The idea arose just at the heart of Europe, during the Conference on “Language, Literature and Nation” organized by the Magyar Pen Club and held in Budapest in Autumn 2012, coinciding  –in happy synchrony– with the 90th anniversary of the Catalan Pen Club and the Girona Manifesto on Linguistic Rights.

This site, taking over from the old blog created in December 2012, opens up a window to that unexpectedly fruitful exchange: the mutual multilingual versions in thirty-three languages* by a group of international wordsmiths, moved by that rounded organ about the size of a fist to which scientists increasingly agree, we should entrust life’s greatest decisions.

Ironically enough, for the understanding of the texts prior to their rendering into other languages, we sometimes had to resort to, as Telesforo Monzón  commented regretfully to Catalan president Lluís Companys, “the languages of those who don’t understand us” (We take this opportunity to homage Fèlix Cucurull, Catalan historian and poet who reported the anecdote). But all is well that ends well and, moreover, it is a gesture of poetic justice.

We start the round by rendering into Catalan a poem by Menna Elfyn from her exquisite bilingual book Perffaith Nam/Perfect Blemish: “Teaching Dylan Thomas’s muse to speak Welsh". The title can hardly be more eloquent: an excellent lesson for the most reluctant muses.

PLEASE, ENJOY THEM ALL  !  

The MV Project Coordination Team