Modern Poetry in Translation (@mptmagazine) — Bluesky Profile

4 days ago

“M.’s story, a book for today, speaks eloquently to our own experience, as great literature is supposed to do.”

Kevin M. F. Platt reviews Maria Stepanova’s “intriguing short novel, written in lyrical, magnificently translated prose."

worldliteraturetoday.org/2026/march/d...

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3 days ago

Transreading Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine at 60 • Poetry School Modern Poetry in Translation magazine is celebrating its 60th birthday! Look at the writing from across the archive and use it as inspiration for your writing.

Delighted that our very own Sarah Hesketh is leading this course at @poetryschool.bsky.social!

'Transreading Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine at 60'

Find out more:
poetryschool.com/courses/tran...

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2 weeks ago

Would you like to stay and write in a global literary hub? Here are the latest opportunities:

1. Residency in Lyon for French-language poetry (dl 28 Feb)
2. Korean–English translation residency in Norwich (dl 9 March)
3. Norwich–Jakarta circular residency (dl 31 March)

buff.ly/vziVRSz

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1 week ago

This sold out over the weekend, BUT we do have a few returns – so the last handful of tickets are now available.

If you're in or near Oxford, we do hope you'll join us for this special lecture with Jeffrey Yang!

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1 week ago

This sold out over the weekend, BUT we do have a few returns – so the last handful of tickets are now available.

If you're in or near Oxford, we do hope you'll join us for this special lecture with Jeffrey Yang!

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2 weeks ago

The poem is now available to read for free on our website, to make a month since his arrest.

Please do read and share, and help us raise awareness with the international literary community.

modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/i-used-...

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2 weeks ago

A month has passed since the arrest of Ali Asadollahi in Iran, following nationwide protests.

A steadfast voice for freedom and justice, we published his poem, 'I Used to Dream, I Used to Be Safe,' in MPT 'Rhythms of the Land'.

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3 weeks ago

Only 10 tickets remaining now...

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3 weeks ago

MPT 60th Anniversary Lecture | With Jeffrey Yang Flower-Covered Grove: The Practice of Poetry and Its Translation

Due to popular demand we’ve released 25 additional places for our previously sold-out 60th anniversary lecture with Jeffrey Yang.

Find out more and book your free place via Eventbrite.

We hope to see you in Oxford in a few weeks' time!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mpt-60th-a...

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3 weeks ago

MPT 60th Anniversary Lecture | With Jeffrey Yang Flower-Covered Grove: The Practice of Poetry and Its Translation

Due to popular demand we’ve released 25 additional places for our previously sold-out 60th anniversary lecture with Jeffrey Yang.

Find out more and book your free place via Eventbrite.

We hope to see you in Oxford in a few weeks' time!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mpt-60th-a...

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1 month ago

Launching MPT The Antidote to Agony: Focus on the Poetry of Greece and Cyprus YouTube video by MPT Magazine

ICYMI!

You can now re-watch our December online launch for The Antidote to Agony over on YouTube:

youtu.be/sXppBjX57BI?...

Featuring issue contributors Phoebe Giannisi, Brian Sneeden, Dimitra Kotoula and Maria Nazos, chaired by issue editor Jessica Sequeira

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1 month ago

From the archive: From 'After Nature' by WG Sebald, translated from German by Michael Hamburger - Modern Poetry in Translation Will Stone writes on WG Sebald's 'After Nature’, translated from German by Michael Hamburger

Our latest 'From the Archive' piece is now live – chosen by Will Stone

From ‘After Nature’ by WG Sebald, translated from German by Michael Hamburger

modernpoetryintranslation.com/from-the-arc...

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1 month ago

Ali Asadollahi Arrested by Security Forces in Tehran - Hrana HRANA – On January 25, Ali Asadollahi, a poet and writer, was arrested in Tehran by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. Based on information received by HRANA, Mr. Asadollahi was arrested last nig...

We are alarmed to learn that the poet Ali Asadollahi, who featured in recent editions of MPT, has been violently arrested from his home by security forces in Iran.

Please join his supporters in raising awareness.

www.en-hrana.org/ali-asadolla...

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1 month ago

Ali Asadollahi Arrested by Security Forces in Tehran - Hrana HRANA – On January 25, Ali Asadollahi, a poet and writer, was arrested in Tehran by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. Based on information received by HRANA, Mr. Asadollahi was arrested last nig...

We are alarmed to learn that the poet Ali Asadollahi, who featured in recent editions of MPT, has been violently arrested from his home by security forces in Iran.

