Poethreesome
H18:00
Entrance: via Liguria 20
H18:00
Entrance: via Liguria 20
The event will take place at H18:00 at Istituto Svizzero, via Liguria 20, Rome.
Free entry, register here.
Poetry and translation, readings with Matteo Ferretti, Ariane von Graffenried, Eva Marzi
Poets around the world have always translated other poets, often without even knowing the source language. Given the poor contacts between Swiss poets from different language areas, and noting that mental barriers may be more granitic than physical ones, Babel conceived the project titled Poethreesome in 2016.
Each year, three Swiss poets translate each other into three national languages. When they do not know the source language, they rely on the mediation of interlinear versions-word for word, with notes on lexicon and prosody prepared by scholars or other poets or translators-or on a shared lingua franca. In any case, the translator and the translated always share a language, that of poetry. Poetic language knows no barriers, not even linguistic ones, that cannot be overcome. Both for writers and for readers. Translation between writers from different linguistic areas thus offers a model of mediation for approaching other people’s cultures and ways of being.
The results of this work are presented at national and international literary events and finally published in Specimen. The Babel Review of Translations.
The 2023 edition of Poethreesome is attended by Matteo Ferretti, Ariane von Graffenried and Eva Marzi, who will be hosted by Istituto Svizzero as they carry out their mutual translation work. The result of their kaleidoscopic work will be presented to the public during the reading on 17 April.
The project is realised with the support of Progetto PonTi Culturali – Gottardo 2016, Fondazione Oertli, in collaboration with Babel Festival di letteratura e traduzione, Festival di letteratura di Leukerbad, Poésie en ville.
Biographies:
Matteo Ferretti (1979) is a professor of Italian at the Liceo 1 in Lugano. He graduated in Modern Literature at the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, where he also obtained a PhD in Romance Philology and Medieval Culture. In 2019, he published his first book of poetry, Tutto brucia e annuncia (Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona), with which he won the Swiss Schiller Foundation’s ‘Terra Nova’ prize as best first work in 2020. His poems also appeared in the magazine Viceversa Letteratura (no. 16, 2022). In 2023, she will make her debut with a poetry reading accompanied by music and live drawing.
Ariane von Graffenried is a Swiss poet and playwright. She graduated from the University of Bern with a doctorate in theatre science. She is a member of the award-winning writers’ collective ‘Bern ist überall’ and curator of the Basel International Poetry Festival. Since 2005 she has been performing as a spoken word artist with musician and sound artist Robert Aeberhard as the duo Fitzgerald & Rimini. In 2017, she released Babylon Park, followed in 2019 by 50 Hertz, a CD with a collection of poems. In her spoken texts, Ariane von Graffenried playfully switches from Swiss dialects to High German, from French to English. She has received several awards, most recently the Grand Prize for Literature of the City and Canton of Berne.
Eva Marzi was born in 1985 in Geneva and graduated in literary writing at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern. She received the Poetry Prize of the Société Genevoise des Écrivains in 2020 and the Prix Renée-Vivien in 2021. His first poetry collection, Nuit scribe, published by Editions d’en bas (2022), was a finalist for the Prix Apollinaire Découverte 2022. With the literary magazine l’Épître and La Compagnie de l’Inutile, he co-wrote the play L’éléphant, which premiered at the Nuithonie theatre in Freiburg. With the collective a temporary alliance, she presented the feminist creation Toward bodies during the Cantonale Berne Jura 2020. She is co-organiser of the Biel Encounters and leads writing workshops in French-speaking schools as part of the Poésie du kebab project.
Eva Marzi
Ariane von Graffenried © Claudia Herzog