Transplants

Translation can be thought of as the transplanting of a living thing out of its native time and place into somewhere foreign. There it may thrive or die. How can the subjects and forms of poetry be transplanted across time and space? Must they be modified? Or can the host culture be induced to accept them as they are? In this issue of "MPT" we show many of the ways and means by which a literary transplant's chances of survival may be increased. New versions of ballads by Itzik Manger, of the French Grail legend, of the English Sir Orfeo (by Maureen Duffy), of early Brecht. Plus translations of "Rimbaud" by James Kirkup and of Alaskan Native American songs by John Smelcer. A very great variety of work.