W. S. Merwin’s Selected Translations (Copper Canyon Press, 2013) has won the HAROLD MORTON LANDON TRANSLATION AWARD.
Founded in 1976, this $1,000 prize recognizes a published translation of poetry from any language into English that demonstrates literary excellence. This year’s judge was David Hinton.
W. S. Merwin is the author of over thirty books of poetry and more than twenty books of translation. His most recent poetry collection is The Moon Before Morning (Copper Canyon Press, 2014). He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2010 to 2011. His other honors include two Pulitzer Prizes, a National Book Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Bollingen Prize, and the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement. A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, he currently lives in Hawaii.
About W. S. Merwin’s book, David Hinton said: “W. S. Merwin’s art is ravenous, and this award celebrates that hunger. To translate is to inhabit another voice, which in turn enlarges one’s horizons as a writer; and Merwin’s huge Selected Translations represents a lifetime spent doing just that: feeding his own art with other voices. The book is a museum of world poetry, collecting artifacts from a vast range of cultures and times. This year, in addition to the Selected Translations, Merwin also published a voluminous translation from one of Japan’s greatest classical poets, a major addition to his world-poetry museum: Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson. And so continues Merwin’s lifelong gift to our hunger for other voices.”
For the complete article from The American Academy of Poets, please visit this link: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/stanza/academy-american-poets-announces-recipients-2014-american-poets-prizes