Another beautiful night of culture in WAS with the showing of a new film, Translating Rilke and the launch of a new book of wonderful translations of poems by Rilke.
Poet Seamus Hogan, Dr Ailin Becker (MD) and Sean O’Mahony (landscape architect) have worked together from 2012-15 on a weekly basis to produce the exquisite translations which make up Rainer Maria Rilke 30 Poems (Eblana Press 2015).
The uniqueness of the partnership is reflected in the originality of the translations making them at once more accessible and more lyrical without in any way lessening the depth and complexity of Rilke’s poetry.
’..made over into English wonderfully well.’ Seamus Heaney. (no less)
We are delighted to have played a (very) small part in the success story that is behind this wonderful book and the new Sean Phair film, Translating Rilke, accepted for The Fastnet Film Festival. If we ever wonder about the making of a translation this short film gives us a brief but intimate glance into how it can work. Over a three year period in West Cork Ailin, Seamus and Sean, with their different skill sets, patiently and painstakingly worked to translate R. M. Rilke into a wonderful and loyal English. ‘Translating Rilke’ shows us some of the highs and lows on the journey. A beautifully crafted 8 minutes.
Once again we had a great audience, many of whom participated in our regular open (no-)mic spot, including, Cormac Lally, Breeda Murphy, Eithne Keats, Tim Abbott, Paul Ó Colmáin and the amazing Alex “Fingers” Lockwood! Thank you all.