City poetess lone participant from Pune at Poets Translating Poets festival

The two-year project kicked off in October 2014. The first phase of bringing poets together from five countries in nine different residencies or “poetry encounters” culminated recently.

In the second phase of the project that started in June this year and will go on till October, over 15 poets from South Asia are travelling to over 13 cities and venues in Germany to meet and present their poetry along with their German counterparts.

Contemporary poetry from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka has been translated into German by well-known German poets, while German poetry was similarly translated into South Asian languages during the course of the project.

Dhere presented her works along with her German counterpart Thomas Kunst (Germany) in Dresden & Leipzig, Germany.

Talking about her experience, Dhere, says, “It was the first time I was participating in the festival like that, and it was wonderful experience. The idea was to produce translations of the other’s work in one’s own language. The process of interlinear translation was really very interesting. Some part of the project also required reasonable participation from poets in events like poetry reading and talks.”

Born in 1957, Dhere has written over 40 books in different genres including poetry, children’s literature and social history, with an enduring emphasis on the lives and worlds of women.

She has also written criticism on Marathi literature, folk literature and the epics. Her books of poetry include Prarambha, Jaave Janmaakade, Nilya Paradarshak Andharaat and Matraakshar.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, among them are the Acharya Atre Award and the Kavi Kusumagraj Award.

She has worked as an editor, lecturer and producer.

She is currently the director of the research centre Shashwati in Pune.

The experience, she says, has enriched her in more than one ways.

“For me, the translation process was on two levels. Firstly, it was purely on the language related level. Secondly, it was about translation of poetic experience. I found the experiment both significant and important. It is extremely fragile and delicate to function both as a translator and poet. The festival helped a lot in this context. It was tough, when we were confronted with social and intercultural differences and concepts that are deep routed in our cultural and literary tradition. Translating Kunst’s works was a tough job but I enjoyed it fully,” she says.