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• Poetry translation competition 2011

 

Poetry Translation Competition 2011

Poetry is one of the major strands of InsideArts, marking the traditional strength of the University in this field. Consequently, the Festival is holding a poetry translation competition, open to all students at the universities of Bristol, Bath, and Exeter. Thanks to the generosity of Faber and Faber, book prizes will be awarded for the best translations into English of poems from the following languages taught in the University:

• Ancient Greek and Latin;
• Old English and Old French;
• and any of the nine modern languages (British Sign Language [BSL], Czech, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish).

Entries will be judged both on their understanding of the source text and on their own literary qualities. Winners will be announced prior to the Festival and invited to present their translations (and accept their prizes) at a poetry reading workshop on Wednesday 19 October, to be led by Daniel Karlin, Winterstoke Professor of English Literature.

Rules for entry

1. All undergraduate or postgraduate students registered at the Universities of Bristol, Bath or Exeter are eligible for entry, regardless of their degree programme.
2. Entries must be the original work of the translator and must not, as a whole or in part, have been previously published, accepted for publication, broadcast, or entered for any other competition.
3. The source text must carry the name of its author and the title, and may consist of a complete poem or poems, or of an excerpt from a longer poem.
4. All entries must be between 20 and 40 lines in total.
5. Each entry must consist of:
   1. the source text;
   2. a literal translation, word for word, to facilitate the judging process;
   3. a finalised translation, double-spaced;
   4. a commentary of no more than 300 words, briefly covering your approach (e.g. reasons for translating your chosen material, the problems encountered, and your methodology);
   5. the entrant’s contact details.
6. Entries must be submitted via email Word attachment by Friday 30 September at the latest, to adrienne.mason@bristol.ac.uk, copied to inside-arts@bristol.ac.uk.
7. No entries will be returned, and correspondence cannot be entered into once entries have been received. Upon submission, all entries will be anonymised for judging.
8. The decision of the judges is final. We regret that no feedback on entries can be provided.

Poetry translation competition poster (PDF, 140kb)