DID YOU PACK YOUR BAGS YOURSELF probes the possibilities of poetry in translation. Is there any sense to be made from the sound a poem makes? In reaching too soon for the dictionary, are we missing the sonic clues that are tuned to the pulse of the poem?

These, and many other questions will be addressed in this unique translation workshop, where we focus on listening to the sound the poem makes, and how this can guide your approach to translation, and indeed to writing.

Beginning with sample poems in English and Irish, we will then focus on poems from the Arabic of Marwan Makhoul. Towards the end of the session, Makhoul and his English language translator, Raphael Cohen, will visit the workshop to interact with the group, granting us a unique opportunity to hear the poet’s voice as we work. This workshop is directed by poet and translator Keith Payne; and will also feature a discussion on Irish language versions of Marwan Makhoul’s poetry by Áine Uí Fhoghlú.

No previous experience is necessary and we particularly encourage participants from underrepresented groups and citizens whose first language is not English.

MARWAN MAKHOUL is a Palestinian poet, born in 1979 in the village of al-Buqei'a, Upper Galilee, to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother. His collections include Land of the Sad Passiflora, Where Is My Mom, and A Letter from the Last Man. His poems have been translated into more than 20 languages including English, Turkish, German, Hebrew, Russian, Urdu and Irish. Makhoul has also published prose and drama, including the play This Isn’t Noah’s Ark. In 2009 he won the best playwright award at The Acre Theatre Festival. During the 2023 Gaza war, lines from Makhoul’s poetry were adopted as a slogan by protestors worldwide: “in order for me to write poetry that isn’t / political, I must listen to the birds / and in order to hear the

birds / the warplanes must be silent.” Makhoul currently lives in Israel where he works in engineering as a managing director of a construction company.

KEITH PAYNE is the author of ten collections of poetry in translation and original poetry, most recently Building the Boat (2023), as featured on BBC Radio 3’s The Essay and Whales and Whales, from the Galician of Luisa Castro. He was awarded an Arts Council Literature Bursary in 2022 and has held numerous Writer-in-Residence positions, including as Cork City Library Eco Poet in Residence 2022–23. Dividing his time between Ireland and Galicia, he is the founder and curator of the Áodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill International Poetry Exchange. Forthcoming from Dedalus Press in April 2025 is Savage Acres.

RAPHAEL COHEN is a freelance translator in the fields of politics, development and literature. Published translations include the novels So You Can See by Mona Prince; Ahlem Mostaghanemi’s Bridges of Constantine; George Yarak’s Guard of the Dead; the poetry collection Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi; and the non-fiction The Jewish Agency and Syria During the Arab Revolt in Palestine by Mahmoud Muhareb .

ÁINE UÍ FHOGHLÚ comes from the Gaeltacht area of An Rinn in County Waterford. To date, she has published five works of fiction along with three poetry collections and a compilation of folklore and local history from her area, based on a series of interviews she conducted with the older generation in the early 1990s. She delivered many guest talks on local history and folklore, the Déise dialect of Irish, and the songs and singers of the Waterford Gaeltacht; and received many literary awards including from Oireachtas na Gaeilge, Listowel Writers’ Week, Strokestown International Poetry Festival and in 2008 she received the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award.