- Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation 2009 -  Voices from Abroad

- The Ion Ratiu Library - Transylvanian students will soon be reading rare books


The Poetry Society and The Ratiu Foundation
Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation 2009

Voices from Abroad

Judges: Elaine Feinstein and Stephen Romer
Prize: £1,500; Closing date: 31 May 2009


The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation 2009 is open to collections of poetry published between 1 June 2007 and 31 May 2009 which feature poetry translated from another European language into English.

The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation is a wonderful opportunity to travel through Europe’s amazing landscapes and cultures. This biennial prize has previously celebrated the stormy political and cultural landscape of Germany, with David Constantine’s translation of Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s Lighter than Air; the melancholy of the human condition viewed by Marin Sorescu with distinctly Romanian irony in The Bridge, translated by Adam J Sorkin and Lidia Vianu; and rich Estonian folksong traditions, with Kristiina Ehin’s The Drums of Silence , translated by Ilmar Lehtpere.

The Prize is named after Corneliu M Popescu, translator of the work of one of Romania’s leading poets, Mihai Eminescu, into English. Popescu was killed in the violent earthquake of 4 March 1977, aged 19. The Prize was initiated in the early 1980s by Ion Ratiu, the well known Romanian politician, businessman, philanthropist, champion of democracy, and supporter of the arts. In his memory we are launching this year’s competition on 17 January 2009, the ninth commemoration of his passing away.

Submissions should be sent to Translation Prize, The Poetry Society, 22 Betterton Street, London, WC2H 9BX . Three copies of each book should be sent and the original language(s) of the poems should be specified.

For more information call +4420 7420 9892 or email gttoouli@poetrysociety.org.uk  

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The Judges

Elaine Feinstein is a poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, biographer and translator. She was born in 1930 in Bootle, Lancashire. Elaine Feinstein’s first volume of poetry, In a Green Eye, was published in 1966. Her later work has been influenced by the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva, a poet whose work she has translated from the Russian. She is also the author of several biographies and novels, her most recent being The Russian Jerusalem (2008). She lives in London and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her most recent poetry collection is Talking to the Dead (2007), dedicated to the memory of her husband, Arnold.

Stephen Romer was born in Hertfordshire in 1957, and is a lecturer at the University of Tours in France. He has also been Visiting Professor in French at Colgate University, New York. His own poetry collections include Idols (1986); Plato’s Ladder (1992); and Tribute (1998). He has translated many French poets, including Philippe Jaccottet, Jean Tardieu, and Jacques Dupin. He has also translated sections from the Notebooks of Paul Valéry (2002). His latest collection of poetry is Yellow Studio (2008), shortlisted for the 2008 T. S. Eliot Prize. Stephen Romer is also the editor of 20th Century French Poems (2002).

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The Ratiu Foundation was established in London in 1979 by Ion and Elisabeth Ratiu to promote and support projects which further education and research in the culture and history of Romania.
This year, the Foundation celebrates 30 years of the fight for independent thought and cultural excellence. The Ratiu Foundation offers 100 annual grants, principally for postgraduate courses. The Ratiu grants are awarded to Romanian students to study a wide range of subjects in the UK. The Ratiu Foundation also offers annual seed funding for innovative projects, which foster Romanian arts and civilisation, heritage, civil society, democracy, and environmental protection.
Ion Ratiu (6 June 1917 - 17 January 2000), distinguished Romanian diplomat, entrepreneur, publisher, writer and humanitarian, was an outspoken critic of the communist regime in Romania during the 1947-1989 period. He devoted his life to the fight for democracy in Romania and its integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures.
More details on www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com .

The Poetry Society celebrates its centenary in 2009. It is one of Britain’s leading arts organisations representing poetry both nationally and internationally. To anyone who reads, writes or enjoys poetry, the Poetry Society can open up the global world of poetry. Its key publication, Poetry Review, puts you at the heart of what’s happening in contemporary poetry. The Poetry Society co-ordinates the National Poetry Competition and the Foyle Young Poets Award; both have a worldwide reputation for discovering poetic excellence. Anyone who becomes a member enjoys many benefits including the opportunity to become part of poetry network Stanzas, which establish links with local poetry scenes. To find out more about the Poetry Society and what’s happening in its centenary visit www.poetrysociety.org.uk .

For more information call +4420 7420 9886 or email nwood@poetrysociety.org.uk or go on www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/popescu/  

Note: Illustration above inspired by an original image from Scientific American, 1880, showing Professor Mayer's topophone, an instrument for estimating the direction of sound.
 

