Farfetched: What Foreign Poems Can Mean to Us (Workshop)
14th July at 1pm. No previous knowledge of poetry or foreign languages
required. Speakers of languages other than English particularly welcome.
“In
this workshop, we will explore together a poem written in a language other
than English. Is there any point in trying to make sense of poetry in
languages we have not fully mastered? My answer is a resounding ""Yes!""
and then a more thoughtful ""well..."" Any poem is a foreign country, and
a foreign poem is not necessarily more inaccessible than one in our own
language.”.
The Facilitator - Daphne Loads
“Since 2004 I
have published a number of journal articles and book-chapters on the
reading of poetry as a form of personal and professional development. I
have developed and presented workshops for both students and academics at
the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University. I have
written and performed successful shows as part of Bright Club (2017) The
Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas at both the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2017,
2018, 2019) and the Leeds Literary Festival (2020) and the Edinburgh
International Conference Centre's live on-line series(2020).
On
retiring from the University of Edinburgh in 2020 I asked 11 speakers of
10 different languages, (Arabic, Tshivendi, Mandarin, Spanish, Polish,
Greek, Portuguese, French, Gaelic and Italian) to introduce me to a short
poem. After a while a number of themes emerged: forgetting, missing,
understanding, misunderstanding, being an outsider. I am in the process of
completing a book developed from my findings, called ""Farfetched."" My
next publication, an exploration of Gaelic song will be entitled
""Outlandish.""
The workshop will provide space
for participants to develop their own understandings of what it means to
read poems in foreign languages.
Tickets £5. The workshop will last
around 90 minutes.
Tea and coffee will be available. Feel free to bring
a sandwich, if you are on your lunch break!
-
£5.00 -
14 July 2022 -
90 minutes -
13:00 -
Scottish Poetry Library -
Meeting Room 1 -
Age 12+
