Arabic-to-Spanish Translators: Poetry-translation Contest Open Through July 31

Arabic-Spanish translator Shadi Rohana is judging the Arabic portion of a rotating translation contest:

The contest was begun by a Mexico-based group, with each choosing a poem from the language they work in, presents it, and then solicits submissions. Rohana chose Mona Kareem’s poem “حدود.”

“Like many other poets she is also a translator,” Rohana said over email, “and and I chose ‘حدود‘ because it’s my favorite poem in her recent book.”

The contest open until end of July, and the Spanish translation of the poem should be sent directly to concurso1x1@gmail.com. There are no special requirements; the contest is open to all.

“The winner will be announced on the website,” Rohana said, “and there might be some ceremony involved in December—we’re still not so sure. This year we had concursos in Russian, Catalan and Mayan language. We are also trying to see what kind of prizes we can give, but for now what’s certain is that the winner will be published in places like Periódico de poesía, which is a poetry magazine that belongs to the UNAM (the National Autonomous University of Mexico) and another magazine called Sin Fin, and both are part of the organizers.”

The contest began two years ago as a translator-led initiative, and thus far it has featured poems from the German, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese and modern Greek. Rohana added that, “Special emphasis is put on Mexican indigenous languages and there have been participations in Náhuatl, Ayuuk, Miixteco and Zapoteco. The idea is to celebrate literary dialogues, translation, poetry, poetry translation and linguistic diversity.”
More on the poem and poet on the concurso website. Do pass it on to your favorite Arabic –> Spanish translators.

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