For the Poetry Archives of Poetry International, Leeuwarden City of Literature, together with RIXT, invites Frisian poets to select three of their poems for translation. These poems, as well as a brief characterization of the poet’s work, are translated into English by the best translators we know. This year and next year, approximately thirty Frisian poets will be made accessible to an international audience in this way.
Poetry International is a Dutch initiative that aims to bring poetry to the attention of as large and as diverse an audience as possible and focuses in particular on the exchange of poets, translators and enthusiasts. In their archives, poets from a large number of countries and regions are presented. Poetry International wants to show more of Frisian poetry in the coming years and has asked RIXT and Leeuwarden City of Literature to help with this.
In 2021 an advisory committee has drawn up a list of the (first) poets for this project. This selection also includes young Frisian spoken-word poets who write in Dutch. The intention is that by 2023 ninety translated poems by approximately thirty Frisian poets (including their biographies) will be available through Poetry International.
Three poems by Jan Kleefstra have been translated. Listen to his lecture of his Frisian poem Ik haw mei soere molke myn oantinken wosken and read along with the English translation:
Project in collaboration with Poetry International, RIXT, Nederlands Letterenfonds.