Please join his supporters in raising awareness.

www.en-hrana.org/ali-asadolla...

7 10 0 0

1 month ago

Ali Asadollahi Arrested by Security Forces in Tehran - Hrana HRANA – On January 25, Ali Asadollahi, a poet and writer, was arrested in Tehran by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. Based on information received by HRANA, Mr. Asadollahi was arrested last nig...

www.en-hrana.org/ali-asadolla...

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2 months ago

Ugh no

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2 months ago

I will not repeat Phryni… - Modern Poetry in Translation · I I will not repeat Phryni by stripping myself bare before You — — — — I confess that I possess the Memory that I am descended from a generation of poets The sea buzzes, H...

Read this poem, and listen to a recording of the poem in English and Greek, on the MPT website: modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/i-will-...

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2 months ago

I
I will not repeat Phryni by stripping myself bare before You
— — — —
I confess that I possess the Memory that I am descended
from a generation of poets
The sea buzzes, Homer’s sea foams
with an anger—that I inherit—I do not assuage it —
nor do I incite it but I let it carry me away:
a ravishing and ruthless death I have
O Horror of an immoral destiny whose weight I bear
on my transparent and anaemic back
without promise—nor expectation of light blue horizons—
Memory moves through me like a woman in black
shouting and cursing: A curse, a curse on Beauty
which sucks me up and lightens blue my Black hair
fills it with suns that reap and burn me
Sickles reap me and I shriek.

My Orphic song that you annihilated
and sweetened, You, the ignorant of Proper Sound.
The light blue crystals cut me and I deform.

II

My Eurydical face you redeem with counterfeit gold
You, the ignorant of Beauty, my Traders
You bought out my Happiness
My Hellenic Memory

and abandoned me to my fate of traversing and circling
like a bird—a Free bird.
Who among You will defend,
who will kill
my Freedom?
Who ever killed the Human?
the Human I embody
the Human of mourning
I’m enamoured with her,
I surrender to her,
I birth her the Earthquakes—my poems—
I love her
the human that gestates within me, I love—

'I will not repeat Phryni…'
Iliassa Sequin
Translated from Greek by Calliope Michail

From our (now sold-out) issue: The Antidote to Agony: Focus on the Poetry of Greece and Cyprus

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2 months ago

Now SOLD OUT! ❤️

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3 months ago

❤️

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3 months ago

D'oh!

This should say Thursday 11th December.

Join us!

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3 months ago

Reminder!

Online Launch: Thurs 12 Dec

Join us to celebrate the latest issue of MPT, The Antidote to Agony: Focus on the Poetry of Greece and Cyprus

With Phoebe Giannisi, Brian Sneeden, Dimitra Kotoula, Maria Nazos, chaired by issue editor Jessica Sequeira.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launching-...

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3 months ago

Polysyllabic Words - Modern Poetry in Translation · I don’t like polysyllabic words. Railroads originating in the larynx and terminating at the lips, a rolling stock of phonemes tearing up tonsils. Tongue-cutting wire mesh, tongue twisters slurping u...

Read & listen on the MPT website:

modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/polysyl...

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3 months ago

I don’t like polysyllabic words.
Railroads originating in the larynx and terminating at the lips,
a rolling stock of phonemes tearing up tonsils.
Tongue-cutting wire mesh,
tongue twisters slurping up vowel after vowel,
housing complexes blocking airways.

I don’t like polysyllabic words.
It’s hard to fit them into my poems,
they ooze out of verses,
flattening feet.
They trip on the tip of my tongue when Ι mumble them,
hobbling out of my mouth.

The longest word in the Greek language dates back to antiquity and
appears in Aristophanes’s Ekklesiazousai:
raysharkskullbitmixlaserwortcrayfishhoneydrizzlethrushblackbirddove-
pigeonroastedroosterheadwagtailrockdoveharesyrupcrispywingplatter.

In the sixth century AD, Dioscorus of Aphrodito gave us this thirty-
eight-letter mouthful: worthybeastlybirdystarlightcosmication.

In the thirteenth century AD, John Apokaukos called someone a
calculospiriteconomist.

The following two words were passed down to us from the ecclesiastical
tradition of Byzantium: panhyperprotohonoromagnificent and
photoluminoselenophosphorific.

I don’t like polysyllabic words.
This is the polysyllabic word I like the least: thegreekstate.

