Translate This! is an ongoing, occasional series that brings problematics related to literary and poetic translation to the fore. Featuring adventurous and avant-garde translators, the gatherings include readings, analyses, discussion and debate in open, inclusive, rigorous and challenging spirit.
The Translation Innovation Ensemble, launched by Amir Parsa and Christian Hawkey, is a core group of poets/writer/translators first formed at Pratt Institute. The Ensemble was conceived concomitantly with the first Translate This! event. The main focus of the ensemble—which remains open to interested literary translators from across the world—and the Translate This! series is to provide a space for reflection and action on the challenges and possibilities of poetic translation, as well as the inescapable political and social dimension of translatory practice as a whole. Innovative gestures at micro and macro levels are infused with the constant reflection on the impossibility-yet-necessity of poetic translation.
The Ensemble organized the first Translate This! Reading and panel discussion in spring 2016 with the participation of poets Per Bergström, Ida Börjel, Jennifer Hayashida, Jenny Tunedal, and Uljana Wolf.