David Colmer wins fourth David Reid Poetry Translation Prize
In the fourth round of the David Reid Poetry Translation Prize it was up to the candidates to translate Gerrit Achterberg’s Dutch poem ‘De dichter is een koe’ in to English. David Colmer’s translation ‘The Poet as a Cow’ won this round, followed closely by Paul Vincent’s ‘The Poet is a Cow’. According to the jury, Colmer’s version shows ‘the mild bemusement of Achterberg’s poem,’ and ‘flows with much of the fluency and variation of the original’.
It’s the second time Colmer wins the Reid Prize: in June 2007 he was praised by the jury for his ‘The Gardener and Death’, based on P.N. van Eyck classic poem ‘De tuinman en de dood’.
On 1 September 2008 the jury will reveal which Dutch poem is chosen for the fifth round; for more information, please consult the website of Subtext Translations.
