{"product_id":"transient-worlds-on-translating-poetry-paperback","title":"Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eArthur Sze\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTransient Worlds: On Translating Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e is a personal guide to global poetry in translation by 25th US Poet Laureate Arthur Sze. Focusing on an accessible selection of key works, Sze takes readers through nearly two millennia of poetry from every part of the world, constructing fifteen different \"zones\" of literary discussion with a critical focus on the artistic dimensions of translation itself. To do this, Sze engages multiple translations of the same source poems--as well as original poems written by translators--to explore deep connections between the acts of writing and reading. In Zone 10, for instance, Sze presents two translations of a single poem by Marina Tsvetaeva, the first a well-known standard and the second by a poet who speaks no Russian and employed a Russian-speaking friend to help translate the poem phrase by phrase. In another Zone, Sze presents a famous passage from the \u003ci\u003eIliad, \u003c\/i\u003e but rather than present another translation, Sze instead juxtaposes a contemporary poem that uses numerous elements of the \u003ci\u003eIliad \u003c\/i\u003eas a springboard to write through the original Greek and into an original work in English.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eUltimately, Sze invites readers to consider their own acts of engaged reading as a creative pursuit, giving them tools to begin translating poems themselves as well tools that will unlock foreign-language works--even from languages of very little familiarity--as inspirational sources. At its core, this unique anthology, published in association with the Library of Congress, showcases a profound goal of global literary citizenship: to open works up to all readers and to encourage poetic creativity at the fundamental level of language itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArthur Sze is the twenty-fifth poet laureate of the United States and author of twelve books of poetry, including \u003cem\u003eInto the Hush \u003c\/em\u003e(2025); \u003cem\u003eThe Glass Constellation: \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew and Collected Poems \u003c\/em\u003e(2021), selected for a 2024 National Book Foundation Science + Literature Prize; \u003cem\u003eSight Lines \u003c\/em\u003e(2019), for which he received the National Book Award; \u003cem\u003eCompass Rose \u003c\/em\u003e(2014), a Pulitzer Prize finalist; \u003cem\u003eThe Ginkgo Light \u003c\/em\u003e(2009), selected for the PEN Southwest Book Award and the Mountains \u0026amp; Plains Independent Booksellers Association Book Award; \u003cem\u003eQuipu \u003c\/em\u003e(2005); \u003cem\u003eThe Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998 \u003c\/em\u003e(1998), selected for the Balcones Poetry Prize and the Asian American Literary Award; and \u003cem\u003eArchipelago \u003c\/em\u003e(1995), selected for an American Book Award. He has also published \u003cem\u003eThe Silk Dragon II: Translations of Chinese Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e(2024) and edited \u003cem\u003eChinese Writers on Writing \u003c\/em\u003e(2010). Another collection, \u003cem\u003eThe White Orchard: Selected Interviews, Essays, and Poems, \u003c\/em\u003ewas published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in spring 2025.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSze is a recipient of the 2025 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry for lifetime achievement, the 2024 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Jackson Poetry Prize, a Lannan Literary Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, and a Howard Foundation Fellowship, as well as five grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry. He is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife, the poet Carol Moldaw. A chancellor emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Sze was the 2023-2024 Mohr Visiting Poet at Stanford University. His poetry has been translated into fifteen languages, including Chinese, Dutch, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 160\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 6.9 x 4.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 14, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45578219716652,"sku":"9781556597329","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/6260\/8940\/files\/0rtvI-Au4D9781556597329.webp?v=1779983437","url":"https:\/\/littleredgeneralstore.com\/products\/transient-worlds-on-translating-poetry-paperback","provider":"Little Red General Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}