Adrian Grima t-Tieni fl-Ewropa fi Premju tal-Poeżija | Adrian Grima Places Second in Europe in Poetry Competition | From the Hebrides to Malta – Il Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani | Adrian Grima intervistat minn Sergio Grech – Kevin MacNeil in Malta | Adrian Grima t-Tieni fl-Ewropa fi Premju tal-Poeżija
Adrian Grima ġie t-tieni fl-Ewropa fil-Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani li jsir għall-poeti żgħażagħ taħt il-patroċinju tal-Unesco, tal-Kummissjoni Ewropea, tal-Presidenza tal-Kunsill tal-Ministri Taljan u tal-Ministeru tal-Kultura Taljan.
Dr. Arnold Cassola, li jieħu ħsieb il-parteċipazzjoni Maltija f’dan il-konkors, qal li “dana huwa suċċess kbir kemm għal Adrian kif ukoll għal Malta.” Din is-sena, il-Premju, li wasal fit-tielet edizzjoni tiegħu, intrebaħ minn Kevin MacNeil bil-ktieb, Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides (Edinburgħ, Canongate 1998).
Adrian Grima ħa sehem bil-ktieb tal-poeżiji tiegħu It-Trumbettier, ippubblikat fi Frar ta’ l-1999 mill-awtur. Il-ktieb fih 41 poeżija bil-Malti bi traduzzjonijiet għall-Ingliż magħmulin mill-poeta nnifsu u minn Peter Serracino Inglott. It-tnax-il tpinġija li hemm fil-ktieb għamluhom Raphael Vella u Adrian Mamo. Adrian Mamo ddisinja wkoll il-qoxra u l-ktieb kollu kemm hu.
It-traduzzjonijiet għat-Taljan ta’ erbatax-il poeżija mill-ktieb għamilhom Adrian Grima bl-għajnuna ta’ Patrick Sammut u Sandro Caruana. Tnejn mill-poeżiji, “It-Trumbettier” u “Aħna Li Nċafċfu Saqajna” ġew ippubblikati mid-dar tal-pubblikazzjonijiet Mesogea fl-antoloġija Lingue di Terra Lingue di Mare editjata minn Costanza Ferrini. Erbgħa mill-poeżiji ta’ It-Trumbettier dehru wkoll fl-antoloġija Il-Poeżija Maltija editjata minn Oliver Friggieri.
Fil-konkors ħadu sehem poeti mill-Ewropa kollha. Il-ġurija għażlet ħdax-il finalista mit-Turkija, ir-Repubblika Ċeka, il-Galizja (Spanja), Franza, l-Ungerija, is-Serbja u l-Bosnja. Ir-rebbieħ Kevin MacNeil, li ġab 71 punt, huwa mill-Iskozja. Fit-tieni post ġie Adrian Grima b’45 punt, u fit-tielet post ġiet Cécile Mainardi minn Franza b’41punt.
Il-ġurija tal-Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani kienet magħmula minn Tullio De Mauro (pres.), Filippo Bettini (viċi-pres.), Vincenzo Cerami, Ludovico Gatto, Armando Gnisci (koord.), Mario Lunetta, Giuliano Manacorda, Roberto Piperno, Alberto Scarponi, u Cristiana Muto (segreterija).
Il-Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani jippremja lill-aħjar ktieb ta’ poeżija miktub u ppubblikat fis-sena ta’ qabel fl-Ewropa, minn żgħażagħ li ma qabżux is-36 sena. Nofs il-flus tal-Premju jingħataw lir-rebbieħ waqt li n-nofs l-ieħor jintużaw biex isir restaw fuq bini u opri kulturali oħra f’wieħed mill-pajjiżi Ewropej li jkun fi kriżi, milqut mill-faqar jew mill-gwerra. Parti sew mill-Premju tintuża biex jiġu ppubblikati l-poeżiji tar-rebbieħ jew ir-rebbieħa f’għaxar lingwi differenti u għażla mill-poeżiji tal-finalisti l-oħra fil-lingwa oriġinali u fil-verżjoni Taljana.
L-ewwel edizzjoni ta’ dan il-Premju fl-1998 ntrebħet minn Miro Villar mill-Galizja, Spanja. Fl-1999 rebħet Tat�jana Mil�va, mir-Russja.
