of German, continued the reading with poems by Ulla Hahn, a well-known contemporary German poet, translated by Jacqueline Kolosov.
Beindarra then read ‘Little Creatures’ and ‘How it Begins.’
The next poems were read by Professor Ellen Burt from the Department of French. She recited two poems, one untitled and the other called ‘By You’ by Abderrahmane Djelfaoui, an Algerian poet, translated by Andrea Moorhead.
Burt next recited prose poems by French poet Georges Godeau, translated by Kathleen McGookey, called ‘Sylvain, S
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