RETHINKING TRANSLATION: A Conversation with Polina Barskova & Valzhyna Mort (February 15, 2022)

This Rethinking Translation seminar features poet Polina Barskova in conversation with translator Valzhyna Mort.
Polina Barskova is an acclaimed Russian poet, author of more than a dozen books of poetry and several books of prose. The latest translation of her work into English is AIR RAID, the subject of this seminar's conversation. She is also a leading scholar of Russian literary culture, particularly the literature of the Siege of Leningrad. Her book BESIEGED LENINGRAD: AESTHETIC RESPONSES TO URBAN DISASTER appeared from Northern Illinois University Press in 2016. The poetry of AIR RAID also explores the deprivations and losses of the Blockade, using the traditions and innovations of the lyric to reimagine the historical experience of perdition.
Valzhyna Mort is a prize-winning poet whose most recent book, MUSIC FOR THE DEAD AND RESURRECTED (2020), has been celebrated as "a striking study of what Belarus can teach the world about state violence, collective memory, and the role of poetry in fighting tyranny" (Jennifer Wilson, writing in the New Yorker). In addition to her several books of poetry, she has edited SOMETHING INDECENT: POEMS RECOMMENDED BY EASTERN EUROPEAN POETS, and she translates between English, Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish. Her translations of Polina Barskova's poems are collected in the volume AIR RAID.
Sponsored by the Rethinking Translation Seminar at the Mahindra Humanities Center and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. Hosted and recorded via Zoom on February 15, 2022.
For more information on the Rethinking Translation Seminar, please visit: mahindrahumani...