Queen's Conference to examine language translation

Queen’s University Belfast is to hold its first international conference in examining issues of translation this coming weekend.

Hosted by the Schools of English, and of Languages, Literatures and Arts, in association with the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, over 100 international delegates are to join Queen’s academics in a multidisciplinary exploration of how issues of location and culture affect translation.

The ‘Betwixt and Between’ conference is to bring together speakers representing a wide range of disciplines including: poets, dramatists, creative writers, performers, language translators, cultural historians and social anthropologists.

Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Ciaran Carson said: "The Seamus Heaney Centre is a forum for the discussion and practice of poetry. It has been said that poetry is what gets lost in translation; others have argued that poetry, by its transformative nature, is itself a kind of translation. Whatever the case, the Centre is committed to the notion of translation, and its capacity to lead us towards a better understanding of our own languages.”

Professor David Johnston, of the Queen’s School of Languages, Literatures and Arts, himself an award-winning translator for the stage, and one of the conference organisers said: “This forum presents an opportunity to explore translation as it is centred on the spaces between cultures: translation as a creative process in its own right.”

Speakers from universities as far away as New Zealand, the USA, China and the United Arab Emirates, together with visitors from throughout Europe, the UK and Ireland are to consider aspects of translation with a specific focus on locality, place and space.

The event begins on Friday 8 and runs until Sunday 10th April.

(MB/SP)