Iċ-ċerimonja tal-premjazzjoni ta’ l-edizzjoni ta’ din is-sena tal-Premju Tivoli Ewropa Żgħażagħ se tiġi ppreżentata minn Paola Pitagora u se ssir ġewwa Villa Adriana, Teatro delle Terme, fis-26 ta’ Lulju li ġej. Fiha se jinqraw ix-xogħlijiet tar-rebbieħ u tal-finalisti, fosthom tal-poeta Malti, minn Giovannella de Luca u Paola Pitagora.
Adrian Grima jgħallem il-Letteratura Maltija fil-Junior College u fil-Fakultà ta’ l-Arti ta’ l-Università ta’ Malta. Ippreżenta papers dwar il-letteratura u dwar il-Mediterran f’għadd ta’ konferenzi f’Malta, l-Italja u l-Istati Uniti. Huwa l-koordinatur ta’ l-inizjattiva kulturali mediterranja Inizjamed imwaqqfa fl-1998 u l-awtur ta’ għadd ta’ artikli dwar il-kultura u l-impenn soċjali mxandrin fl-istampa lokali. L-indirizz tal-website tiegħu huwa: www.geocities.com/adriangrima.
10.5.00
Adrian Grima Places Second in Europe in Poetry Competition
Adrian Grima has been awarded second prize in the Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani for young European poets. The Prize is held with the patronage of Unesco, the European Commission, the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers and the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Dr. Arnold Cassola, who takes care of the participation of Malta in this competition, said that ‘this is not only a great success for Adrian but also for Malta’. This year’s edition was won by Scottish poet Kevin MacNeil with his book of poetry, Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides (Edinburgh, Canongate 1998).
Adrian Grima participated with his bilingual book of poetry, It-Trumbettier (The Trumpeter), published by the author in February 1999. The book has 41 poems in Maltese translated into English by the poet himself and by Peter Serracino Inglott. It contains illustrations by Raphael Vella and Adrian Mamo; the latter also designed the cover and the book in general.
Adrian Grima translated fourteen of his poems in It-Trumbettier with the help of Patrick Sammut and Sandro Caruana. The Maltese and Italian versions of two of the poems, ‘The Trumpeter’ and ‘We Who Splash Our Feet’, were included in the anthology Lingue di Terra Lingue di Mare published by Mesogea in 1999. Four of the poems in It-Trumbettier were also published in the anthology Il-Poezija Maltija, edited by Oliver Friggieri.
Poets from all over Europe took part in this year’s edition of the Prize. The jury chose ten finalists from Turkey, the Czech Republic, Galitia (Spain), France, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia. Kevin MacNeil won first place with 71 points; Adrian Grima received 45 points; and third-placed Cécile Mainardi from France received 41 points.
The members of the jury of the Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani were Tullio De Mauro (pres.), Filippo Bettini (vice-pres.), Vincenzo Cerami, Ludovico Gatto, Armando Gnisci (coord.), Mario Lunetta, Giuliano Manacorda, Roberto Piperno, Alberto Scarponi, and Cristiana Muto (secretary).
The Tivoli Prize for young European poets chooses the best book of poetry written and published in the previous year in Europe by young people who are 36 years old or younger. Half the Prize money is awarded to the winner. The other half is used to restore sites and other objects of cultural value in a European country hit by poverty or war. A considerable amount of money is used to publish the winner’s poems in ten different languages and also a selection of the finalists’ works in their original language and in Italian. The first edition of the Prize held in 1998 was won by Miro Villar from Galitia, Spain. In 1999, the Prize was won by Tat�jana Mil�va from Russia.
This year’s prize-giving ceremony will be held at Villa Adriana, Teatro di Terme, on July 26 and will be presented by Paola Pitagora. During the evening, Giovannella de Luca and Pitagora herself will read some of the poems written by Kevin MacNeil and the other finalists.
