Clare is very interested in the process of translating poetry, and has been involved in many different translation projects. She is currently working on a new version of Ovid’s Heroides to be published by Bloodaxe in 2013.
Clare’s recent translations of the Somali poet Caasha Luul Mohamud Yusuf for the Poetry Translation Centre are available as a free podcast or a dual language pamphlet. Clare’s article about the experience of translating Caasha is also on the website.
Early in 2011, Clare particpated in the Visegrad Poets’ project, bringing together female poets from across Europe to create new versions of eachother’s poems, and her translation of Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało’s ‘FM-Biography’ from the Polish was a runner-up in Modern Poetry in Translation’s competition.
Clare has also translated many poems from the Hungarian, particularly the work of Anna T Szabo and Tamas Jonas. Her translations have appeared in The Hungarian Quarterly, Poetry London, The Frogmore Papers and the Arc anthology New Order: Hungarian Poets of the Post 1989 Generation, edited by George Szirtes.
Dear Clare – I love Ovid’s Heroides, I think it’s the best thing Ovid ever wrote. I think there’s something very therapeutic about reading Latin. I wrote a rather good translation/version of Horace’s ode Diffugere nives once: it was too opaque but I think that was because I was obsessed with the rhyme schemes of Mediaeval Provence at the time (and because I was 25!) Best wishes Richard Hansen
Hi Richard Hansan! My husband’s called Richard Henson (although he’s not a poet). Your Horace sounds interesting – although you didn’t exactly make things easy for yourself with the medieval provencal rhyme-scheme… You must be a man who likes a challenge. My Heroides is free-verse!