POETS TRANSLATING POETS - Shillong

Poets Translating Poets is a pioneering project by the Goethe-Institut Mumbai along with the Goethe-Instituts in South Asia, and in collaboration with the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, now called Haus für Poesie and in cooperation with German Commission for UNESCO, with an aim to create a platform for poets from South Asia and Germany to translate each other’s works.
 
Contemporary poetry from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka has been translated into German, while German poetry was similarly translated into South Asian languages during the course of the project. Initiated by the director of Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan in Mumbai, India, Dr. Martin Wälde; so far this project has brought together 51 poets from 20 languages since 2015. It has stimulated many new literary networks and opened new avenues for trans-cultural understanding.
 
In this forthcoming editon of the project in January 2019, we bring together contemporary poets writing in Assamese, German and Khasi along with translators, in a ‘poetic encounter’ among the pine and mist in the hills of Shillong. The week will culminate in public programmes including language, poetry, music, theatre and dialogue on 18th January in Shillong. The programme will be documented and the poems will be visually interpreted by a photographer.

The poets
Kerstin Preiwuss, German
Maitrayee Patar, Assamese
Wangphrang K Diengdoh, Khasi
 
The translators
Rebekah A Tham, Khasi - German
Vidya Sarma, Assamese – German