Saudade: An Anthology of Fado Poetry

by Mimi Khalvati

"Saudade" - so difficult to translate the yearning soul of Fado music, Portugal's urban folk tradition. So what happens when you ask 18 of our finest poets - versed in the art of translation but mostly coming to the music for the first time - to create versions in English of the poetry on which Fado songs are based? George Szirtes, Elaine Feinstein, Don Paterson and others find themselves challenged, as Carol Rumens describes it, to perform 'a translation double-act', turning 'a poetic song in one language into a song-like poem in another'. Their approaches span the range from close equivalence to loose 'imitation', but all seek to convey some essence of the culture and music of Fado. The music has now taken its rightful place on the world stage, but Fado poetry is still little known outside Portugal. "Saudade" - the first ever anthology in English - offers poems from across the peasant songs from Fado's earliest days, songs from the genre's greatest poets, exuberant evocations of the low-life Fado 'scene', metaphysical speculation, songs of resistance, and, above all, of love. With newly commissioned versions in English from the following Moniza Alvi, Judith Barrington, David Constantine, Alfred Corn, Ruth Fainlight, Elaine Feinstein, Grey Gowrie, Marilyn Hacker, Philip Jenkins, Fady Joudah, Sarah Maguire, Eric Ormsby, Don Paterson, Pascale Petit, Carol Rumens, Fiona Sampson, Michael Schmidt, and George Szirtes.

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Mimi Khalvati was born in Tehran, Iran. She grew up on the Isle of Wight, where she attended boarding school from the age of six, and has lived most of her life in England. She trained at Drama Centre London and has worked as an actor and director in the UK and Iran.

She has published eight collections of poetry with Carcanet Press, including The Weather Wheel, The Meanest Flower, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, a Financial Times Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and, most recently, Child: New and Selected Poems 1991-2011, a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Her work has been translated into nine languages and she received a Cholmondeley Award in 2006. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Mimi is the founder of The Poetry School and was the Coordinator from 1997–2004. She is a core tutor for the School and has co-edited its three anthologies of new writing published by Enitharmon Press.

She is also a freelance poetry tutor and has worked with arts organisations such as the Arvon Foundation and the South Bank Centre and has taught at universities in the UK, Europe and America.

Reviews

[Ario · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well curated set of well established poets, such as Fiona Sampson, George Szirtes, Pascal Petit, Fady Joudah, Marilyn Hacker, Don Paterson, Carol Rumens, put their hand to translating fado. There are a million distinctive ways to interpret a song and here each mode of interpretation creates a different music with a unique voice. Some lean into the formalism, others are haunted by the saudade and pull new lyrics out of the air, while others again transplant the Lisbon back alleys to English Salford. It works. It’s a shame the book now seems out of print.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for my prosody group, and although I enjoyed many of the translations from the original Portugese fado song into English poems, I do think that it would have been very helpful if the publisher had included a CD of the original songs with this book. I am not Portugese, and so I am not familiar with fado. When I read the book with my prosody group, however, we listened to the original songs on Youtube first, and then looked at the English translations. Listening to the songs sung out loud helped me to understand fado more than just reading the translation. If the publisher were to put out a second edition, I would strongly recommend including a CD of the original fado songs so that listeners can get a sense of the 'spirit' of fado. Otherwise, the poems can fall somewhat flat on the page in English.