In poems that are precise, frank and finely tuned, here Wittner explores the specificities of parental and familial love, life after marriage, and the re-ignition of the self in middle age.
The ‘things’ of life – bus journeys, potted plants, thunder at night, coffee-stained books, fleeting conversations and the rest – are made full through Wittner’s ability to pinpoint in them the consequential, and even the metaphysical, manipulating language with a translator’s delicate skill. There are funny, moving pen-portraits of Wittner’s two children, suddenly grown, as well as bell-clear descriptions of the task of writing. For this is also a collection about language itself – as an interface, as a surface, and as vital communication.
The poems in this edition, Wittner’s first collection available in English translation, have been translated by the Mexican-Scottish bilingual poet and translator Juana Adcock, acclaimed author of Manca and Split.
Translation of the Route is co-published by the Poetry Translation Centre and Bloodaxe Books and available to order.
The Tour
This October, Laura Wittner will tour the UK to celebrate this landmark book. She’ll visit Glasgow, Sheffield, Oxford, Norwich and London, reading and speaking alongside her translator and acclaimed Mexican-British poet Juana Adcock. Check back soon for more details.
The Poet
Laura Wittner is an award-winning poet and translator from Argentina. Her books of poetry include El pasillo del tren (1996), Los cosacos (1998), Las últimas mudanzas (2001), La tomadora de café (2005), Lluvias (2009), Balbuceos en una misma dirección (2011), La altura (2016), Lugares donde una no está (2017) and Traducción de la ruta (2020), whose English edition (Translation of the Route, translated by Juana Adcock) is forthcoming from the Poetry Translation Centre in 2024. She has also published more than 20 books for children, most recently Cual para tal (2022), ¿Y comieron perdices? (2023) and Se pide un deseo (2023). As a literary translator Wittner has translated books by Leonard Cohen, David Markson, M. John Harrison, Cynan Jones, Claire-Louise Bennett, Katherine Mansfield and James Schuyler, among many others.
The Translator
Juana Adcock is a Mexican poet, translator and editor based in Scotland. She is the author of Manca (Tierra Adentro, 2014), Vestigial (Stewed Rhubarb, 2022) and Split (Blue Diode, 2019), which was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was included in the Guardian’s Best Poetry of 2019. She is co-editor of the anthology of poetry by Latin American women Temporary Archives (Arc Publications, 2022), and her translation of the Mè’phàà poet Hubert Matiúwàa’s The Dogs Dreamt (Flipped Eye, 2023) received a PEN Translates award. In 2024 her translation of Lola Ancira’s The Sadness of Shadows will be published by MTO Press and of Laura Wittner’s Translation of the Route from Bloodaxe Books/Poetry Translation Centre.
