Poetry presents a special challenge for the translator, requiring a balance between dedication to the original text and making one’s translation a poem in its own right. This process is a vital one for both languages: it yields something new and different, an expression or a thought that wouldn’t have been possible to say otherwise.

Goethe Institut celebrates the launch of issue number 55:1 of the acclaimed Chicago Review, entitled “Seven Poets from Berlin.” For this bilingual reading, two of the featured poets, as well as poet, editor, and translator Christian Hawkey introduce new poems from new and established voices in the Berlin poetry community.

Recorded Thursday, January 28, 2010 at Goethe-Institut Chicago.