The following book review from the Addis Ababa paper The Daily Monitor was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200606261214.html . It is an interesting example of republishing African language literature (in this case Amharic) in a bilingual format (with English) for a broader audience. DZO
Ethiopia: A Book Review of Expansive Pathway The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa) [no URL] BOOK REVIEW 25 Juin 2006 Publié sur le web le 26 Juin 2006 Arefaynie Fantahun Addis Ababa Expansive Pathway ... Lifetime Traveler is a new anthology of Gebrekirstos Desta's poetry launched at Ras Mekonen Hall of Addis Ababa University's on June14, 2006. It is part of a collaborative effort between the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, the Embassy of Germany and the Goethe-Institute Addis Ababa. According to Dr. Heran, the editor who also translated some of Grbrekristos's poems into English, the book was written with the vision "to revive the legacy of Gebrekirsots Desta. To this end, the new location of the Goethe -Institute now honors his name, and two publications funded by German Embassy - an art catalogue of his paintings and an anthology of his poetry - duly acknowledge his life and contribution. The anthology, which is the focus of this article, is bilingual: it offers both Gebrekirstos's original works in the Amharic language and Heran Serekebrihan's English rendering of them. There are also six translated poems, three of them by Heran herself and the rest by Solomon Deressa, who is also a poet, screenwriter and essayist who through his writing has voiced the challenges of living in different cultures as the "Hyphenated-Ethiopian," a term he popularized in the late sixties. The poems collected in the book are works of the poet over a period two decades (1955- 1973), which in the words of the editor "range in theme from philosophical inquires on the state of man and nature, to a celebration of life, love and the arts." The Forward section of the anthology gives back ground information on the life and works of the poet that includes how personal and professional challenges drove the artist away from his country This section well serves as a good introduction of Gebrekirstos Desta as poet. The editor noted in the forward: "Partly because his collected book of poetry went unpublished, Gebrekirstos is better known today as a painter than a poet. He wrote exclusively in Amharic and recited his poetry to friends and in public gatherings, usually from memory." An essay in Heran's anthology, 'Gebrekirstos Desta, The painter's Eye, and the 'Poet's Hand' written in the English language draws on her personal encounter with the poet to tell of the not widely known portion of his poetic output in contrast to his paintings, the connection between word and image in the artist's creativity, the style and content in his works, the strong presence of music in his works, historical and literary context to his works and his progressive approach in his poetry and paintings. This, I think, makes a wonderful reading. There are around 54 poems in Heran's anthology; among which 28 have been published earlier in various local newspapers and the remaining 26 are unpublished to date. It makes for a nice little collection, both an historic curiosity and a fine, obscure but worthwhile bit of poetry. The book is the only one to date that provides English renderings and translations for poetry originally written in Amharic. Whether these renditions do justice both to the poet and his works in the original language poems is a question for the judgment of those concerned and an issue to be debated. It is fair to say however that Heran's renderings show the care and caliber translators have to put to keep faith with the flow of the original poetry. In her translations, the basic message that Gebrekirstos tried to express seems to come across. As Heran wrote, "... the idea of including English renderings is in the spirit of introducing the work of Gebrekirstos to a broader audience. As I am not a translator, the English versions here are mostly in prose, and my intention is little more than an effort to convey the basic essence of each piece to a reader who is interested in grasping the general conceptual direction of Gebrekirsto's writing. Still one could sense that these versions of Amharic poems have vigor and emotional quality, which is not always evident in the English versions. True, translation is a daunting task and, managing to approximate to the original language could be an impossible task, especially noting Solomn Deressa'a argument ' Where the basic technique of GebreKirstos is one of repetition of either the same or similar sounding words.' Having the original text facing the English renderings however is all that one can ask for is. Through its publication to a wider audience, it serves as a testimony to the endurance of a poet who became part a generalized diasporic phenomenon. And it would open the gates to the closed linguistic world of Amharic literature and serve as a good addition to the collection of Ethiopian literatura in foreign languages. This is a book that is sure to be consulted, debated and treasured for years to come. Here is an extract from When Love Casts a Shadow, (Why not) Tune A baggana Spin Records, Play A kirar, Why not For a loved one (Why not) ----------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! 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