Day Three

Session one day three: Resumed at 10:00 am with Phillip Hodgins Memorial Medal Winner.

Jan Owen had a wonderful poetry session because she brought a lot of laugh and joys to the audience. For me the main attraction was her work in translation and translation of poetry in particular. She spoke brilliantly as the audience listened because she shared not only her experience as a writer but also talked about the art of translation. Besides that, she read some of her poems even some unpublished one which was humours and kind. She really showed her true personality by reading some of her funny and comical poems and even cracked some good poetry jokes. At the same time she talked in details about her experience as a translator particularly translation of famous poems. I think she is not only a good poet but also a good translator as well. She read some of her poems and also managed to talk about her journey as a translator. She provided some helpful tips for me if I choose to be a translator in the future.

At the Q & A session I had my opportunity to ask question which was at the back of my mind for quite some time. It was my turn to ask that question, which ultimately I did. The question was “When translating how would you maintain the balance between the original work (poem) and the translation in terms of meaning and language?” She humbly and gently replied that “Well it is always important to maintain partiality but definitely depends on the skills and hard work of a translator. I try hard to maintain that professionalism and distance”. 

Well, I think she is right as I myself have worked as a translator and interpreter. My experience shows that as a translator one must abide by the relevant ethics of translation. At the same time translator must not be creative and do not bring something new to the original work. 
At the end she was an AWSOME person as I ceased an opportunity to have a close and warm conversation with her.

Soon after Jan's session another warm fiction reading session begin by David Malouf and Emily Bitto. It was a revealing session because Emily revealed that she is a FAN GIRL of David’s work. Not only that but also she mentioned that she wrote her thesis on David’s poem which David become surprised. They both read their favourite part of their selected novels which was interesting. I am not sure why Emily chose that part of her novel as it was not interesting for me because I read that part two times. However, it is worth to mention that the session ended with loud and big appreciation and applause by the audience. Although I did not like it but the audience did as everyone clapped loud and I did follow the crowd in this instance.