I mentioned on Twitter that I had entered this year’s Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation. It is against the terms of conditions of that competition to publish (even on, what as yet remains, a humble, little, out-of-the way site such as this) the poems before the final results have been decided and announced.

I don’t expect, of course, to scrape even into third-place. I expect no place on the podium, except to fall only into the dustbin of poesy. Nonetheless, I am writing this post now with the intention — or the hope — that I will come back and update it in a few months’ time, including links to the three translations that I submitted, along with the original texts and my accompanying commentaries.

UPDATE:

1. Asleep in the Valley [Le Dormeur du Val] (French) by Arthur Rimbaud

2. Orpheus Lost [Orfej u Podzemlju] (Serbo-Croatian) by Branko Miljković

3. No Matter [Ahasvero de Amo (III)] (Esperanto) by Kálmán Kalocsay