The Poetry Translation Centre was is an organization dedicated to translating poetry from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It was founded by the British poet Sarah Maguire

Sarah Maguire

-Life:Sarah Maguire left school early to train as a gardener with the London Borough of Ealing . Her horticultural career has had a significant impact on her poetry: her third collection of poems The Florist's at Midnight brought together all her poems about plants and gardens, and she edited the...

 in 2004. Its work has been championed by such British poets as Nick Laird

Nick Laird

Nicholas 'Nick' Laird is a novelist and poet who was born, and grew up, in Cookstown, County Tyrone. He studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he attained a first in English. He went on to work at the global law firm Allen & Overy in London for six years, before leaving to concentrate...

, and it is one of the Arts Council England

Arts Council England

Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...

's regularly funded organisations.

The PTC's website currently includes translations of 159 poems by 44 poets from 21 countries written in 19 different languages - from Amharic to Zapotec

Zapotec language

The Zapotec language are a group of closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highlands of Mexico. Present-day native speakers are estimated to number over half a million, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca....

. The poems are given in three different versions: in the original language, as a basic 'literal' translation and as the final version in English, thus giving a valuable insight into the translation process. The site also features recordings of poems read in English, Arabic, Kurdish, Portuguese, Somali, Tajik and Urdu, together with videos of readings.

The PTC has organised two World Poets' Tours. The first, in 2005, introduced Partaw Naderi (Afghanistan), Gagan Gill (India), Toeti Heraty

Toeti Heraty

-Biography:Toeti Heraty was born in Bandung, West Java on November 27, 1933. Following her family tradition, she pursued medicine at the University of Indonesia from 1951 until 1955. Then she took an advanced degree in psychology in 1962 and wrote her thesis on Simone de Beauvoir...

 (Indonesia), Coral Bracho (Mexico), Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac 'Gaarriye' (Somaliland) and Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is a poet from Sudan who writes his work in Arabic. writing in Arabic. Published in The London Review of Books, his work Poem of the Nile was the first time an African poet had been capture in that work.-External links:...

 (Sudan) to UK audiences. In 2008, Corsino Fortes

Corsino Fortes

Corsino António Fortes is a Cape Verdean writer.He participated at the University of Lisbon in 1966.He became an ambassador in Lisbon.-Works:*Pão & Fonema *Árvore & Tombor *Pedras de Sol & Substância ...

 (Cape Verde), Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac 'Gaarriye', Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is a poet from Sudan who writes his work in Arabic. writing in Arabic. Published in The London Review of Books, his work Poem of the Nile was the first time an African poet had been capture in that work.-External links:...

 and Farzaneh Khojandi (Tajikistan) took part in the Centre's second World Poets' Tour, which also featured the poetry of Kajal Ahmad

Kajal Ahmad

Kajal Ahmad or Kejal Ehmed, , is a contemporary Kurdish poet, writer and journalist.She was born in Kirkuk. She began writing poetry in 1986, and became a journalist in 1992. In addition to poetry, she also writes commentary and analysis on social issues, women issues and politics. Her poems have...

 (Kurdistan) and Noshi Gillani (Pakistan), who were sadly unable to travel to the UK.

A registered charity, the Poetry Translation Centre's trustees are Lord Victor Adebowale, CBE, Fiona Sampson

Fiona Sampson

-Life :Born in London, Sampson grew up in the West Country, on the west coast of Wales and in Gloucestershire. She was educated at the Royal Academy of Music, and following a brief career as a concert violinist, studied at Oxford University, where she won the Newdigate Prize...

, the current editor of Poetry Review, and Gary McKeone, Chair of the Poetry Archive.

British poets who have contributed translations have included Carole Satyamurti

Carole Satyamurti

Carole Satyamurti is a British poet, sociologist, and translator.-Life:She grew up in Kent, and lived in North America, Singapore and Uganda....

, Choman Hardi

Choman Hardi

Choman Hardi , is a contemporary Kurdish poet, translator and painter. She was born in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 1975 her family fled to Iran after the Algiers Accord but returned to Iraq after a general amnesty in 1979. They were forced to move again in 1988 during the Anfal campaign...

, David Harsent

David Harsent

David Harsent is an English poet & TV scriptwriter. As Jack Curtis and David Lawrence he has published a number of crime fiction novels....

, Jane Duran

Jane Duran

-Background:Duran was born to an American mother and a Spanish father who had fought with the Republican army in the Spanish Civil war. He fled Spain after Franco's victory but would never talk about his experiences. The themes of silences, loss and exile haunt much of her work...

, Jo Shapcott

Jo Shapcott

Jo Shapcott FRSL, is an English poet, editor and lecturer who has won the National Poetry Competition, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Costa Book of the Year Award, a Forward Poetry Prize and the Cholmondeley Award.-Career:...

, Katherine Pierpoint, Lavinia Greenlaw

Lavinia Greenlaw

-Biography:Greenlaw was born in London into a family of doctors and scientists, but spent much of her childhood in a small village in Essex. She began her working life in publishing and arts administration before embarking upon a career as a freelance artist, critic and radio broadcaster. She lives...

, Mark Ford

Mark Ford

-Life:He went to school in London, and attended Oxford University and, as a Kennedy Scholar, Harvard University. He studied for his doctorate at Oxford University on the poetry of John Ashbery, and has published widely on nineteenth- and twentieth-century American writing, including on Raymond...

, Mimi Khalvati

Mimi Khalvati

Mimi Khalvati is an Iranian-born British poet.-Life and career:She was born in Tehran, Iran in 1944. She grew up on the Isle of Wight and was educated in Switzerland at the University of Neuchâtel, and in London at the Drama Centre and the School of Oriental and African Studies...

, Sarah Maguire

Sarah Maguire

-Life:Sarah Maguire left school early to train as a gardener with the London Borough of Ealing . Her horticultural career has had a significant impact on her poetry: her third collection of poems The Florist's at Midnight brought together all her poems about plants and gardens, and she edited the...

, Sean O'Brien

Sean O'Brien (writer)

Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, playwright. Prizes he has garnered include the Eric Gregory Award , the Somerset Maugham Award , the Cholmondeley Award , the Forward Poetry Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize...

 and W N Herbert.