Translators converge on London
“Subverting the National: the Role of Translation» is the theme of Translation Days, the annual conference held by the British Center for Literary Translation and the Translators Association at The Voice Box, South Bank, London, September 21-22. The first session on Sunday, with Michele Roberts in conversation with her French and Italian translators, will be followed by literary translation workshops in five different languages and a round-table discussion of poetry in translation. Monday’s sessions begin with two round-table discussions, on theater translation and translation and the media, and continue with readings from the winners of the 2003 translation prize for Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Swedish and poetry. That evening Michele Roberts will present the TLS Literary Translation Prizes and Tariq Ali will deliver the NESTA Sebald Lecture on «Language and Power.» Kathimerini English Edition is attending the conference. Watch this space for our report. Carlos Fuentes Eminent Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes is presenting a lecture on the unity and diversity of Spanish at the Stoa tou Vivliou (5 Pesmazoglou & Stadiou) today at 8.30 p.m. Fuentes was born in Panama in 1928. He gave up a diplomatic career to devote himself to literature. In the 1950s, he espoused Marxism and was a supporter of Fidel Castro. Fuentes’s work has won numerous awards including the prestigious Cervantes Prize. Fuentes will open an exhibition of photographs by Mexican writer Juan Rulfo at the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation’s Eynard Mansion tomorrow at 8.30 p.m. He is in Athens as a guest of the Cervantes Institute, the Mexican Embassy and four publishers who have brought out editions of his work in Greek: Agra, Themelio, Kastaniotis, and Oceanida. Costis Palamas Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the death of poet Costis Palamas, the National Book Center (EKEBI) and the municipality of Mesolongi have organized two days of events in the poet’s birthplace, Mesolongi. EKEBI’s exhibition of photographs, manuscripts and the writer’s works opens tomorrow at the Trikoupi Cultural Center. Professors Eleni Politou-Marmarinou and Xenophon Kokolis will speak on «Palamas Today.» The program continues on Saturday morning with a guided tour of the Palamas home and the Municipal Art Gallery. The afternoon’s events will take place on Tourlida, the strip of land that juts into the lagoon. Kokolis will make a brief speech on «Palamas of the Lagoon,» followed by readings from the poet’s work by actors and other celebrities, and a recording of Palamas himself reading his own verse. The evening will conclude with a concert by the percussion group Krotala and a local group, Zygia, which plays traditional music.