Polysyllabic Words by Jazra Khaleed
Translated from Greek by Jason Rigas

Featured in the latest MPT: The Antidote to Agony: Focus on the Poetry of Greece and Cyprus

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3 months ago

Ausschreibung / Poet-in-Residence   Villa Waldberta / Lyrik Kabinett, Munich  Bewerbung bis 20. Januar 2026  Aufenthaltszeit... Hier finden Sie aktuelle Informationen aus dem Lyrik-Kabinett.

Call for applications!

Poet-in-Residence
Villa Waldberta / Lyrik Kabinett, Munich

Applications open until 20th January 2026

www.lyrik-kabinett.de/aktuelles/ne...

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3 months ago

'The sea’s remorse
surfaces every time the waves appear.

Not the wild, raging, frightening waves
but the other kind
sweet and soothing, like lullabies.'

*

– The sea’s remorse
Argyris Stavropoulos
Translated from Greek by Gigi Papoulias

modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/the-sea...

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3 months ago

Transhumance I

Phoebe Giannisi

Translated from Greek by Brian Sneeden
for Eleonora and Dimitri

It was I who sent
my treasure
by my own free will
silently I step upon the earth

i.
In the beginning was the grazing
the pasture, sections of earth gathered extended
suffused from rain and the elements
eaten
by footsteps, the cursive of animals and humans
echoing
the valleys, streams, and summits beyond
brought back voices.

In the beginning was the field.
To move out I had to gather.
I had to cull
the things.
The things, the animals, the things, the things.

iii.
— What do you carry on you when you leave?
— My dark. My own piece of dark.
— What do you carry when you leave?
— The markings on the body.
— What do you carry when you leave?
— My spell:

Forgot –tenacts –forgot –tenwords
fragme –ntsof –theform –erlife
tokeep –ascharm –tokeep –asnew –redcru –cifix.

iv.
— To move on I had to cull
the things, the fragments
my children
left behind
before leaving me to begin their own lives

v.
— Kiatra kraapa omlou nou kriapa
(A stone breaks, a man does not break.)

vi.
— Still
the fragments are glass
pressed deep under skin
traveling in the flesh
choosing their own paths,
one ascends to the heart,
another pierces your abdomen.

— What does God cast down that the earth does not swallow?
— Wound through and through.
I spit it from my mouth like a bitter seed
but not a single teardrop touched my cheek,
why I had for years now
clenched my teeth.

— You cannot eat a stone, mother says
instead of
you cannot escape your fate.

— In order to leave
I had to cull the things.
That agony lasted months.
An entire winter.
Heavy and dark, stripping layer by layer
the vessels of memory.
But what hurt most
was what had, for so long, slipped
between my fingers like air.
What had been forgotten.
The missing.
What had not happened.

— Λεῦσσε δ’ ὅμως ἀπεόντα νόῳ παρεόντα βεβαίως
Parmenides says:
but see with your mind those who are missing, as if
they were present.

'In the beginning was the grazing
the pasture, sections of earth gathered extended
suffused from rain and the elements
eaten
by footsteps, the cursive of animals and humans
echoing'

Phoebe Giannisi, tr Brian Sneeden
modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/transhu...

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3 months ago

·
‘My name is Odysseas’ he said
but no one ever gives their real name.

‘You’re handsome’ he said.
He seemed like a well-brought-up boy.

When he undressed, his body was unexpectedly beautiful –
it didn’t resemble a porn model’s photograph
not stacked, perfumed, ready.
He wore a pair of nondescript briefs
and gave off a faint trace of sweat.

‘How nice, Odysseas—or whatever your name is’ I told him
‘you could be real, a real human
someone could hold or fall in love with you
one could imagine you writing poems —
how difficult these hookups would be then
how rare and how colourless.’
‘You guessed right, I write poems too’ he replied
‘but my name really is Odysseas
and I do really want you.
Don’t leave, don’t leave me please
I want so much to fall in love.’

‘My name is Odysseas’ he said
but no one ever gives their real name.

‘You’re handsome’ he said.
He seemed like a well-brought-up boy.

'Names'
George Le Nonce, translated from Greek by Kostya Tsolakis

modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/names/

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3 months ago

Out now!

MPT The Antidote to Agony: Focus on the Poetry of Greece and Cyprus, guest edited by Jessica Sequeira, features 30 selections of poems translated into English by contemporary poets, expanding the linguistic boundaries of Modern Greek, Bulgarian and Arvanitika, and more.

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3 months ago

Brilliant to get @mptmagazine.bsky.social’s latest issue focusing on the poetry of Greece and Cyprus. Since its foundation in the mid-1960s by Ted Hughes & Daniel Weissbort, MPT has been hugely important in bringing Greek poetic voices to an English-speaking readership. Great that this continues.

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