A two-day series of readings and conversations held 3–4 May 2012 exploring current approaches to translating Polish and Italian poetry into English, and the translation of English-language poetry into Italian.

William B. Hart Poet-in-Residence Robert Hass, the leading American translator of Polish Nobel Laureate poet Czesław Miłosz, was joined by Polish poets Julia Hartwig and Adam Zagajewski and American translator Clare Cavanagh in a bilingual reading and discussion (in English) of work by poets including Hartwig, Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Wisława Szymborska, and Zagajewski.

The second day's events were based on Geoffrey Brock's new anthology The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012). Italian poets included Edoardo Albinati, Antonella Anedda, Franco Buffoni, Patrizia Cavalli, Franco Loi, Valerio Magrelli, Lucio Mariani, Maria Luisa Spaziani, and AAR Italian Affiliated Fellows Massimo Gezzi and Guido Mazzoni read from their own work, as well as from work by poets including D'Annunzio, Montale, Pavese, Pasolini, Saba, Ungaretti, and Zanzotto. English translations were read by translators including Damiano Abeni, Sarah Arvio, FAAR '04, Geoffrey Brock, Moira Egan, Jamie McKendrick, Anthony Molino and Susan Stewart; Jennifer Scappettone, FAAR '11, read from her translations of Amelia Rosselli. There was also a bilingual reading of poems by Byron, Donne, Anne Carson, Seamus Heaney, Keats, Shakespeare and others as they have been translated by Italian poets, and public conversations, both about translating from Italian into English and about translating from English into Italian.

Video Highlights from the event can be viewed below:

Modern and Contemporary Polish Poetry in English Translation

Modern and Contemporary Italian Poetry in English Translation

English and American Poetry in Italian Translation