The Ion Ratiu Library - Transylvanian students will soon be reading rare books


Transylvanian students will soon be reading rare books that once belonged to the important Romanian statesmen Ion Ratiu and Viorel V. Tilea, after The Ion Ratiu Library was recently transferred for safekeeping to the ‘Lucian Blaga’ Central University Library of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj.

Until now The Library was housed at the Ratiu Foundation offices in London, said The Ratiu Foundation.

The Ion Ratiu Library will give researchers access to some 5,500 items: books, periodicals and brochures, as well as academic and other types of publications.

The subjects range from the arts and biography, to diplomacy, economics, law, politics, political sciences, religion, memoirs and literature, in Romanian, English, German, French, Hungarian and other languages.

Some of the books are very rare – such as an important number of Romanian publications from exile; some are priceless through their charting of events and people that influenced the fate of nations. Spanning such a vast array of subjects, the Ion Ratiu Library offers an accurate and unique image of the twentieth century, of its great upheavals, challenges, and changes, and it forms a most valuable resource for scholars of recent and contemporary history.

Part of Ion Ratiu’s library consists of books that belonged to his uncle, Viorel V. Tilea, Minister Plenipotentiary and Head of the Romanian Legation in London before WW2. The two collections were merged and Ion Ratiu later improved and augmented this repository of knowledge, bringing it to its present form.

The Ratiu Foundation enjoys a very successful partnership with the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, in Transylvania, Romania, one of the major seats of learning in the country.

“To emphasise this long-term and productive partnership with the Babes-Bolyai University, and as a sign of appreciation for the University’s prominent role in Transylvania’s and Romania’s life, the Ratiu Foundation decided to make this special endowment that will benefit scholars and further promote learning”, said Nicolae Ratiu, Chairman of the Ratiu Foundation.

Once installed in a room that has been specifically set aside for the purpose, the Ion Ratiu Library will form a special book collection of the Central University Library, and will be open for research.

This significant move has been made this year, in memory of Ion Ratiu, on the 30th anniversary of the Ratiu Foundation he established in London in 1979.

In the opinion of the Foundation's trustees, conditions now prevailing in Romania in general and at the Central University Library in Cluj in particular, are well suited to housing such a collection and making it freely available for research.

The late Ion Ratiu (6 June 1917 – 17January 2000), the well known democracy campaigner, lawyer, journalist, writer, politician, businessman and philanthropist, was a dedicated collector of books, and an avid reader.

  
The Ion Ratiu Library: all packed... and on its way to Cluj-Napoca

The Ratiu Foundation has also delivered its unique collection of ‘The Free Romanian / Romanul liber’ newspaper to the ‘Lucian Blaga’ Central University Library, from its first issue in May 1985 up to 1995. ‘The Free Romanian / Romanul liber’ was a monthly newspaper, published by Ion Ratiu as President of the Uniunea Mondiala a Romanilor Liberi, following the first Congress of the World Union of Free Romanians (Geneva, 1984). It was published in two separate editions, in English and Romanian.

In Ion Ratiu’s own words, the paper was “the place where we could present Romanian problems; [the place where] we attacked all major issues, discussed them and presented them to the free world”. ‘Romanul Liber’ will soon also be followed by the full collection of the earlier ‘Free Romanian Press’ – a weekly independent newsletter of news and views on Romania dating from 1958. This is a unique, objective, uncensored contemporary history of Romania as viewed from exile.

At the same time, another book collection, assembled over many years by British author Alan Ogden, a good friend and connoisseur of Romania, was moved to Turda, a historic neighbouring city in Cluj County and home to the Ratiu Center for Democracy.

The Ratiu Center for Democracy was founded in 2004 to promote those values and behaviours associated with democracy that Ion Ratiu championed throughout his life. Alan Ogden’s collection will be housed in the Center’s comfortable library and reading room.

For more information on the Ion Ratiu Library and how its contents can be accessed, contact:
The ‘Lucian Blaga’ Central University Library
Str. Clinicilor nr. 2, Cluj-Napoca, cod 400006, Romania
Tel. +40 264 597 092; Fax: +40 264 597 633
E-mail: webmaster@bcucluj.ro  ; Web site: www.bcucluj.ro  

The main photo above shows the ‘Lucian Blaga’ Central University Library © BCU Cluj