Here's a 25min video about #SpacesForListening

vimeo.com/1033441520?s...

Thanks to @susanresurgence.bsky.social for a lovely conversation with @brigidrussell51 & me.

And thanks to all you wonderful souls who have come to #SpacesForListening over the last 4 years. The fire's still burning bright.

A chill in the Northern air
Day translates to night
The perfect way to end afternoons
Following the colour through the woods
Sipping tea in the cold light

In Cold Light
youtu.be/efQsk1xTc0A?...

Oak tree on farm land this evening

The acorn does not know that it will become a sapling.
The sapling only dimly senses that it will become a mighty oak.

Remember this for all your projects

18 years ago but still an issue across borders & as discussed yesterday, public perception of Language skills is quite superficial. It's a whole mindset. Fortunately I stood my ground on the integrity of translation then & I do still now

Thanks. I support this also in judicial proceedings where the issue of monies &lack of professionalism means "translators" may be chosen because they are the "cheapest option" & do an appalling job where every word can count in getting justice- our case. Makes me livid. Quality people, quality pay

Unfortunately Francesca Albanese has just reported firing on civilians again- even after "ceasefire"

The hope & beauty you unexpectedly find when you look & care 👀

'The dice player' (2009) by Darwish, translated by Rema Hammani and John Berger:

"If I'd been walking slower//the rifle shot might have cut my shadow off from the watchful cypress" 💔

#FreePalestine 🕊

acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:...

"Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing."

- Henry Miller

“We are different, as divergent as stars...
whatever has been lost in translation in the journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilisation to your mind,I think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly & imperfectly."

Ken Liu
On Translation

“We cannot control the way people interpret our ideas or thoughts, but we can control the words & tones we choose to convey them. Peace is built on understanding, & wars are built on misunderstandings. Never underestimate the power of a single word"

Suzy Kassem

“The word 'translation' comes, etymologically, from the Latin for 'bearing across'. Having been borne across the world, we are translated.. something always gets lost in translation; I cling to the notion that something can also be gained.”

― Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands

Durham Woods

" I will help make sure the way translators are chosen for jobs is as fair as possible."
Jen Calleja- author 'Fair'

On raising issues on integrity & fair working conditions for translators
#LanguageMatters
Thanks for the inspiration & great evening
@jencalleja.bsky.social
at Collected Books

Today is #WorldSightDay

2 years ago I had surgery on both eyes
It transformed my sight in so many ways
An intensity of colour flooded in
With gratitude to my lovely ophthalmologist from Florence (funny to do an eye test in Italian in Newcastle)

Francesca Del Cossa - Santa Lucia (detail)

Throughout History mother blaming has been a key part of social control & Power. If women or children are hurt it can’t be attributed to the male.
This dictionary of misogyny drives translation of the protective Mother figure onto the page in an act of translation #DARVO storying
#LanguageMatters

On the creative role of “translators”

How much that 3rd space is occupied by Power & Control. Art reflects & translates religious misogyny & projections of the Artist
Judgement of women is still a reflection of the Mind & bias of those who judge from antiquated patterns & Lens

For future generations
That they may run free

‘All we are saying is
Give Peace a chance’

John Lennon (Born on this day)

youtu.be/D0WwjWdzV_I?...

'You have a choice in Life
Succumb to self-pity or
become adept at dodging 'the slings
and the arrows
of outrageous fortune'

Jean Paul Riopelle 1923 2002 Fléches 1950
Artemisia Gentileschi - Bow & Arrows at the National Gallery

‘Defend joy like a flag
Defend it from Lightening and melancholy
From the fools and the frauds
From rhetoric and ruptured of the heart
From the endemic and the academic’

Mario Benedetti

Sweet dreams

Drift off to Sleep
youtu.be/bJFnrFihjl4?...

Beautiful poem in Spanish with English translation

'Defend Joy'

Rather fitting for an evening talking about the stuff of translation & the translator's mind

www.themarginalian.org/2025/07/04/m...

The sky ablaze tonight

The struggle with vulnerability is a main barrier to receiving or giving Love
The Walls we raise to keep out danger after violence or disappointment keep us from any challenge to uncomfortable feelings or real love

My morning tea break I sing to WALLS 🎵
youtu.be/rus731mu7xk?...

#LanguageMatters in the giving of Love & Care

Where do we learn these lessons?
How does context of Loving matter so much?
What is the relationship between Love & Violence?
Why do Men hurt women or children they claim to Love?

An excellent reflection
#Masculinity
#DVAM
#CulturalContext
#Love

Untamed Flora

Romain Veillon
#TuttoUnRestare

www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/10/roma...

Stay in a Greenhouse cage
Or let your growth shatter its walls
You cannot be contained

"nature felt imprisoned & sought to break free from its captor, unleashing its unstoppable force ..vegetation that has become one with the bars of its cage.”
Romain Veillon
#TuttoUnRestare