The Scottish Poetry Library hosted one of our favourite events in our tour in 2005 – a reading by Partaw Naderi from Afghanistan and Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi from Sudan with Sarah Maguire reading their translations – and so we were delighted when they invited us to return in 2008, this time with Saddiq and Kajal Ahmad. Sadly, Kajal was unable to take part in tour, but we were very lucky that her translator, Choman Hardi, was able to join us to read Kajal’s poems in Kurdish.
A capacity audience was there to greet us, with a significant number of people from the small Edinburgh Sudanese community. The Scottish Poetry Library is a perfect venue for poetry readings: an elegant setting, specifically designed for that very purpose, that attracts audiences of attentive poetry enthusiasts through their regular events. Unsurprisingly, the readings were warmly received and thoroughly enjoyed by all concerned.
A brief account of our reading in the SPL’s magazine Poetry Reader said, ‘Collaborations such as those with the PTC are extremely important to us, and we welcome the opportunity to bring people and poems together in a broader sense…. Sadly it’s often difficult to find poetry in translation, which is where the work of the Poetry Translation Centre is of vital importance.’ In return, the PTC feels very fortunate to have our events welcomed in such an ideal venue.
