Postcard from Latvia

Poet and performer Rhys Trimble spent the month of December in residence at the Ventspils International Writers' and Translators’ House, writing and translating Latvian poets. The residency was the outcome of several poetry translation workshops organised by Latvian Literature in cooperation with Literature Across Frontiers which brought Rhys to Latvia and Latvian poets to Wales.

Post card reads:

efficacy that

dissolves

in your

blood

spiritus loci

firebrick enclosure

turn your malleable fire

into a compulsion to

inexpressiveness

and yet

all expression//

coming to Ventspils house

represents my 7th visit to Latvia. This is a place, as described by Ieva Balode which provides whatever is needed by writers. Be it silence, shelter, support, a place to focus, a residency that provides in some cases political respite from oppressive regimes. The house isn’t asking for constant updates: a quota from a literary salt-mine. This open attitude like all true facilitation or good management produces ample results as evinced by shelves full of books written and translated in the library. I may now be able to add to them. I came here under some stress but the weight of industrious writers-past has pressed me down, compelled me to tease out the threads of my manifold projects and start to weave together and knot the fraying parts. I would recommend the international writer’s house at Ventspils to any writer who wishes to become part of its embodiment of a quiet kind of literary graft.

A poem from Kerala

Poet and author Sian Northey, took part in a translation workshop organised by our sister organistaion, Literature Across Frontiers in Kerala, India recently. She sent a poem on her return.

Yr Ewropead Cyntaf

’Dach chi’n gwbod sut mae hi:
criw fu’n cydweithio,
yn yfad cwrw, byta cyri,
ddiwadd nos,
a gwraig un ohonom yn ffonio.
Mae Raman yn pasio’r ffôn i mi.
Dw i ddim yn ei hadnabod,
wn i ddim ei henw,
ond dw i’n cofio iddo ddweud ei bod hithau’n fardd,
fel yntau.
Ymbalfalwn o bopty’n hacenion
yn yr iaith sy’n clymu’r cyfandiroedd.
‘Titha’n sgwennu?’ meddwn.
‘Rhyw fanion bethau dibwys,’ atebodd,
yn union fel y byddwn innau wedi’i ddweud.
Dychwelais y ffôn i’w gŵr.
Dywedodd Raman rywbeth wrthi:
efallai iddo dyngu cariad hyd dragwyddoldeb,
efallai iddo addo prynu’r iogwrt da wrth basio’r siop.
Yna trodd ataf i.
‘Chdi,’ meddai, ‘yw’r Ewropead cyntaf
iddi siarad ag o erioed.’
Ac am eiliad,
rhwng y platiau budron a’r gwydrau gweigion,
bodolai hanes amgen, lle mae’r cyswllt cyntaf un
oedd dwy wraig,
un, o bosib, braidd yn chwil,
yn bod yn ddiymhongar
am eu cerddi.

Postcard from Canada

Sian Northey travelled to the IFOA Festival (International Festival of Authors) held in Toronto, Canada in October. Sian read her work at the ‘Around the World’ event, which included readings from three continents and nine countries. Her visit was supported by the British Council in Canada.

Shekon Mari,

A postcard from Canada, where the welcome is warm.

1. IFOA Toronto organised a trip for the writers to Niagra (and provided me with a feast of food and drink!)

2. The Sweetgrass Conference on Indigenous Languages invited me to read a poem at the dinner to honour language teachers and campaigners (and provided me witha feast of food and drink!)

3. Stayed at the home of one of the Mohawk Tribe who's learning Welsh (and provided me with a feast of food and drink!)

Regards,

Sian

Rhyd y Gro by Sian Northey was selected to the 2016 Bookcase, our window to recent Welsh literary works which we recommend for translation. Read more here.