The PTC workshops are excited to return to Arabic Poetry. At these sessions we will be translating the work of Mostafa Ibrahim, who we first translated in 2014 when he had become known as a voice of the Arab Spring.
Our online poetry translation workshops can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Join in to meet poetry lovers, translators and poets from across the globe, then get to know each other as you share insights and language skills, working together to open up a poem in its original language and reassemble it into an English translation.
We have had participants from the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The workshops are the perfect way to keep you feeling creative, engaged and connected to the world at large. A rough and ready guild translation is provided by the guest translator so there is no need to know the language being translated, simply sign up and bring your love of language.
This online workshop will take place over two 90-minute sessions on Zoom over two consecutive Tuesdays. This format will let us spend time with a single poetic voice. The workshops will be lead by the writer and translator Nariman Youssef and the poet and PTC Commissioning Editor Edward Doegar.
‘Pay-What-You-Want’ Pricing
We want to keep our workshop experience as accessible as possible, especially as we are aware that Covid has put many people at a financial disadvantage.
The Poet
Born in 1986, Mostafa Ibrahim is considered one of Egypt’s most exciting young poets and has been lauded by the country’s two leading colloquial poets, Abdel-Rahman Al-Abnudi and the late Ahmed Fuad Negm.
His first collection of poems, Western Union, Haram, came out in January 2011 (just before the ‘Arab Spring’). His second collection of poems, Manifesto (2013), sold out in less than six months. One of his poems about the martyrs of the revolution was adapted as a song and became very popular.
The Translator
Nariman Youssef is a Cairo-born, London-based semi-freelance translator with an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Edinburgh. She works between Arabic and English and part-time manages a translation team at the British Library. Literary translations include Inaam Kachachi’s The American Granddaughter, Donia Kamal’s Cigarette No. 7, contributions in Words Without Borders, The Common, Banipal magazine, and poetry anthologies Beirut39 and The Hundred Years’ War.
Full Details
To try and make the online experience as enjoyable and manageable as possible, places will be restricted – if you book please do make sure you can attend both sessions.
Workshop materials and the log-in details to join the sessions with easy to follow instructions, will be sent out by email when you book your place.
• The PTC will deliver these workshops online via Zoom.
• This online series will follow our usual workshop format, working as a group to translate the poem line by line.
• Working from a guide translation of the original poem, guided by a translator and poet to facilitate the sessions.
• Two sessions lasting 90 minutes over two weeks working on one longer poem
• In advance of the beginning of the series, we will share the original poem and the guide translation that the group will be working from as well as further materials to aid the experience like audio examples of the poetry and a video introduction to the poet by the translator
• On consecutive Tuesday evenings on 16 and 23 March, 18:30-20:00 GMT.
• Pay-What-You-Want donation when reserving your ticket.
• Reserve one ticket for both sessions.
