Kosovel collection wins Hartinger German-Slovenian translation prize

Hartinger's book "Mein Gedicht ist mein Gesicht: Invention einer orphischen Landschaft" (My Poem is My Face: Invention of an Orphic Landscape) is much more than just a selection of translated poems, the jury said as quoted by the Goethe-Institut Ljubljana, which gives out the prize.

"His deep knowledge of Srečko Kosovel's oeuvre has enabled him to create a holistic view of the poet and his work for German-speaking readers," the explanation reads.

The collection, which was published this year by Otto Müller Verlag, features a diversity of poems, from lyrical poems about nature, to apocalyptic poems about the end of Europe and constructivist or avant-garde poems, as well as prose texts, which poses a huge challenge for any translator.

The jury also noted the unmistakable sound of many of the poems, where Kosovel uses simple words to create a specific rhythm. Despite their apparent simplicity, the poems are extremely complex, combining intense feelings of nature, existential experiences and underlying historical and political contradictions, in an inimitable way.

"The great art of translation is to make the translation sound as if it were the original, and Ludwig Hartinger has mastered this art ... Even in his decision not to repeat the rhymes in German at any cost, but instead to bring the colours of the sounds and the rhythmic connections of the words into the translation, he comes close to Kosovel's poetry writing," the jury said.

Hartinger is an acclaimed Austrian translator, essayist, poet and editor. The Association of Slovenian Literary Translators honoured him with the Lavrin Diploma in 2022 for his translations of Kosovel and other Slovenian poets such as Tomaž Šalamun, Dane Zajc and Svetlana Makarovič.