ARTWORK: Alice Dunkley
A Series of Multilingual Poems Selected by members of the ANU Literature Society Compiled by Sophie Brissenden Translations provided by each speaker
About a month ago, LitSoc combined forces with the folks at BnG and in spite of multiple covidrelated obstacles, hosted a sensational multilingual poetry night at the Griffin Centre in Civic. BnG provided some sweet funding for the venue, Michael the guitarist for background aesthetic tunes and a direct livestream to viewers back at BnG, while LitSoc organised the speakers (and excessive amounts of pizza). We left it open for volunteers to recite any poetry, original or otherwise. Knowing that public speaking can be nerve-wracking at the best of times, and that some people would be speaking in languages they had only recently started learning, we tried to touch base with all the speakers quite a few times before the event. On the night every single speaker stepped up and treated us listeners to a small, poetic taste of a language other than English, and some background
about their relationship with that language. I think everyone left with a little bit of inspiration to go pick up a poetry anthology by Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Jacques Prevert, or listen more closely to the lyrics in German or Punjabi music, or straight up enrol in an Urdu or Arabic language class. Admittedly, in our initial vision, the night was smoother for all participants and larger in scale. But like all the student organisations, our events have to adapt and acclimatise. Nonetheless we are grateful to BnG for their support, and of course to all the speakers for jumping onboard so willingly. Also to Rachel from Woroni for suggesting we gather the comments below and spread the delights of multilingual poetry even further! ANU Literature Society
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