Poetry Translation Competition

The Christopher Nicholson Award for poetry translation attracted a brilliant field of poems from our senior pupils. The shortlisted entries included poems from a fantastic range of languages. A special shout out to Megan who translated from Bulgarian and to Reuben, who attempted a poem from Swedish – a language he has been teaching himself. The winners and highly commended entries were selected by the poet and translator Jennifer Wong.

Highly Commended were:

Daphne (‘La Patience’, Jacques Dupin, French)

Amelie (‘Alhambra’, Jorge Luis Borges, Spanish)

William (Goethe, ‘Elegie Sieben von den Römischen Elegien, German).

But the winner was:

Ella (‘Le Dormeur du Val’, Rimbaud, French)

Ella remarkably had two entries from different languages in the final selection. Jenny commented: ‘What I love most about this translation of Rimbaud’s ‘Asleep’ is the simplicity of the verse and the successful rendering of the overall mood and meaning of the poem. There is also very close attention paid to the rhythm and sound, and the subtlety of poetic language.’