Adrian Grima lectures in Maltese Literature at the Junior College and at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Malta. He has presented papers on literature and the Mediterranean at conferences in Malta, Italy and the United States. He is the coordinator of the mediterranean cultural initiative Inizjamed which he co-founded in 1998 and the author of a number of articles about culture and social commitment published in the local press. His website address iswww.geocities.com/adriangrima
10 May 2000
From the Hebrides to Malta | Young European Poetry in 1999
Malta and its literature featured prominently in this year’s edition of the Premio Tivoli Europa Giovanifor young European poets held with the patronage of Unesco, the European Commission and the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers. Young Maltese poet Adrian Grima was awarded the second prize and one of the poems from his prize-winning collection It-Trumbettier (1999), “Is-SaleGrandjuz” (“The Great Grand Sale”), was published in the anthology of this third edition of the prize and in what was one of Italy’s major newspapers.
Malta also features prominently in the title of this year’s anthology, Dalle Ebridi a Malta: La Giovane Poesia d’Europa nel 1999, edited by Filippo Bettini and Armando Gnisci who teach Literary Theory and Comparative Literature respectively at Rome’s La Sapienza University.
In his introduction to the selection of poems by the finalists, Filippo Bettini, the driving force behind the Prize and the leading figure in the Rome-based cultural association Allegorein that organizes it, described Adrian Grima’s second placing as the biggest surprise of European poetry in 1999 and an indication, yet again, of the central role played by the Mediterranean in European culture.
On Sunday 16 July, the Italian national newspaper L’Unit� devoted a whole page to the Tivoli Prize for Young European Poets, with articles by Bettini, Gnisci and Tullio De Mauro, president of the jury and Italian Minister of Education. L’Unit� also included the Italian translations of two poems by MacNeil and one by Grima. Journalist Alberto Crespi described the anthology Dalle Ebridi a Malta, with the poems reproduced both in their original language and in a host of other languages, as “a true (good) son of globalization”, a format that reflects the truly “Europeanist vocation” of the Prize. Another mass circulation Italian newspaper, Il Messaggero, carried an article about the prize on Tuesday, 18 July, the day of the prize-giving ceremony.
Before the ceremony held in the Greek theatre of Villa Adriana in Tivoli, Adrian Grima and organizers Filippo Bettini and Cristiana Muto paid a courtesy visit to the ambassador of Malta in Rome and spoke about the prize and about future collaboration between Allegorein and Malta. Ambassador Dr. Joe Cassar congratulated Adrian Grima on winning second prize and thanked the organizers for their initiative. However, no one from the embassy was available to join the two hundred or so people who attended the ceremony in Tivoli.
The first prize was won by Kevin MacNeil, a twenty-eight-year-old Scottish writer born and raised on the isle of Lewis in the Hebrides and educated at the Nicolson Institute, the University of Edinburgh and Sabhal Mor Ostaig. At present he is “writer in residence” for the region of the Highlands and this allows him to write full-time. He is also the first Iain Crichton Smith Writing Fellow. The book of poetry that won him first prize, Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides was published by the well-established Edinburgh-based publishing house Canongate in 1998. Canongate will publish his second volume of poetry, Be Wise Be Otherwise next year. MacNeil is also working on a novel and he extended his stay in Rome to continue writing it.
MacNeil’s poetry in Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides creates powerful connections and new combinations with astonishing freshness and versatility. He has wit as well as feeling, a resonating sense of the past and the local while being sharply focused towards the future and the cross-cultural. He works in various forms – from proselike poems in English, to haikus or highly-crafted longer poems in English and Gaelic.
According to writer Kenneth White, MacNeil’s “is a live mind who’s been out for language, movement, light, and has found a good deal of it all, laughing a new laugh in the process. If you fancy a mixture of dancing logic, loving grace and cosmopoetic jazz, this guy’s got it. And he scatters it about in stories from the bothy of the heart written in fast, humorous prose, as well as in poems fresh from the bottom of the heart.”
During the evening, actress Giovannella de Luca interpreted a poem by each of the finalists, two by Grima, “Is-Sale Grandjuż” and “Aħna Li Nċafċfu Saqajna” (“We Who Splash Our Feet”) and a number of poems by MacNeil, in Italian. Grima himself recited “Id-Dubju Fatali” (“The Fatal Doubt”) in Maltese and MacNeil recited “faclan, eich-mhara” (“words, seahorses”) in Gaelic. One of the most intense moments was when De Luca read a powerful poem by Bosnian finalist Mirsad Siyaric, “Hostes Omnibus Omnes”, with the factual, profoundly uncomfortable opening lines, “And when the time comes / everyone’s an enemy of everyone” hanging disturbingly in the cool air of Villa Adriana’s Greek theatre.
