Brian Holton will speak about his own odyssey in translation, from the Latin and Greek proses of his schooldays, to the near-impossibility of earning a living through literary translation. He will propose the following questions: When we read a poem in translation, whose voice do we hear? Do translators think other people’s thoughts? Is translation useful for an apprentice writer? He will stress the importance of praxis in generating theory, and briefly discuss his own practice as a Chinese-Scots translator. Lastly, he will explore the tools which make a poem sing in its new habitat.

Brian Holton was born in Scotland and educated at Edinburgh and Durham. Holton taught classical and modern Chinese language and literature in the UK, and Chinese-English translation in Hong Kong. He has translated a dozen books of poetry by Yang Lian and has appeared at major literary festivals in the UK, Europe and the Far East. He has published a wide range of Chinese poetry and fiction in Scots and English.