He won the award for 鈥樷, a translation of 鈥楧iasporante鈥 by the afro-feminist francophone poet Kiy茅mis.
The selection panel praised the translation鈥檚 鈥榬eal heft of emotion鈥, while judge Samantha Schnee commented that:
In his translation of Afropean poet Kiy茅mis鈥檚 鈥楧iasporante鈥, [鈥 David McCallam uses a rich array of verbs in the English language to add something new to the poem instead of opting for a literal translation of the title, which is repeated throughout the poem 鈥 a choice he made, as he puts it in his commentary, 鈥渢o find a way of rendering the haunting resonance of the French term,鈥 thereby elegantly disproving the old Frostian adage that 鈥淧oetry is what gets lost in translation.鈥
As David explains: I was introduced to Kiy茅mis鈥檚 work by my friend, the scholar . We ran a poetry reading together at the Camargo Foundation in France in March 2022 and, as part of this event, I had an initial stab at translating a few of Kiy茅mis鈥檚 poems for an Anglophone audience. The poems come from her fascinating, militant debut collection, A Nos Humanit茅s R茅volt茅es.
Interestingly, as Johanna points out, Kiy茅mis is one of a new generation of Afropean francophone writers who come to literature, and so poetry, via social and digital media. For more on her work, see her pioneering blog
In 2021, David published a book-length translation of poetry, drawing on his research into the history and literature of the French revolutionary period, entitled Andr茅 Ch茅nier: Poetry and Revolution 1792-1794.
His 鈥楢l fresco flirtations鈥 鈥 being a translation of five poems from Paul Verlaine鈥檚 F锚tes galantes (1869) 鈥 were also longlisted for this year鈥檚 .
The Stephen Spender Award is only the most recent proof of a much more general vitality and diversity of literary translation across the School of Languages and Cultures.
In 2022 alone, Dr Louise Johnson published, to much acclaim, her second novel translated from Catalan, Ruth by Guillem Viladot. Dr Henriette Louwerse led a team of students of Dutch in a project to translate the graphic novel Quaco; My Life in Slavery, revealing to an Anglophone audience the extent of Dutch involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. And Dr Adam Fergus translated and adapted Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva鈥檚 major work, , to create a powerful piece of live theatre, in collaboration with Charlie Barnes of Dead Earnest Theatre company, as part of this year鈥檚 Festival of the Mind.
