Poetry & Translation: The Art of the Impossible

In Poetry & Translation the acclaimed poet and translator Peter Robinson examines the activity of translation as practised by poets and others, and the way in which the various practices of translating have continued in parallel with the writing of original poetry. While some attention is paid to classic statements of the translator's cultural role, readers should not expect to find formalized theoretical debate along the lines already developed in translation studies courses and their teaching handbooks. Instead, Poetry & Translation seeks to raise issues and matters for discussion---not to close them down.

The aim of the book is to increase knowledge of, and thought about, the interactive processes of reading and writing poetry composed in mother tongues and in translations. Poetry & Translation will be of value to all devoted readers and students of poetry or translation, to students involved in classical and modern languages, and to those taking part in creative writing courses, whether as students or as teachers.

`Poetry & Translation shows quite simple things to be complex and more nuanced than thought, but has also a refreshing directness about dealing with things that have often been made to seem too complex to deal with. It is also written from the triple perspective of poet, translator and critic. A fine book.' Professor Patrick McGuiness, University of Oxford

`Robinson has been a generous promoter of contemporary poetry for decades, and this collection of essays bears witness to his dedication and energy. He writes with an unformulaic enthusiasm, moving easily from biographical, political and poetic context to the nitty-gritty of close reading, while also striking an easy, readable tone.' Angela Leighton, Times Literary Supplement

`Robinson's readings of poems...show a subtlety, a wide and always appropriate range of reference, and an understated persuasiveness that makes this book a valuable contribution to the "conflictual culture of negotiation and evolution" that the author himself describes criticism and reading to be... Peter Robinson has done wonderful things with Searle's narrow categories.' Alan Munton, Modern Language Review

`The conviction, pleasures and gratitude of committed reading are evident in his affirmation of the poetic contract between readers and writers.' Andrea Brady, Poetry Review

`What Robinson has to say about Thomas Hardy and Robert Browning, about Wordsworth's "The Sailor's Mother" or Eliot's The Dry Salvages, is stimulating, lucid, and original.' Peter McDonald, Review of English Studies

`Robinson is as thoughtful and sensible about translations as he is about the wide range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry considered in this book. He is at once trenchant and generous... By noticing so accurately where poetry begins and ends, Robinson's "imaginative activity" brings "the truth of the case to life"'. Ralph Pite, Cambridge Review

`At any rate, the event---this collection of nine demanding and tough-minded essays---bears me out...these are very thorny matters, and Robinson deserves every credit for forcing his way into the thickets.' Donald Davie, London Review of Books

Peter Robinson was born in Salford, Lancashire, in 1953 and grew up mainly in Liverpool. He holds degrees from the universities of York and Cambridge. After teaching for eighteen years at universities in japan, he is now professor of English and American literature at the University of Reading. The recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for his poetry and the John Florio Prize for translation, he has also published three volumes of literary criticism, two of aphoristic prose, and a collection of interviews.