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On August 1, to honour what would have been Austrian poet Ernst Jandl's
80th birthday, signandsight.com launched a poetry translation
competition. The assignment was to translate Jandl's lofty masterpiece
"Otto's Mops" into English.
Ottos Mops
Ottos Mops trotzt
Otto: fort Mops fort
Ottos Mops hopst fort
Otto: soso
Otto holt Koks
Otto holt Obst
Otto horcht
Otto: Mops Mops
Otto hofft
Ottos Mops klopft
Otto: komm Mops komm
Ottos Mops kommt
Ottos Mops kotzt
Otto: ogottogott
Submissions poured in from all corners of the world and indeed in all
languages (we received some veritable gems in Afrikaans and Swahili). We were overwhelmed by the response and the creativity of our readers.
A jury made up of award-winning poet Barbara Köhler, Perlentaucher
founder Thierry Chervel and the editorial team of signandsight.com,
convened. The poems were judged according to their respect of the
single-vowel principal, basic narrative thrust and general Mopsian
spirit.
We are proud to announce the winner: "Fritz's bitch" by Brian Murdoch.
The runners up are (in no specific order)
Katy Derbyshire for "Prue's Poodle", Walter Barkan for "Mao's Chow" and Alexander Sager for "Doug's Pug".
Barbara Köhler who headed the jury made the following comment on the jury's choice: "There were four translations which tried to achieve a balance between form and content, and all in a highly individual manner. All four dare to express their own readings parallel to the act of translation. Brian Murdoch's translation does all of this and remains truest to the original. What I liked particularly was that the translations play very specifically with the nuances of sounds and meaning in the English language."
fritz's bitch
fritz's bitch itches
fritz: quit bitch quit
fritz's bitch quits it
fritz: nitwit
fritz picks chips
fritz picks dips
fritz listens
fritz: bitch bitch
fritz wishes
fritz's bitch twitches
fritz: sit bitch sit
fritz's bitch sits
fritz's bitch is sick
fritz: shitshitshit
Brian Murdoch
Brian Murdoch teaches Modern Languages at the University of Stirling, Scotland.
prue's poodle
prue's poodle refuses
prue rebukes poodle
prue's poodle scoots
prue: cute
prue chooses noodles
prue chooses fruit
prue looks
prue: poodle poodle
prue broods
prue's poodle chews
prue: phooey poodle phooey
prue's poodle gooey
prue's poodle pukes
prue: oh shoot
Katy Derbyshire
Katy Derbyshire is a freelance translator from London, now living in Berlin.
Mao's chow
Mao's chow growls
Mao: bow wow chow
Mao's chow meow
Mao: wow
Mao allow cow
Mao allow sow
Mao's chow now chow
Mao: chow chow
Mao vow
Mao's chow loud
Mao cow chow
Mao chow row
Mao's chow jowl Mao
Mao: ow ow
Walter Barkan
Walter Barkan is a retired developer of air traffic control systems living in Corvallis, Oregon.
Doug's pug
doug’s pug rubs
doug: pug yuh bug
doug’s pug scuds
Doug shrugs
doug drums up lunch
doug munches
doug’s pug lusts
doug: pug pug
doug’s pug fusses
doug’s pug tugs rug
doug: come pug come
doug’s pug comes
doug’s pug chucks
doug: ofuckofuck
Alexander Sager
Alexander Sager is an assistant
professor of German at the University of Georgia, USA, and proud owner of Penny the Finger Lakes
Stickleback.
Click here to read all other English translations and here for the international translations. And here you can hear Ernst Jandl reading his poem.
*
We would like to thank Luchterhand Literaturverlag for giving us the rights to publish "Ottos Mops".
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