The programme of the evening also included a concert by Miriam Meghnagi, the Italian-Libyan singer of Sephardic origin who has established herself as an artiste of international repute. Meghnagi filled the rarefied air of the open-air theatre in what was probably the largest and most sumptuous villa in the Roman Empire with her Mediterranean music and poetry, bringing together, at one point, lines from various poems written by the finalists, including the first line from Grima’s “Illejla, Jekk Trid” (“Tonight, Perhaps”), which she sang in Maltese.
Apart from Tullio de Mauro, Filippo Bettini and Armando Gnisci, the jury of this third edition of the Tivoli Prize for Young European Poets, included Mario Lunetta, president, and Alberto Scarponi, outgoing secretary-general of the union of Italian writers; veteran leading critic Giuliano Manacorda; writer Vincenzo Cerami, best known for his Oscar-winning script of La Vita � Bella (written with Benigni); and writers Roberto Piperno and Ludovico Gatto.
Adrian Grima was nominated for this year’s Prize by Dr. Arnold Cassola who forms part of the team of 32 European consultants who back up the organizing committee of the Prize.
July 2000
Il Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani
Il Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani, nato nel 1998, consiste nella premiazione annuale del miglior libro di poesia scritto e pubblicato, nell’arco del precedente anno, nell’ambito dell’intero continente europeo, ivi comprese le minoranze linguistiche, da giovani che non abbiano superato i 36 anni di età. Il corrispettivo economico del Premio andrà solo per metà al suo vincitore, mentre l’altra metà sarà destinata al risanamento di edifici, beni, oggetti od opere culturali in uno dei paesi dell’Europa in crisi, colpiti dalla povertà e dalla guerra. Componente estensiva del Premio è la pubblicazione di un libro che raccoglie i testi del vincitore tradotti in dieci lingue ed una selezione delle poesie degli altri finalisti nella lingua d’origine e in traduzione italiana. Le diverse équipes di consulenti che affiancano il lavoro della giuria hanno la responsabilità fondamentale di rinvenire, selezionare e tradurre i testi che saranno poi letti e valutati dai giurati..
La prima edizione del Premio è stata vinta da Miro Villar (Galizia), la seconda da Tat�jana Mil�va (Russia). Come da statuto, sono stati acquistati libri ed un computer per la biblioteca di Elbasan (Albania) distrutta dal fuoco.
“Noi, per parte nostra, abbiamo voluto e vorremmo contribuire a creare un luogo, uno spazio che cominci a cercare di chiamare al confronto linguaggi diversi, e ci è che sta dentro i linguaggi: differenti Lebensformen, tradizioni di cultura intellettuale ed antropologica, ways of life, paesaggi diversi di cose, memorie, immaginazioni. Quattordici lingue ufficiali, dal portoghese al finlandese, trenta e più lingue “regionali”, come hanno amato dire in Francia, o “lesser used”, come hanno detto al Parlamento ed al Consiglio d’Europa, dal gallego e catalano allo scots e al ladino, più, forse, domani l’esperanto: non è stato facile nemmeno censirle ed enumerarle concordemente – nel Parlamento europeo. Una sfida chiamarle a confronto. Ma è una sfida vitale per il crescere di una comune cultura europea. Noi abbiamo fatto nostra questa sfida. A tante voci diverse, cariche di storie diverse, abbiamo voluto offrire l’occasione di un unico ascolto”.
Tullio De Mauro
“Dall’applicazione che ne è seguita sono derivate alcune conseguenze fondamentali che si possono schematicamente riassumere nei tre punti conclusivi:
- a)l’importanza determinante assegnata in partenza al lavoro della “traduzione” (secondo convincimenti di antica matrice dellavolpiana che, sempre più radicati nel corso del tempo, hanno reso ancora più urgente in questa occasione l’attenzione ai criteri della qualità e del rigore);
- b)l’individuazione di regole e confini certi, non equivoci o approssimativi, che imprimono maggiore riconoscibilità alla fisionomia del premio e della sua incidenza, ma che al tempo stesso concorrono ad accrescere gli ostacoli del suo cammino e, proporzionalmente, il valore della posta in palio: il ritmo serrato della periodicità annuale, la limitazione dei termini di pubblicazione presi in esame al solo arco dell’annata precedente, la definizione della fascia anagrafica al tetto dei 36 anni;
- c)il principio di composizione interdisciplinare della giuria ufficiale secondo una varietà di interessi e di punti di vista particolarmente indicati per un premio come questo: dalla linguistica alla comparatistica, dalla critica letteraria alla poesia e al romanzo, dalla storia alla politica culturale”.
