Ask away, guys, but if I have useful answers, I'll be surprised...
Once I'd know who to ask, but not now, though australianists at my old univ
would answer my enquiries.
Best from Max
On 2/08/11 3:29 AM, "Patrick McManus" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Max would it be ok for my partner Janet to send you some queries re
> Jack Davis
> Cheers Patrick
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 13 July 2011 00:50
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Poetry and translation
>
> It hadn't occurred to me to ask that question, Patrick.
>
> I doubt that any of the current Aboriginal languages is generating poetry
> these days either of the traditional sort or of the modern individualistic
> sort.
> English is the preferred language throughout Australia, it seems.
>
> (In New Zealand, by contrast, the Maori people continue to add to their
> great traditional poetry-hoard. Of course many distinguished Maori writers
> of the 20th century write English, inflected often with Maori locutions and
> culture.)
>
> I gather that the Aboriginal languages had their ritual tribal poems
> carrying religious meanings, and many were written down and translated by
> missionaries and anthropologists. Some appear in anthologies of Australian
> poetry, notably Les Murray's. His own 'Buladelah-Taree Holiday Song
> Cycle'(1977) is declaredly based on a famous tribal cycle as translated.
>
> Jack Davis, the playwright you asked about a while back, appears in
> 'Australian Verse: an Oxford Anthology' edited by my old friend John Leonard
> (1988) - as an Aboriginal poet who wrote in English, as did Judith Wright's
> protégé, Kath Walker (1920-93) who published in English under that name
> until she renamed herself Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal. No translators
> needed.
>
> Kevin Gilbert and Lionel Fogarty are in anthologies as Aboriginal poets, and
> there are a few younger ones, females among them, whose work so far as I
> have noticed is taken up for its 'protest' value as much as anything.
>
> I mention them only to say that as far as I know, all of them write only in
> English.
>
> Max
>
>
> On 13/07/11 5:32 AM, "Patrick McManus" <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> How about Aboriginal poet translations??
>> Cheers P
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>> Behalf Of Max Richards
>> Sent: 11 July 2011 01:57
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Poetry and translation
>>
>> I spose such events are happening everywhere and often, but in Melbourne
>> it's fairly unusual.... Max
>>
>>
>> -- > Cross cultural poetry and translation Salon
>>
>>> A Melbourne PEN Freespeak event
>>>
>>> A celebration of cultural diversity bringing together local non-English
>>> speaking- background poets and their translators to promote poetry,
>>> translation and its publishing and, at the same time, to honour and
>> promote
>>> the ongoing importance of Collected Works Bookshop.
>>>
>>> Monday 25 July 2011, 6.30
>>> Collected Works Bookshop,
>>> Level 1 Nicholas Building,
>> 37 Swanston Street, Melbourne, 3000,
>>
>> Tel. (03) 9654 8873
>>>
>>> Poetry in Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish and French with
>> translations.
--
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