Poetry Translation Centre homepage

Introduction

The Poetry Translation Centre gives the best contemporary poems from Africa, Asia and Latin America a new life in the English language, working with diaspora communities for whom poetry is of great importance.

Featured Poem

Night Demon

At night, from the nearby street

the stink of burning books

presses in through the window,

finds the pleats of Grandmother’s…

Continue reading the English translation

دیو شب

شب از کوچه ای نزدیک

با بوی کتاب های سوخته

می آید و سر می گذارد بر شیشه اتاق

به دست های مادربزرگ می پیچد

بر چین های دامن سیاهش

به گهواره کودک خیره می شود

با جیب های خالی از ماه و ستاره

با…

Continue reading in Farsi

Night Demon

written by

Azita Ghahreman

translated by

Maura Dooley

Top Featured

Podcast

Night Demon by Azita Ghahreman

1st November

Azita Ghahreman talks about the poem ‘Night Demon’ and reads the original text in Persian, then her poet-translator Maura Dooley will read the English translation.

Article

So At One With You: Editing an Anthology of Somali Poetry

1st November

W.N. Herbert, co-editor of ‘So At One With You’, an anthology of the last fifty year of Somali poetry, reflects on editing the book and his own relationship with the Somali poets he has translated.

Event

Translate Pashto poet Abdul Ghafoor Liwal with Dawood Azami

20th November

Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan and Poetry Translation Centre has been translating Pashto poetry at its workshops with journalist and translator Dawood Azami since 2014.