Filippo Bettini
“La poetica che si propone attraverso il Premio ha una forte volontà comunitaria che ambisce addirittura a segnare e nominare un luogo comune/lingua comune delle Europe; da Santiago de Compostela a Mosca. Una lingua-non-lingua, una catena in incessante mobilità di traslochi e di cambi: non una lingua che cambia tutte le altre e così facendo le sostituisce e le abolisce, come fa la “moneta unica” rispetto alle monete nazionali o l’inglese imperiale/dollaro, ma una lingua-opera che si sposta dall’una all’altra lingua concreta e storica e che consiste nel tradursi, nello spostarsi stesso e nel corrispondere. Essa non cambia, ma si cambia”.
Armando Gnisci
Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani III edizione – 2000
Il Vincitore
Kevin MacNeil (Scozia)
Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides, Edinburgh, Canongate 1998.
I finalisti
Adrian Grima (Malta)
Cécile Mainardi (Francia)
D�niel Varr� (Ungheria)
Ana Ristović (Serbia)
J�nos D�nes Orb�n (Ungheria)
Ali Asker Barut (Turchia)
Mirsad Sijarić (Bosnia)
Eduardo Est�vez (Galizia)
Petr Borkovec (Repubblica Ceca)
Kucuk Iskender (Turchia)
Cerimonia di premiazione Villa Adriana – Teatro delle Terme
26 luglio 2000 – h. 21.00
Conduce Paola Pitagora
Concerto in tre tempi della cantante Miriam Meghnagi
omaggio a Kevin MacNeil ed alla giovane poesia scozzese
del prof. Dante Marianacci (Istituto italiano di cultura, Edimburgo)
Recital poetico dai testi del vincitore e dei finalisti per le voci di
Giovannella de Luca e Paola Pitagora
Saranno presenti ed interverranno i componenti la giuria e rappresentanti degli enti patrocinatori
La Giuria
Tullio De Mauro (pres.)
Filippo Bettini (vicepres.)
Vincenzo Cerami
Ludovico Gatto
Armando Gnisci (coord.)
Mario Lunetta
Giuliano Manacorda
Roberto Piperno
Alberto Scarponi
Cristiana Muto (segretaria)
Il Premio � realizzato in collaborazione con: A.C.E.A., A.M.A., A.S.A., Acque Albule
ELENCO DEI PARTECIPANTI
Barut, Ali Asker Turchia (finalista)
Borkovec, Petr Repubblica Ceca (finalista)
Dimkovska, Lidija Macedonia
Dushi, Ledia Albania
Est�vez, Eduardo Galizia (finalista)
Ferrara degli Uberti, Michele Italia
Grima, Adrian Malta (finalista)
i Adrover, Melcion Mateu Catalogna
Iskender, Kucuk Turchia (finalista)
Jodra Dav�, Carmen Spagna
Jovanovic, Nenad Serbia
Luk�čov�, Eva Slovacchia
MacNeil, Kevin Scozia (vincitore)
Mainardi, C�cile Francia (finalista)
Musabegovic, Senadin Bosnia
Navarro, Alexandre Catalogna
Nushaj, Renis Albania
Orb�n, J�nos D�nes Ungheria (finalista)
Pedrozzi, Nicola Svizzera
Rajic, Olgica Serbia
Ristovic, Ana Serbia (finalista)
Rizdvenko, Tat�jana Russia
Sijaric, Mirsad Bosnia (finalista)
Smiljanic, Nena Bosnia
Spasovska, Suzana V. Macedonia
Vaglioni, Piero Italia
Varr�, D�niel Ungheria (finalista)
Villar, Rafa Galizia
Von Petersdorff, Dirk Germania
Zizovic, Natasa Serbia
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