Among the newly printed books presented at the Sept. 18 “Freundestreffen” gathering and book-launching celebration in Weimar, Germany, for the 85th birthday of Professor Katharina Mommsen were two volumes of a trilingual poetry series, illustrated and with trilingual CDs, called “Voices of the World in Song/Stimmen der Voelker in Liedern,” which Martin Bidney, professor emeritus of English and comparative literature, edits with Mommsen. Volume 1, Adam Mickiewicz, Sonety Krymskie/Crimean Sonnets/Krim-Sonette, contains Bidney’s English translations of the 18 sonnets from the Polish; he also reads these aloud on the accompanying CD. Volume 3, Andre’ Bjerke, Pa jorden et sted/Somewhere on Earth/Irgendwo auf Erden, contains Bidney’s English translations of the 37 Norwegian poems (from Alexander Schlayer’s German); he also reads these aloud on the accompanying CD. Volume 2, a collection of 39 Pushkin poems with Bidney’s translations from the Russian, likewise read aloud on trilingual CD, is forthcoming. All three books are being published in Bonn by Bernstein-Verlag, and more are planned.
Martin Bidney
November 16, 2010