Check out this interview from April 24th, 2013, to hear me & my friend, the poet & translator Piotr Florcyzk, talk about translation and the role of poetry in the world.

From the interview: “Every translator approaches the act of translation differently. And I think depending on the poet, in the original language, you’re going to either see a translator be very meticulous with capturing the literal sense of the word or they will move into more of an effort to make translation beautiful in English.”

“A person is going to be a poet, and no poet makes a living at it, but it is a vocation. I think those are really two separate things. And that what we’re doing with our students is we’re encouraging them to pursue their passion and giving them a way to pursue it to the best of their abilities, and it will follow them, I think, and feed their lives in a way that is necessary for people who truly love poetry.”

Also, I was nervous, and totally said Osip Mandelstam was Polish, which, technically, sure, but everyone knows he was a famous Russian poet!