Welcome to our guests from USA and Finland, Anselm Hollo, Riina Katajavuori
and Tomi Kontio; and to our guests and supporters from the Finnish Institute
in London. Welcome also to Jane Dalrymple, Anselm's wife; and to David
Bromige, who is also visiting London from USA and who will be reading here
next Tuesday, sharing the bill with Michael Heller. Please come to that,
too!
The impulse for tonight's event, from my point of view, came from Panu
Minkkinen at the Finnish Institute. So thank you very much to the Finnish
Institute for their ideas and support and for preparing these fine booklets;
and thanks also to the Arts Council for their subsidy to the project.
I say that the idea came from the Institute; but why did Sub Voicive Poetry
accept? All sorts of ideas are proposed to SVP and, quite honestly, they are
rarely accepted...
One reason was that Anselm Hollo is involved. A year or so ago, when Anselm
read here before, I spoke of my reasons for valuing his work and for wanting
him to read here; I shan't repeat those reasons now but merely welcome
Anselm back and thank him for his considerable involvement in tonight's
event.
I did not know the poetry of Tomi or of Riina until I saw Anselm's
translations; but I knew that if he was working on them as translator that
SVP should be involved. My ignorance was my loss.
More generally, there is a greater reason for wishing to be involved in a
project such as Polar Verses, and that is that poetry unites us.
I am not talking about the involvement of poetry in encouraging the unity of
nations as nations. That may have its place; but that isn't what I mean.
Poetry unites us as individual people... Again, I want to be specific. It
may bring us together sometimes; but, more importantly, it reminds us that
we are together whether we want to be or not.
SVP usually looks to this country and to the other English-speaking
countries of the world - for obvious reasons; but it is appropriate and
urgent that we speak, however we do it, to those who speak and write in
other languages than our own.
Poetry, and I include in that poetry well-translated and taken into other
linguistic communities, highlights our differences and highlights our
similarities simultaneously ,in such a way that those two awarenesses begin
to sing together.
I welcome poetry from other languages than English being read here in the
original and in translation so that we may hear our differences sing
And now, to manage the evening and speak further about the "Polar Verses"
project, I shall ask Anselm Hollo to take over
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