In 2020, the distinguished poet, translator and critic Jamie McKendrick published both The Foreign Connection: Writings on Poetry, Art and Translation, a career-spanning collection of essays with us, and also a chapbook of new poetry and artwork, The Years. Here they are side by side:

 

These are a matched pair in more ways than one. The cover images are both by the same artist: Jamie himself. I was tempted to arrange one of them upside-down in this picture, as if they were duelling pistols in a green baize-lined case. But the two are not in opposition to each other at all, because McKendrick's poetry, his essays on translation and his translations, his visual art and his art criticism, are all of one body. A revealing interview with Jamie, recently published at the Juxta Press website.

The act of translating anything brings you closer than ever to those other worlds, as you have to relive it sentence by sentence, word by word, syllable by syllable. The further you reach into the original the better your chances are of retrieving something of value.

The full interview can be read here.

full news feed • subscribe via RSS