Dr. John Peters | Department of English

Dr. John Peters

John Peters receives NEA Translation Fellowship

From NEA Press release (http://arts.gov/news/news12/Translation-fellowships.html) and UNT College of Arts & Sciences News Archive:

John G. Peters has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Translation Fellowship. Peters, who serves as Distinguished Research Professor and Associate Department Chair of the Department of English, is being recognized for his proposed translation of Dōtei (Journey), a collection of poetry written by Takamura Kōtarō. Professor Peters received one of only 16 fellowships awarded by the prestigious organization for 2013.

The task of the literary translator is a formidable one: to take one narrative written in a particular tongue in a particular country and make it not only accessible but familiar. Such is the task that Professor Peters has undertaken to bring the poetry of Japanese sculptor and poet Takamura Kōtarō to the Western world.

Takamura (1883-1956) is one of the first Japanese poets to effectively break with traditional poetic convention by employing free verse and colloquial language. Journey was published in 1914 and chronicles the poet's journey from a life of dissatisfaction and decadence to a new beginning with faith in nature. His artistic vision is defined by an early extravagance of form that later was replaced by a simple and direct voice. Takamura is best-known for his series of poems about his wife Chieko, whose mental illness inspired most of his previously translated poetry. In 2007, Professor Peters published The Chieko Poems (Green Integer Press), a translation of these poems.

http://www.nea.gov/features/writers/writersCMS/writer.php?id=13_12