Translation of Poetry and Poetic Prose (NS 110)

August 24-28, 1998
IBM Nordic Education Center, Elfvik, Lidingö, Sweden
Organizers: Professor Sture Allén, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy; Professor Kjell Espmark, Chairman of the Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee; and the editors of the journal Artes, Gunnar Harding and Bengt Jangfeldt. The international program committee consisted of Efim Etkind, Seamus Heaney and Daniel Weissbort.

The purpose of the symposium was to explore different aspects of the theme "Translation of Poetry and Poetic Prose." Some 40 translators, authors, linguistic experts and literary scholars from thirteen countries participated. Their deliberations were followed by a small number of Swedish observers.

The symposium consisted of eight sessions: (1) Fundamental theoretical issues, (2) Normalization-a constant threat, (3) Translation of metrical and/or rhymed poetry, (4) The "double tongue," (5) Translating from non-Indo-European languages, (6) The role of the author in translation, (7) Several translations of the same text. At the eighth and final session, which took place at the Swedish Academy's premises at the Exchange (Börshuset) in Stockholm's Old Town and was open to the public, the chairs of the previous days' sessions reported on their deliberations, followed by a discussion.

The symposium contributions were published in August 1999 ("Translation of Poetry and Poetic Prose", hardbound) by World Scientific Publishing, Singapore.