Arno Bohlmeijer
on translating Phebe Rasch
When poems are in motion of their own accord, there’s a rewarding interplay. While the shapes and contents blend independently, as a dazzling combination of intention and surprise, the author can ‘follow or steer’. Translations are happy to work that way too: when the original poems connect the heart and mind, or flesh and blood, their words will find the new language with equal rhyme or rhythm and meaning.
This bunch reflects that wondrous process.
about the author
Bart Moeyaert is a Flemish author, winner of a dozen major awards in various countries, former Antwerp’s poet laureate, and a widely acclaimed poet and novelist. He also writes song lyrics, plays, and screenplays for movies and television.
As a poet, novelist, artist, screenwriter, graphic designer and song-text writer, Ted van Lieshout is an international phenomenon. So far he’s published ninety books and won twenty major prizes. There is no end to the variety of his themes and styles, from utterly playful to dead serious – or all at the same time: as funny as profound.
Shy and quiet, but published in the US and Europe, Phebe Rasch writes novels and poetry, all in her very own way, pace, and level, for utter authenticity. Her third book is acclaimed in both Ukraine and Russia, the fourth appeared in 2022. Behind so-called simplicity, all kinds of depth can be found: literary, psychological, practical.
about the translator
Arno Bohlmeijer, winner of a PEN America Grant 2021, poet and novelist, writing in English and Dutch, published in six countries, two dozen renowned Journals and Reviews, 2019 – 2024, and in Universal Oneness: an Anthology of Magnum Opus Poems from around the World, 2019.>p>
photo by Hannah Bradley
