Poppies by Attilio Bertolucci

This is a year of poppies. When,
between May and June,
I came back home again, our fields
brimmed with their wine, so sweet, so dark,
it made me drunk.

From cloud-banks of mulberry
to the grass and the grain, ripeness was all,
spreading in gentle heat and dawdling sleepiness
through this world of green.

Halfway through my life I saw my sons,
grown men, escaping out of sight,
freed from whatever binds
the swallow to its flight

across a stormy evening's fading glow.
And, as is human, my sorrow eased
when the house lit up again,
for another supper, the air cooled

by a far-off flurry of hail.

Translated from the Italian by Allen Prowle

ENTRIES THIS YEAR were impressive in their diversity, ranging, from languages new to the prize such as Wolof and Lëtzebuergesch to an increase in languages of “new'”Europe, such as Romanian and Hungarian.

As ever, the entrants' commentaries also illustrated an impressive range of approach and engagement, with fascinating discussions of technical strategies sitting alongside those with a more personal story, and almost all revealing how poetry in translation — not to mention the practice of translation itself — strikes deep at the heart of many entrants' lives (Gordon Wallace's account of the comfort offered by Henri de Régnier's poetry during his wife's decline from Alzheimer's was particularly moving).

Many entries also illustrated the wider, political importance of translated poetry, such as Elizabeth Stanley's To the Jew who walked away, from Esperanto and commended in the Open Category, or Karen Margolis's translations of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, written just before the poet's death in a Nazi labour camp at the age of 18. Several entrants were making their first attempts at poetry translation, discovering how it can enrich their experience as both readers and writers.

This was particularly so in the 14-and-under category, where the judges' shortlists were — for once — in agreement. We were all struck by the deftness of Josie Chubb's translation of Reverdy's Sound of the Bell; in a short piece, she gave a real sense of a unified poem, not just in her version but in her thoughtful commentary.

In the 18-and-under category we were impressed by the standard of the classical entries. Jenny Harris's striking haiku version of Horace's Odes I.IX was a worthy winner, a bold and readable version of a poem that can throw the most experienced classical translators. Choosing between extracts from longer works and complete, shorter poems is always difficult, but in Clare Bristow's versions of Anglo-Saxon, and Daniel Hitchens' confident translation of Christoph Meckel's tricky A Discussion of the Poem, we found skilled exponents of each task.

Our Open category seemed aptly named, as each judge initially found different candidates for commendation. In the end we all agreed on the quality of Allen Prowle's beautifully executed translations of Attilio Bertolucci. We were also impressed by new ways of looking at ancient texts, such as Jason Warren's radical condensing of Ovid's Tristia or Stephanie Norgate's relocation of the Aeneid to a modern battlefield, both commended. It was cheering too to see poems from more oral traditions, such as Georgina Collins's translation of the Senegalese Mame Seck Mbacké's Twilight, our first Wolof entry, or Laurence James's translation of the Welsh “village poet” Jack Oliver. This is what translation does — brings us new traditions and new worlds, while keeping our old ones alive and vital.

Josephine Balmer's fellow judges were Susan Bassnett, Karen Leeder and M. Wynn Thomas

The Times Stephen Spender Prize 2007 for poetry in translation

Matthew Spender's 14-and-under prize

Winner: Josie Chubb's translation from French of Sound of the Bell by Pierre Reverdy.

Commended: Ana O'Shaughnessy-Gutierrez's translation from Spanish of To an Old Elm Tree by Antonio Machado; Jamie Gore's translation from French of Tomorrow at Dawn by Victor Hugo.

18-and-under category

Winner: Jenny Harris's translation from Latin of Odes I:IX by Horace.

Joint 2nd: Clare Bristow's translation from Anglo-Saxon of an extract from The Wanderer.

Daniel Hitchens' translation from German of A Discussion of the Poem by Christoph Meckel.

Commended: Clare Bristow's translation from Anglo-Saxon of The Wife's Lament; Alice Malin's translations from Spanish of Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground and Ode to a Watch at Night, both by Pablo Neruda; Emily Tesh's translation from Ancient Greek of an extract from Electra by Sophocles.

Open category

Winner: Allen Prowle's translation from Italian of Poppies by Attilio Bertolucci.

2nd: John Richmond's translation from Italian of Lemons by Eugenio Montale.

Joint 3rd: Peter Zollman's translation from Hungarian of Aeneas and Dido by István Baka.

Gordon Wallace's translation from Italian of Canto V of Inferno by Dante Alighieri.

Commended: Elizabeth Stanley's translation from Esperanto of To the Jew who walked away by Leen Deij; Mike Mitchell's translation from German of Denotation Babel by Helmut Krausser Stephanie Norgate's translation from Latin of an extract from Aeneid II by Virgil; Jason Warren's translation from Latin of an extract from Tristia by Ovid; J.S. Tennant's translation from Latin of an extract from Metamorphoses XI by Ovid; Nicholas Slater's translation from German of an extract from Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes by Rainer-Maria Rilke.

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