For those not familiar with TranslationChain, please see our last news here, or visit *TranslationChain for details.

Please note: CHAINS 2, 3 & 4 ALL START on DEC 1

Due to the overwhelming response we have received from the deviantART community, December’s *TranslationChain is set to be a huge event, with THREE chains in progress!


TRANSLATION CHAIN 2: A BANYAN: By Ted Kooser

Well, what a great honour this is! I recently wrote to Mr. Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of the United States, and asked him if he would contribute a poem to Translation Chain. He replied with his consent to use an unpublished poem.

For those not familiar with Ted Kooser, here’s a little information (quoted from his official website):

“Ted Kooser is a poet and essayist, a professor of English at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and most recently, the United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 - 2006.

You can read more about him, as well as find a selection of his wonderful poetry, here at his website.

Mr. Kooser has our most sincere gratitude for donating the use of this poem to our project.

How Chain 2 Will Work:

We need 15 multi-lingual people with a high level of skill for a Chain that will ONLY START and END with English.

If you’d like to participate, you must be very fluent in at least two languages OTHER THAN English. In fact, it doesn’t matter whether English is not your strongest language—as long as you are proficient in the others.

When Chain 2 is completed, it will feature in a news report, and all contributions will go to the TranslationChain archive.

Also, a copy of the whole Chain will be sent to Mr. Kooser himself.

To ensure that the Chain remains ‘ure’, i.e., each translation only has the one before it for its source, the list will not be made public, nor will the poem be passed from participant to participant. Each translation must be sent to the *TranslationChain account, to be passed to the next person on the list by us.

The participants chosen will be required to:

-- Have a knowledge of, or at least some sensitivity to, poetry. Word-for-word translation will not do, we’re asking people to attempt to maintain the poetic sense of the piece as well.

-- Keep some notes about the translation process, a brief mini-journal noting any interesting thoughts, discoveries, difficulties you may encounter, etc. These will also go to the archives, and be sent to Mr. Kooser, with his copy of the Chain. Your thoughts on the poem itself would also be welcome.

-- Provide your REAL name (your first name will do, if you’re concerned about privacy), age and country of origin, for the records.

Please note *TranslationChain if you’re interested.

Unfortunately we cannot promise ALL applicants will get a place in Chain 2-- it all depends on what languages become available.


TRANSLATION CHAIN # 3

TranslationChain 3 will work much like the first one— but we will need only 20 people this time (with Christmas coming up, we are keeping December shorter).

Many thanks to *mediatedballe for allowing us to use one of his poems.

Please note: the list for Chain 3 is pretty much full, already, with people who showed interest from Chain 1. However, don’t let that stop you registering your interest in the project by sending us a note listing your languages . That way, you might be able to step in should anyone on the list for Chain 3 not be able to do their translation, and you also will be placed on the list for….

CHAIN 4: INTERNATIONAL TAG!

This is going to be FUN!

International Tag is a translation game that is meant to be played FAST!

One person on our list of participants will be given the text ( kindly provided by `GeneratingHype ) as well as game instructions.

:bullet purple: Once the translation is done, they must NOTE it to *TranslationChain, where it will immediately be posted in an archive deviation.

Remember to put TAG in the subject line!

Then NOTE someone from the translator’s list at random, to pass your translation and the instructions on!

IMPORTANT: If you receive the text and don’t want to translate it, or don’t have time to do it in a few hours, please NOTE it to someone else on the list, right away. We’re aiming for the text to be a bit like a hot potato, passed quickly from person to person. If you don’t have time, PASS IT ON! It might just come back to you later!

Tag will be played until December 20, so there’s 20 days’ worth of translation mayhem to be had. We’re hoping to get 100 TRANSLATIONS of this short text for our archives.

How To Register:

Simply send a note to *TranslationChain, letting us know what languages you have, and what levels of skill you have with them. As stated earlier, we cannot promise that everyone who registers will be in the next Chain, but will remain on our list so we can contact them for future events.

So, there is plenty to get involved in!

PLEASE NOTE: Entry into any TranslationChain event is on condition that you agree not to seek publication of part or whole of either the original text OR your translation without written and explicit consent from the original author, and agree to CREDIT the original author below your translation. Not doing so will cause you to be excluded from future events—we must protect the rights of our authors!

Thankyou SO much, to everyone who has shown interest and support, and to all the participants of Chain 1, which at time of writing is well on the way.

You can follow Chain 1’s progress on the *TranslationChain page.

Anyone wishing to translate this news into another language, please send the translation to *TranslationChain for posting in our archives—it’ll save us spamming up the projects category!

Last but by no means least, many thanks to everyone who has faved our news, watched the account, and promoted us in their journals.

And HUGE thanks to $Moonbeam13 for mentioning us in the Artist’s Relations news!