What’s Important in Verse Translation?

Diane Arnson Svarlien will read and perform selections from her verse translations of Aristophanes, Euripides, Sappho, Brecht, the Hebrew liturgy, and more, and discuss the challenges and complexities of translating poetry into poetry. Faithfulness to the original is a core value of translation, but poetry offers so many things to be faithful to: semantic sense, form, rhythm, euphony or dissonance, tone, allusion and intertext, emotion, and humor—to name just a few. Arnson Svarlien will consider these competing claims by looking closely at specific examples from her work and that of others. 

Book signing will be at the University Bookstore in Mallinckrodt from 3:00-4:30 PM on Thursday, November 21. Copies of Diane’s new book should be available for purchase:  Aristophanes : Lysistrata, Women at the Thesmophoria, Frogs. The list price is $20.00.

This event is Co-Sponsored by the John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics, the Department of English, the Performing Arts Department, the Center for the Literary Arts, and the Department of Comparative Literature and Thought.