A Room of One's Own

(Originally posted 19 September 2013)

When I first started at King’s a year ago, my enquiries about a postgraduate office/workspace were met with blank stares and mumbles of ‘try the British Library’. I was disappointed as I’ve always had an aversion to working in libraries, especially the silent kind, and I’d been hoping that a workroom would be a space where catching up with colleagues would brighten the otherwise lonely business of doctoral research.

Now with our shiny new Virginia Woolf building on Kingsway, I’ve got all I wanted and more. Not only bright, open-plan research space, but a kitchen and comfy sofas too. The best part is that SPLAS now shares this area with the German department. I’ve often said that one of my favourite aspects of the PhD is getting to know other researchers and learning from them. The daily contact with German PGRs and staff opens a whole knew world of research specialisms to fascinate me, from contemporary Austrian theatre to the reception of Hollywood rom-coms in Europe. Then when the study-guilt kicks in and we leave the sofas, knowing there are other people at the neighbouring desks powering through that journal article or rewriting their next chapter is a great motivator to keep on working. We’ve only been moved in for a week, but I already feel like the new building will make this a very productive and enjoyable year!

Cardiff events this week not to be missed

If I were in Cardiff this week, there's a whole load of fantastic cultural goings-on I wouldn't want to miss. However, as I'm going into hospital instead, I'd like to encourage other people to go and then report back to me please!

Poetry Under Pressure - Thurs 24/Fri 25 May 

Academics from my department at Cardiff University - the School of European Languages, Translation and Politics - have invited two East German poets, Uwe Kolbe and Richard Pietraß, for a two-day poetry extravaganza. There's a poetry reading (Thurs 7-8:30, Chapter) and a public colloquium (Fri from 10, EUROS building) featuring interviews, talks from academics and a free lunch, as well as two workshops, one for translators (Thurs 10-12, EUROS building) and one for poets (Fri 3-5, Wales Millennium Centre).

The full programme is available here: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/europ/newsandevents/events/underpressure.html

The Human Library - Sat 26 May @ The Old Library

More from the School of European Languages, Translation and Politics, this time as part of the Transeuropa Festival. The Human Library is like a real library, only the books are humans. People from a whole range of backgrounds with so many different life experiences. 'Readers' sit down with their 'book' and get to know there story. Given that Cardiff is such a vibrant city, I'm sure there'll be lots of people with fascinating stories to tell.

More info is available here: http://www.cardiffstory.com/content.asp?nav=178,228&id=641

The Get Together - until Sat 26 May @ Sherman Cymru

As I've said many times before, one of the great things about Sherman Cymru is its commitment to new writing, and Simon Crowther's The Get Together is another example. Four friends and a few drinks promises to end in 'laughter, betrayal and blood'.

If you go to any of these events (and why not?), please comment and let me know how they went!

Anant Kumar - Poetry Beyond Borders?

"Poetry is what gets lost in translation" - Robert Frost

I'm back from Iceland and have lots to write about that, but first the talk I went to today: Anant Kumar - Poetry Beyond Borders. Kumar is a poet of Indian origin, living, working and writing in Germany. His talk was meant to address how to overcome cultural differences in poetry. It didn't. At least not explicitly. Instead, Kumar read the introduction to his new book, Stories Without Borders, and several poems, in German and English simultaneously (one verse in each language at a time). Then he repeatedly reminded us that he is "not a best-selling author" while asking why people - academics he has never met - have given so much time and effort to translate his work for free. While I wasn't particularly enthralled with Kumar's poetry and disappointed that his talk didn't give me what I expected from it, it nonetheless got me thinking.

Firstly, Kumar's question - while not what the talk was supposed to be about - is an interesting one. Why do people translate for free? Kumar himself suggested that it comes down to funding. There is so little funding for translators to get their work published that they will work for free if it means getting their name in print. This seems a bit cynical for me though. While he's probably right, I like to maintain a more romantic view that people fall in love with texts and want to share them with the world. I know there are many books that I love and would one day like to translate just so that they could reach a wider audience.

Secondly, Kumar unintentionally made an interesting case for poetry beyond borders by talking in German to an audience who he assumed understood the language when many of us didn't. My German is rudimentary at best (aber ich lerne!) but I enjoyed listening to Kumar read his poems in their original language, more so than in English. It made me think that perhaps the sound of words, their rhythm, their intensity can produce a stronger effect than their semantic meaning. It occurred to me then that poetry can escape linguistic borders in a way that no other literature can. Geographical borders are even more easily transcended, as Kumar himself pointed out that his readers are not 'German' but 'German-speaking', be that in Austria, Switzerland, Turkey or indeed a German teacher in the United States.

What about cultural borders then? When asked if he tried to bridge the gap between Indian and German literary traditions, Kumar said that it is not his intention, but he cannot avoid references to India and its culture. He nonetheless insisted that he was a German writer, as he writes and is almost entirely received in German. Does this mean that the language something is written and read in affects how it is read and interpreted? Does reading a language imply certain cultural understanding? Are we returning to Herder's argument that language is an expression of the soul of a people?  That would surely imply that poetry cannot truly transcend borders, but experience would tell me otherwise. As usual, I have no real answers, only questions to ponder.