Why I No Longer Write Poems: [Bilingual Georgian-English]

by Diana Anphimiadi, Jean Sprackland (Translator), Natalia Bukia-Peters (Translator)

Overview

A boldly inventive selection of collaborative translations from one of the most widely revered Georgian poets of her generation. Longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2022.

Diana Anphimiadi's award-winning work reflects an exceptionally curious mind and glides between classical allusions and surreal imagery. She revivifies ancient myths and tests the reality of our senses against the limits of sense. Prayers appear alongside recipes, dance lessons next to definitions. Her playful, witty lyricism offers a glimpse of the eternal in the everyday.

The poems in this selection have been collaboratively translated into English by the leading Georgian translator Natalia Bukia-Peters and award-winning British poet Jean Sprackland. A chapbook selection of their translations of Anphimiadi's work, Beginning to Speak, was published in 2018 and praised by Adham Smart in Modern Poetry in Translation for capturing the 'electricity of Anphimiadi’s language' which 'crackles from one poem to the next in Bukia-Peters and Sprackland’s fine translation'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780375472
Publisher:	Bloodaxe Books
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Diana Anphimiadi is a poet, publicist, linguist and teacher. She has published four collections of poetry in Georgian: Shokoladi (Chocolate, 2008), Konspecturi Mitologia (Resumé of Mythology, 2009), Alhlokhedvis Traektoria (Trajectory of the Short-Sighted, 2012) and Chrdilis Amoch'ra (Cutting the Shadow, 2015). Her poetry has received prestigious awards, including first prize in the 2008 Tsero (Crane Award) and the Saba Prize for the best first collection in 2009. Her chapbook, Beginning to Speak, was published in 2018 by the Poetry Translation Centre, and Why I No Longer Write Poems, the first full-length Georgian-English selection of her poetry, is published by Bloodaxe Books with the Poetry Translation Centre in 2022, both titles translated by Natalia Bukia-Peters and Jean Sprackland. She lives in Tblisi with her son.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Sleeping Beauty 17

Poet in the Shower 19

Prayer Before Bathing 23

Iphigenia 27

Helen of Troy 31

Eurydice 35

Persephone 39

Medusa 43

Cassiopeia (Three Back to Front Songs) 45

Dance Lessons (3/4 Time) 49

Studies 53

Lesson 57

Silent Writing 61

Pompeii 63

Soul 67

Autism: Beginning to Speak 69

Mute 73

Braille 75

Because 79

Prayer Before Taking Nourishment 81

Retrospective 85

Why I No Longer Write Poems 89

Winter 93

Loss 97

Dogs 99

Bond 101

Gardening for Beginners 103

The Snake in the Yard 107

Centaur 109

Etc 113

Lost 117

Upside-Down 119

Immune Deficiency 121

The Trajectory of the Short-Sighted 123

Surrogate 125

The Choice 127

Tears in the Glass 129

Evening 131

Children 133

The Forest Near the Window 137

The Exchange of Prisoners 139

Entertainment 141

Orchestra 143

Reaping Song 147

July 149

Fair Copy 153

Endangered 155

The Second Coming 157

About the Authors 159

Editorial Reviews

'This combination of Georgian poet, translator and Anglophone poet clearly worked extremely well.  Jean Sprackland's own poetry... shares some characteristics with that of Anphimiadi.  The experiences of women, the power of memory and the ability to surprise, or even shock, the reader are prominent features of both.'

East-West Review - Michael Pursglove

'This collection by a leading Georgian poet is part of the Poetry Translation Centre’s programme commissioning British poets – here, Jean Sprackland – to work with literary translators. In this case, that’s Natalia Bukia-Peters, who also provides a knowledgeable Introduction setting this work in the national context of epic poetry, and of a vocabulary of myth. For this is gorgeous, fabulising verse.... Bloodaxe is especially to be commended for publishing this important work in bilingual edition.'

The Guardian - Fiona Sampson

"Demonstrating formal range and subversiveness, Anphimiadi blends classical images and myths with contemporary techniques, dilating the boundaries of the poetic form. Prayers, recipes, dance lessons, definitions – this accumulation of the unspoken everyday comprises the collection of raw materials in Anphimiadi’s poetic bricolage."

The Calvert Journal (Books from Eastern Europe to look forward to in 2022) - Matt Janney