A Stanford story (and winner!) behind this year’s Compass Translation Awards in NYC
Thursday, May 4th, 2017
Akhmadulina: Singing in another language.
Last Saturday, Stanford’s Glen Worthey spent an unusual evening in Manhattan: he was at the Poets House accepting a Compass Translation Awared Second Prize for his translation of a Bella Akhmadulina poem from the original Russian.
A description of the 6th Annual Compass Translation Award is here, and the award ceremony announcement is here. Glen is an old friend from the Stanford Libraries, and he dropped the Book Haven a note to let us know the news. Who, after all, likes to toot their own horn? That’s what the Book Haven is for: to reward the modest and humble.
He described the occasion as a “warm and lovely” event, as well it should be. Some of our friends were there, including Irina Mashinski. We wrote about the 4th Compass Award ceremony here, since the evening included a commemoration for our mutual friend, the late Russian scholar and translator George Kline. Also attending last Saturday: Alexander Veitsman as well as Irina, organizer of the translation competition and editor of its sponsoring journals, Compass Points / StoSvet, respectively. Plus Regina and Mark Khedekel, representing the Russian-American Cultural Society that co-sponsors both the journals and the competition, along with Lilya Pann, a regular critic for Compass Points / StoSvet.
There’s Stanford story behind this year’s award for Glen: When Akhmadulina died in 2010, Grisha Freidin wrote a lovely blog post and Arcade article in her memory (here and here). Even the Book Haven wrote about it here.
Worthey of the honor.
“In his piece, Grisha wrote admiringly of a little Akhmadulina poem that she had written and performed for the final scene of Elem Klimov‘s 1970 film, Sport, Sport, Sport. Grisha’s memoir of both poet and poem inspired me – as did the poem itself. It’s brief, simple, and perhaps even a little didactic,” wrote Glen, “but I thought it was haunting and wonderful and inspiring, especially in her film performance of it.
He saw, he submitted, he conquered: he got the good news a month or so ago. He celebrated by creating a film clip from the original, subtitled it with his translation – all of which you can see here.
Alexander and Irina read the other two winners’ English translations (they couldn’t attend in person), along with Akhmadulina’s Russian originals. First prize went to Paul Hopper of Washington D.C. for “The New Notebook,” and third went to Sasha Palmer of Baltimore for “To Boris Messerer.” Between the two of them, Glen presented his translation, the original Russian poem, and the origin of his effort in Grisha’s inspiring memoir. (All will soon be published in the StoSvet journal and the Compass Points Annual.)
She’ll help next time. Maria Stepanova at Stanford Libraries, photographed by C. Haven.
The poet for next year’s translation competition is another friend: one of Russia’s leading poets (and a recent Stanford visitor) Maria Stepanova, and the first-ever living poet to be featured for a Compass competitions. Maria has offered to consult on her poetry with any translators who may desire it, “which sounds both fun and daunting,” said Glen.
In addition to loads of new impressions and new friends, Glen returned with a small stack of sample journal issues for himself and the Stanford Libraries, as well as signed copies of Irina’s latest book, and some catalogs of the archive of Mark Khedekel’s fascinating father, Lazar Khedekel, a Suprematist architect-philosopher who was a contemporary and collaborator with Malevich and El Lissitzky in the Vitebsk Art Institute.
Oh, and the poem. Read Glen’s translation below, or listen to Akhmadulina read the poem in the youtube video he made at the bottom of this post:
Oh, Runner, Run!
