On the occasion of the International Day of the Translator, which is celebrated on September 30, the UNESCO cities of literature launched a joint action - they translated a poem by the American poet William Stanley Mervin on the theme of language into local languages. So, for example, Ulyanovsk will present translations into Russian, Tatar and Chuvash languages.

As a reminder, International Translation Day is a professional holiday of translators and interpreters. It is celebrated on September 30 (the day of death in 419 or 420 of St. Jerome of Stridon, who carried out a complete translation of the Bible into Latin, and therefore is traditionally considered the patron saint of translators. The holiday was officially established by the International Federation of Translators (FIT) in 1991. In 2017 At the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, a Resolution was unanimously adopted, which recognizes the role of professional translation in uniting peoples, in promoting peace, understanding and development, and September 30 is declared International Translation Day.

The initiative to launch a joint action of UNESCO cities of literature on the International Day of the Translator came from the city of Slemani in Iraq. The organizers chose a short poem by William Stanley Mervyn in English and invited all cities in the network to translate it into local languages. With this action, the participants want to once again emphasize the linguistic diversity of the 39 UNESCO Cities of Literature. 11 cities expressed their desire to join the action. In particular, the text will be translated into Irish, Chinese, Polish, Icelandic, Finnish, German and other languages. Ulyanovsk translators translated the poem into Russian, Tatar and Chuvash. On September 30, literary cities will publish local language translations with the hashtags #COLTranslates #ITD #InternationalTranslationDay. In our city, the action is carried out by the Directorate of the program "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature" and the Centralized Library System of Ulyanovsk.

William Stanley Mervin (1927-2019) — американский поэт и переводчик, один из самых влиятельных поэтов США конца XX века. Он также работал как переводчик с испанского, французского и латыни. Среди авторов, которых он перевёл, — Осип Мандельштам и Пабло Неруда. Жил в разных странах мира, в конце 1970-х годов переехал на Гавайи, где прожил до конца своей жизни, занимаясь, помимо литературного труда, проблемами экологии. Мервин получил много наград, в том числе Пулитцеровскую премию в области поэзии (дважды: в 1971 и 2009 годах), премию Таннинга, одну из самых высоких наград Академии американских поэтов, а также «Золотой венец» (1990).

From the Start

IN RUSSIAN

Translation - Sergey Gogin

В начале

IN TATAR

Translation – Gelsinya Hanyafi

Башта

IN CHUVASH

Translation - Nikolay Larionov

Пуҫламӑшӗнче

INFORMATION ABOUT INTERPRETERS

Gelsinya Khanyafi (Khairutdinova-Safina) - was born in 1960 in the village. Elkhovy Kust, Novomalyklinsky district, Ulyanovsk region. After finishing school in 1978 she lived and studied in Samara. She graduated from the Samara Publishing and Printing College with a degree in economics. In 1996 she moved to Dimitrovgrad with her family. She worked for 14 years as a librarian at the Tatar school No. 22. Dimitrovgrad. Since 2000, a member of the Dimitrovgrad Tatar cultural and national autonomy. In 2012, she was first published in the regional newspaper in the Tatar language "Emet" ("Hope"). In 2014, the first collection of poems in the Tatar language "Silver Ring" ("Kamesh yezek") was published. Her poems were also included in the collections Simbirsk Springs - 2014, 2017, (Sember Yazlary), Melekes Dawns - 2018 (Melekes Tannary), On the Yenisei Wave-2016, were published in the Simbirsk magazine. Member of the Writers' Organization under the Ulyanovsk Tatar National-Cultural Autonomy and Deputy Chairman of the Association of Tatar Writers. He writes poetry in Tatar and Russian, stories in Tatar. Translated into Russian poems by authors: Ravil Shafigullin, Mavlet Sayukov, and others. She also translates poems from Dimitrovgrad poets from Russian into Tatar, some of which were included in the book Kozge mon (Autumn Minor) 2020.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Larionov - poet, prose writer, publicist, member of the Writers' Union of Russia. Born in 1961 in the village of Novoe Ilmovo, Drozhzhanovsky District, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Graduated from Chuvash State University (2003). Since 1978 he has been living in Ulyanovsk. He was the chief editor of the regional Chuvash newspaper Kanash from 2002 to 2018, the founder of the literary association Shevle (Zarnitsa). His poems, stories, articles were published in the periodicals of Ulyanovsk, Kazan, the Chuvash Republic, Samara. He devotes a lot of time to translations from Russian into Chuvash. Author of the books “While the heart is beating” (1998), “Live according to conscience” (2009), “Endless Chuvash world” (2013) and others.

Member of the Union of Writers of the Chuvash Republic (1995), laureate of the literary prize named after A. Talvir (1994), member of the Union of Journalists of Russia (1997). Honored Worker of Culture of the Chuvash Republic (2011). Laureate of the competition of the Ministry of Press and Information Policy of the Chuvash Republic among the authors of manuscripts of books for children and youth in the Chuvash language for the book "Shuraska" (2017). In May 2019, the Chuvash book publishing house published the book "Shuraska" in Russian and Chuvash for children, translated by the author and Yulia Larionova. In April 2019, the documentary story "Feat in the name of the mother" was published in Cheboksary. Author of 13 books. The poems were translated into Russian and Hungarian and published in the Zov magazine (Budapest). Member of the editorial board of the literary magazine "Tăvan Atăl" (Native Volga), published in Cheboksary. Since 1992, he has been published in Chuvash and Russian periodicals in the Ulyanovsk Region and the Chuvash Republic, Bashkortostan, Samara Region, and also in Germany (in German). Honored Worker of Culture of the Chuvash Republic (2011).

Sergey Gogin is a poet, translator, journalist.

Sergei Gogin was born in 1964 in Uralsk. In 1981 he graduated from secondary school No. 1 in Ulyanovsk, in 1986 - from the Ulyanovsk Polytechnic Institute. He worked at the regional radio and television, in the city newspaper "Simbirsky Courier", hosted the author's program at the TRC "Europroject", worked in the journal "Journalism and Media Market" (Union of Journalists of Russia, Moscow). In 1996 he graduated from American University in Washington DC with a degree in journalism and mass communications.

From 2014 to 2017 on the stage of the Ulyanovsk Regional Drama Theater there was a one-act play "A Little Man with a Big Heart" based on Sergei Gogin's free verse cycle "About a Little Man", today this performance is in the repertoire of the Ulyanovsk Youth Theater. Since September 2014, he has been the head of the Eight literary studio, and since February 2016, he has been leading the Crossroads English conversation club.

The author's publications in literary magazines can be read in the "Journal Hall", new poems and texts - in the author's group in VK. Also on the portal "Ulyanovsk - UNESCO City of Literature" you can find an interview with Sergei Gogin.

Photo – https://merwinconservancy.org