ONCE again, Literature Across Frontiers in association with the Scottish Poetry Library and, this year, the Helicon Society for the Advancement of Poetry in Israel organised a fascinating evening of poetry readings by distinguished international poets at Crear on Thursday, August 9.
The six poets, who had never met before, were Valerie Gillies (the Edinburgh Makar), Robert Minhinnick from Wales and four from the Middle-East: Fatima Naoot from Egypt, Naim Araidi from Israel who is a bi-lingual Arab-Israeli, Amir Or from Israel (joint founder and editor-in-chief of the Helicon Society) and Seyhan Erözçelik from Turkey.
Robyn Marsack chaired the evening. The audience chose to hear the poems in their original language first so the poems were read by their authors and then by one or more of the other poets in translations which they had prepared during workshops earlier in the week. All were read in English except one which was heard in all the other languages: Arabic, Hebrew and Turkish – a delightful experiment. The poems covered many subjects.
One by Fatima Naoor, who read her pure Egyptian Arabic beautifully, was about Christina, who ran a café in Alexandria where poets and artists would gather.
In Naim Araidi’s poem about two holidays in Jerusalem in 1973, Ramadan and Yom Kippur, he wrote ‘we haggle again about history’. Seyhan Erözçelik’s poem ‘Coffee Grounds’ was about the Middle-Eastern custom of reading coffee grounds as tea leaves are read in Britain, ‘writing our stories into the sky like the grits of a coffee cup spinning round’.
Robert Minhinnick read disturbing and emotive poems from his 1999 book, ‘Twenty-five Laments for Iraq’ written in Wales, Jordan and Iraq. Valerie Gillies read poems about visits to wells and springs in Scotland and Ireland. Her anger at the neglected state of the Monk’s Well at St. Andrews in one of them has led to its restoration, a good example of the power of poetry! Amir Or’s skilful translation of this poem into Hebrew closely followed its structure and metre.
Fatima Naoot could find no Arabic equivalent for the sound of the drips in the well such as ‘Dist!’ so she did not change them in her version. The difficulties of translation were discussed during questions afterwards.
Amir Or, who lectures on this subject, said he encouraged two approaches: either to follow the structure and metre of a poem as closely as possible or to attempt to express the meaning in one’s own style so that the poem is not a dull copy but a lively original.
The poets had needed time to discuss the exact meaning of the words they had to translate. Asked how he decided to write in Arabic or Hebrew, Naim Araidi said when he dreamt in Arabic he wrote in Arabic and when he dreamt in Hebrew he wrote in Hebrew.
He has the great advantage of living inside two languages. The audience then very much enjoyed meeting the poets. Fatima Naood said that the beautiful setting and warm reception at Crear had inspired her to write many more poems on her return to Egypt.
