International Poetry Review

The "International Poetry Review" is a collection of poems from writers around the world including Russia, Poland, Brazil, Austrailian, South American, and English poems. The end of the review gives information about each poet published in the journal. While their cultural differences can be seen from their backgrounds given, many similarities and differences about cultures around the world can be seen through their writings.
The structure of this book is composed of the poem in the writer's native language with a translation on the next page. The first thing that stood out to me when reading this journal is the beauty of what a poem looks like in a completly different form of language and writing. While the structure looks the same the characters of the words look abnormal but when translated each poem still works in our language. This to me points out the importance of the meaning of the poem. We all know that words can be "Lost in Translation" but the underlying stories, meanings, and the tone of the authors voice can still be understood and the reader still gets to read a master piece. The translations of the poems are a way for us to communicate with someone we could normally not understand. They allow you to feel how the poet felt, and read their opinions when normally you wouldn't be exposed to this because of a language barrier.
Of the many poets from around the world published in this journal the majority of poems seemed to be about love. The first two poets I read although from different countries, one Slovak and one Polish both wrote about love with analogies of nature. They both used very descriptive langauge seen through the Slovak writer Radovan Brenkus in his poem "Words on the Mend" he says "cracked bark. We don't know how the resin sweated out by the crack turns to honey in a woman's womb" and by the Russian writer Vadim Andreyev and his line " two ruts of a country road. Two inseperable sisters." They both use great metaphors and analogies to the central theme of their poem.
One of my favorite poems in the journal was a poem translated from spanish called "Someone."
Since Spanish is a language that I have studied it was the first poem I attempted to read outloud in the native language. After reading it in English first to make it easier to understand the flow of words I realized that this poem seemed more dramatic in its own langauge. It made me think about how this journal is limited in a few ways. Poems that rhyme in the native language can not be translated that way. Also words translated have different amounts of syllabyles, lengths, beats and structure that can not be perfectly translated. With that said I feel that hearing the poet read their work out loud before the translation would really benefit the reader. The poem "Someone" even when translated is still very deep. It talks about lonliness and reaches out to everyone in the world with lines such as " Someone/perhaps like you or me/ will get out of bed/ possibly thinking/ that nothing/ nothing that happens elsewhere/ is more important/ than his small/ and miserable world." This to me shows that poetry is a language with in its self. It is a tool used by the writer to express the feelings they have. Despite the differences in structure that might be heard when this poem is read in Spanish or English I believe the reader in both cases can feel the authors pain.
In conclusion the "International Poetry Review" teaches us alot about what poetry means to people around the world. It was interesting to see how two people on opposite sides of the World both can write about love and portray the meaning in such a similar way. It also shows the talent of writers everywhere and gives everyone a chance to read the poetry of people around the world. Some of the best work is written in other languages and this journal exposes us to that.