Għal dawk li għalihom ix-xahar t’Awwissu huwa ekwivalenti għall-Festival Mediterranju tal-Letteratura ta’ Malta, għal dawk li meta jasal il-Festival jiskru bih ġimgħa sħiħa, kull edizzjoni hija memorabbli bil-mod tagħha. Fil-Festival tal-2022 tnediet il-pubblikazzjoni xtaqt li kont merkurju, antoloġija li tiċċelebra l-poeżija u t-traduzzjoni.
Dan il-ktieb jiġbor fih 122 poeżija li nqalbu għall-Malti fil-laboratorji ta’ traduzzjoni matul l-ewwel 16-il edizzjoni tal-Festival. Fih niltaqgħu max-xogħol ta’ 60 awtriċi u awtur, 25 traduttriċi u traduttur. It-titlu xtaqt li kont merkurju huwa l-ewwel vers ta’ waħda mill-poeżiji fil-ġabra, u għażilnieh għax in-natura flessibbli u trasformattiva tal-merkurju, metall likwidu, tirrappreżenta l-flessibiltà meħtieġa fil-proċess tat-traduzzjoni letterarja u l-ħila trasformattiva tiegħu. Bħalma jikteb Adrian Grima fid-daħla ta’ dan il-ktieb, mhuwiex biss it-test oriġinali li “jinħoloq mill-ġdid, imma l-lingwa li biha ssir it-traduzzjoni”.
Il-ħidma fuq dan il-proġett bdiet għadd ta’ snin ilu u r-riżultat huwa mertu ta’ ħafna iżjed idejn minn dawk li kienu involuti fl-aħħar fażi.
https://www.inizjamed.org/2022/08/26/xtaqt-li-kont-merkurju/
For those who can’t say August without saying Festival, for those who can’t get enough of the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival once it starts, every edition is, in its own way, a memorable one. The 2022 edition of the Festival saw the launch of xtaqt li kont merkurju, an anthology celebrating poetry and translation.
This book comprises 122 poems which were translated into the Maltese during the translation workshops of the Festival’s first sixteen editions. It holds the work of 60 authors and 25 translators. Its title, xtaqt li kont merkurju, is the first line of one of the poems featured in the anthology, and we chose it because mercury’s flexible and transformative nature as a metal liquid represents the flexibility needed in the literary translation process and its transformative potential. As Adrian Grima writes in the anthology’s introduction, it is not only the original text which is “created anew, but also the language it is translated into”.
This is the result of a journey which started several years ago, and the end product reflects the hard work of the many individuals involved along the way.