European Voices makes no attempt to represent the poetries of Europe today—how could it?—but gathers material that has come to us over a period of a year or so. Some 17 languages are represented, of Eastern, Central, Western, Southern and Northern Europe. On display are translations ranging from Classical Greek to quite recent poetry, as well as re-translations of major European poets (Goethe, Verlaine, Pasternak, Montale…).
The present issue also contains a feature on the American poet, teacher, historian, translator Peter Viereck. In his eighties, Viereck has always lived in that larger world of literature. The actual location of the writer is less important than a continuing commitment to language as such. Joseph Brodsky, who was a close friend of Viereck, once remarked that wherever he was, Leningrad, New York, South Hadley, Mass., the gesture he made as he reached for a dictionary was the same.
European Voices
Edited by Daniel Weissbort
Translators include David Constantine, Robin Fulton, Michael Hamburger, and Marilyn Hacker.
ISBN 0-9533824-4-3 (paper)
5½ x 8½
278 pagesMPT performs a unique and invaluable service—extending the range of world-reading, and making all those who care about poetry feel grateful to be part of a larger community.
—Andrew MotionAt a time of frequent provincialism and narrowing, MPT has opened windows on landscapes of feeling, of insight otherwise inaccessible. Danny Weissbort's selections and editorship have been much more than a “literary” act. They have argued for freedom against despotism, for the paradox of hope in even the darkest of poetry. One need only visit some of the more difficult points on the horizon to know what MPT has meant to its contributors and readers.
—George Steiner
