Mary Oliver’s Spring with Clairette Durand-Gasselin

This week in This is not a poem Elliott KB looks into American poet Mary Oliver’s Spring alongside poet and artist Clairette Durand-Gasselin, who has a personal translation of the text.

Bringing up questions like “why does this poem make me cry?” and “how do we translate the untranslatable?”, they discuss how a person’s reading of a poem can be intimately personal, the beauty of nature, and how seemingly plain English can evoke overwhelming emotions.

Who is Mary Oliver?

Mary Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019) was an acclaimed American poet celebrated for her deep connection to nature. Born in Ohio, USA, Oliver’s poetry, marked by lyrical reflections on the natural world, gained widespread acclaim with her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, “American Primitive” (1983), followed by other accolades.

Guest Speaker, Clairette Durand-Gasselin

Clairette Durand-Gasselin is a bilingual poet and visual artist. She’s currently completing her Master’s in Literary Translation at Université Paris Cité. During her eight years in the United States, she co-founded Mad Gleam Press, a small bilingual publishing house. She is now secretary and blog editor at Paris Lit Up.

Our Host

In Paris via New York and Iowa, Elliott KB is a poet and translator whose work explores themes of estrangement, place, body, gender and intimacy. They have published award-winning poetry in online and print publications alike, and currently work both in the publishing industry and as a professional translator. A part of an interdisciplinary artistic scene, they have now joined the world of radio to host This is Not a Poem.

Spring, by Mary Oliver in New and Selected Poems. Read the full poem here.

This Episode was hosted by Elliott KB, produced by Yannick Champion-Osselin, audio tech- ARBL Murray, created by World Radio Paris, and recorded in our studios in Paris, France.

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