The Adulterer's Tongue: An Anthology of Welsh Poetry in Translation

Description

The Adulterer's Tongue casts a brilliant light on the world of Welsh-language poetry. Poetry has been written in Welsh for over fifteen hundred years: an ancient literature, it is also a vibrant part of the culture of modern Europe, often overlooked by English speakers. Robert Minhinnick's translations bring six outstanding contemporary Welsh language poets into the spotlight, providing the Welsh texts en face. Minhinnick, himself a leading poet, is conscious of the responsibilities of translating out of a minority language. His versions take risks, but honour the originals' forms and intentions, making audible a wide array of individual styles and voices. The poets here each in different ways remake the language and culture they inherit. This collection testifies to the abiding creative energy of the Welsh language and culture. The poets are: Bobi Jones, Menna Elfyn, Emyr Lewis, Iwan Llwyd, Gwyneth Lewis and Elin ap Hywel.

ROBERT MINHINNICK was born in 1952 and lives in south Wales. He works for the environmental charity Sustainable Wales, and is also a freelance writer and editor. His poetry has won the Cholmondeley Award and the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem, 1999. His first book of essays, Watching the Fire Eater (Seren), was Welsh Book of the Year in 1993. Robert Minhinnick edits the international quarterly magazine Poetry Wales.

Robert Minhinnick is a poet of the moment. Not only because he's taken the less glamorous but more lucrative option of not being a dead poet, but also because his best work takes you and places you slap bang in the middle of an experience. "The Big Issue""