Local meeting of the minds leads to creative triumph

Following the successful Journeys in Translation event hosted by the University's Centre for Translation and Interpreting Studies (LeCTIS) last year, a group of translating students at our University have worked closely with local poet Pam Thompson to provide their expertise in translating her film-poem into Italian.

Pam Thompson had been invited to show ‘Chasing the Sun’ - the film-poem she created with Leicester filmmaker Keith Allott - at a film festival in Rome and needed to make an Italian version of the piece.

Volunteer translators Laura Albertini, Marta Iachella, Giulia Marselli and Laura Stone came forward and worked closely with Pam for two months.

Their intensive collaboration culminated in the recording of the new Italian poem, ‘Inseguendo il sole’, with the help of Sandip Tailor and staff on the Learning and Teaching Room Support team.

Teaching Fellow in Translation Studies at the University Dr Anna Milsom said: ‘Translation can be a highly collaborative, creative process and Pam’s request offered us a wonderful opportunity to work with her in this way.”

Later this month, the film-poem ‘Inseguendo il sole’ will reach an international audience at Langue - Festival della Poesia di San Lorenzo,.The festival will take place on 26 May.

Pam said: "This has been a most rewarding project. Thank you to Anna for bringing it all together. I was most impressed with the way Laura, Laura and Marta - and Giulia too - proceeded to find the best phrasing in Italian for the words of my poems. The result was a wholly new version which will give the film extra resonance. I can only thank everyone for their time and enthusiasm and I hope we can work together again in the future.”

• Pam Thompson’s second collection of poems, Strange Fashion, was published last year by Pindrop Press.
• For further information, please contact Dr Anna Milsom: a.milsom@leicester.ac.uk