Back in December 2019, encouraged by the ideals of intellectual and artistic exchange after taking part in the 23rd edition of the Saint Jerome International Translation and Interpreting Conference, a small group of colleagues began to consider developing a project to translate poetry from the United States in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the country’s independence in 2026. We were inspired from the outset by the conference theme: ‘Other voices, other perspectives’. In the industry, it is generally agreed that each generation needs new translations that appeal to its own sensibilities and ways of expressing itself. That is why we wanted to provide these new voices of and perspectives on the poets who have nourished the literary traditions of the United States for more than two centuries.
Several members of this project’s organising committee are members of the convening organisations, the Asociación Mexicana de Traductores Literarios (AMETLI) and the University Translation Studies Network, which both decided to support the project’s continuation in 2023. The latter network, which includes many academics in the field of translation in Mexico, has planned activities that include a poetry and music recital for 2025. In the next few months, AMETLI plans to hold a series of tutorials in which more experienced translators will join translation students and new colleagues in sessions where they will analyse, workshop, and review their proposals. Coming back to the 2019 conference theme, ‘Other voices, other perspectives’, one of the proposals for this series of tutorials is for participants to prepare their own versions of the same poem. These will then be used in a comparative exercise, which we hope will be fruitful for the translation studies carried out by the members of the University Translation Studies Network and any other researchers who may be interested.
This is an ongoing, long-term project. However, in order to commemorate the 250th anniversary, a first stage is planned for July to October 2024, when translation students or professionals from or living in Mexico will be able to take part and present their own versions of any copyright-free poem by a poet hailing from the United States. If they want to include works by more recent poets, each translator is responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions for these to be considered for acceptance. The project will include an online repository of all poems accepted by the governing committee. After this, we plan to publish one or more volumes with a selection of the translated poems. The first of these, which will be self-published by those translators who are interested in taking part, will be released by Editorial Medusa in 2026.
We would like to invite everyone who is interested to take part. Please send your proposals and questions to 250usmx@gmail.com
Martha Celis-Mendoza (AMETLI), member of the organising committee (tutorias@ametli.org)