Contemporary Literature Press, under The University of Bucharest, in conjunction with The British Council, The Romanian Cultural Institute, and The Writers’ Union of Romania, The National Museum of Romanian Literature announces the publication of a new book: Antologie de poezie religioasă închinată Maicii Domnului, translated into English and German by Oana-Florina Avornicesei and edited by Lidia Vianu.
„This anthology of poetry in translation is the result of my longstanding collaboration with Mr. Dan Verona, a poet, a writer, and a translator himself. As a young academic, teaching literary translation, i.e., contemporary British and American poetry within the MA Programme for the Translation of the Contemporary Literary Text, Bucharest University, under the guidance of Professor Lidia Vianu, who at the time was also my PhD coordinator, I had the privilege of meeting Mr Dan Verona in his capacity as a programme coordinator with the Radio România Cultural, the second national channel of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation. A collaboration ensued, which lasted from 2007 to 2012. During this time, he would bring photocopied material which he had treasure-hunted all over Europe, and I would select the poems which spoke to my mind, my heart, and my spirituality at the time, and I would translate them.
It started with a few hymns by Ephrem the Syrian, which were in English, but as he learned that German had been my major, Mr Verona quickly and enthusiastically switched to German poetry, of which he had gathered a whole collection, almost an anthology onto itself, of religious poetry mostly dedicated to the Virgin Mary, spanning all the eras of German literature, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
Once I had translated them, I would record them in approximately 10-minute-long sessions which, would air late at night. He also came up with the idea of the introductory lines about each poet, so that the Romanian public would become at least marginally familiarised with the names of representatives of German poetry, great and less known, in their instance as creators of religious verse. I still remember the long talks we had, when I went to the recording studios of RR Cultural, on the General Berthelot Street, in Bucharest, which would become significantly longer than the recording sessions themselves.
This is also the driving force of this volume. For years my translations lay scattered, and I did not give them a moment’s thought. As it happens, life took me down other paths. Since 2011 I have been working in the field of non-literary translation and conference interpretation at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, with the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages where I have been teaching translation studies, conference interpreting, and linguistics. Time lay my translations to rest into a deep slumber until last year, when I remembered them with a pang. For a moment thought I had lost many of them forever. I had not, as it turned out. In fact, I had found more than I had hoped I would; I found them all, along with a lot of memories of all the years when I had translated them.
This volume is a recuperation of my own Paradise Lost, and, for all it is worth, it is my personal Paradise Regained. With it I unearth years of work as a literary translator, and I bring to completion the fruit of a labour which was never just my own, but that of Mr. Dan Verona and Professor Lidia Vianu as well. Professor Vianu opened this door for me, and most of the time this is just what I need, to find my own footing and walk the walk.
Mr. Dan Verona is the ever-beating heart behind it all. With it, I find closure and a measure of satisfaction at having brought them all together in the form of this volume. In it, I find a mirror into the translator I used to be 10-17 years ago. With very little intervention, the translations are the ones which aired on RR Cultural during the same time, and for some time after, in the case of the Hymns by Ephrem the Syrian, which were broadcast for some time every year on Christmas night.
I am profoundly indebted and deeply grateful to both Professor Lidia Vianu and the poet Dan Verona, who were both my mentors and shaped not just the translator, but also the person that I am. This volume is dedicated to them with my warmest affection”, wrote Oana-Florina Avornicesei.
Antologie de poezie religioasă închinată Maicii Domnului is formally launched on 11 August 2022, but it is available for consultation and downloading on receipt of this Press Release, at the following internet address.
