TRANSLATOR
CALLAGHAN MAINTAINS THAT he has no particular gift for languages, though he did study “in a limited way” French and Russian. During his stint at the Telegram on several occasions he published translations from the Russian of Andrey Voznesenski. In 1979 Robert Marteau translated the Hogg Poems into French. In 1979 and ’80, Callaghan reciprocated by translating two books by Marteau: Atlante and Traité du blanc et des teintures. This led to his meeting the Serbian poet Miodrag Pavlovic and his translating of two books by that poet (he has written about this experience in an essay Black Light in his book Raise You Five). At the same time, for Exile, over the years he translated several poets from Quebec, including Fernand Ouellette (Wells of Light) and Jacques Brault (Fragile Moments).
As a result of a trip he took to the Baltic Sea (see his article in Raise You Five) he translated the selected works of the great Latvian poet Imants Ziedonis (Flowers of Ice).
MIODRAG PAVLOVIC AND BARRY CALLAGHAN, BEOGRAD, SERBIA, 1985
BARRY CALLAGHAN AND ROBERT MARTEAU AT HARBOURFRONT, TORONTO 1986
BARRY CALLAGHAN, TRANSLATING MIODRAG PAVLOVIC AT WOODBINE RACETRACK, 1982
BARRY CALLAGHAN AND LATVIAN POET IMANTS ZIEDONIS, IN RIGA, 2008
BARRY CALLAGHAN
man of letters
MEDIA: TRANSLATOR
