World Poetry Day 21 March celebrated with the School of Languages and Cultures
It was World Poetry Day on 21 March, and to celebrate and highlight the different languages and cultures taught at Victoria, the School of Languages and Cultures created a series of powerpoint slides of short poems and extracts of poems (with translations in English) for each of our languages taught in the School but also within the University. These went on display on various digital screens around the university.
Below is a selection of some of the translated poems. Poems were translated from or into Ancient Greek, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Māori, Malay, Olde English, Samoan and Spanish.
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), from The Divine Comedy
When I had journeyed half our life’s way
I found myself within a shadowed forest
for I had lost the path that does not stray
(translated into English by Seamus Heaney [1939-2013])
Kia taipakeke au
i oho ake au i waenganui pū o ngā rākau a Tāne
me tōna pouri kerekere, ā
kua ngaro i ahau te ara tika
(translated into Te Reo by Jay Évett [Italian])
Selected by Professor Rawinia Higgins (Te Kawa a Māui)
こがらしや
海に夕日を
吹き落とす
夏目漱石
Wintry wind
blowing the setting sun
down the sea
Natsume Soseki (1816-1916)
Selected and translated by Dr Kaya Oriyama (Japanese)
Worte
Manche Worte gibt’s, die treffen wie Keulen.
Doch manche
Schluckst du wie Angeln und schwimmst
weiter und weißt es noch nicht.
Words
Some words, they strike like cudgels.
But others
You swallow like fish hooks and carry on
swimming and don’t realise it yet.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929)
Selected and translated by Dr Richard Millington (German)