This companion website highlights Wesleyan University Press’s small and important list in modernist poetry in translation. In 1972, the press published An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Brazilian Poetry edited by Elizabeth Bishop and Emanuel Brasil. In recent years, the press has published or re-issued a number of new translations of classic modernist works from French, Italian, German, Spanish and other languages. These translations bring important texts into English, sometimes for the first time, sometimes in new forms, prompting appreciation and often a reconsideration of the originals. The poems presented here, en face when possible, along with excerpts from essays by the translators, invite us to consider translation as more than a linguistic operation to be evaluated in terms of accuracy or lack thereof, but also as a cultural activity of historical and artistic significance.
Browse to learn more about the poets, translators, and books in Wesleyan ‘s collection.