Translator Lyn Coffin speaks about Shota Rustaveli's poem

Translator Lyn Coffin speaks about Shota Rustaveli's poem - The Knight in the Panther Skin

Shota Rustaveli is Georgia’s most famous 12th century poet, particularly for his epic saga The Knight in the Panther Skin. It is a poem of mammoth proportions, in length and literary strength. First printed in 1712, it has undergone many translations.

The current English translation is taken from the 1966 edition of the poem and receives a contemporary update. Translator Lyn Coffin provided an exclusive reading of the new edition today at Prospero’s Books in Tbilisi, Georgia. The large hardcover version of the New English Translation of The Knight in the Panther Skin (2015) is faithful to the rhyme, lilt, metre, and verse of the famed author and his native Georgian language. The translation took about two years in cooperation with experts in Georgia.

As a member of the audience said today, ‘Great works don’t get old, but translations become outdated.’ Hence this version reprises the great work of Shota Rustaveli in an easy to read updated edition.

Lyn Coffin (1943-) is an American poet, fiction writer, playwright, and translator. Prior to Georgian translations, she has translated works by Russian Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), and Nobel literature prize-winning Czech author Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986), as well as Czech poet Jiri Orten (1919-1941).

She first arrived in Georgia in 2011 and has translated several modern Georgian authors. She has also prepared an anthology of poems with Georgian poet, Gia Jokadze, called Georgian Poetry: Rustavel to Galaktion (2013). Lyn will read some of the poetry at the Writers’ House of Georgia at 13 Machabeli Street in Tbilisi at 19:00 on Tuesday October 13, 2015.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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