“Art is a universal and sacred practice” – Niloufar Talebi

PM: What is it about translation, poetry and art that you like?

NT: I love translation because it engages most of my faculties, including all the senses, and I am able to integrate all my knowledge plus everything I need to find out into one activity. They say translators need to know everything, meaning, they need to know where to find out the information, which is a wonderful challenge. I also love linguistic connections and translation obviously poses a great opportunity for that. Art is a universal and sacred practice. We can all make art if we just allow ourselves some time. I like being creative and I like creative people, in any arena. Poetry, well, what is there not to like? It tackles our most complex emotions in the most distilled and open manner. My work developing the organization called The Translation Project engages my love for the arts plus my organizing and producing skills. We incorporate literature, translation, collaboration amongst artists and broadcasting and performance into our projects. Our mission is to bring contemporary Iranian literature to the world stage in multiple languages and media. The idea is to make Iranian literature in translation so available on a global level, that Iranian writers have a chance to participate in an international dialogue and have the chance to be further considered for recognition by prizes such as the Nobel Prize in literature.

PM: Who were some of the great masters you admire and why?

NT: Most artists, visionaries and thinkers spend much of their time alone—pain-stakingly—because only in the quietest hours can one hear “the purest strings of the heart”, as Tennessee Williams said it. I admire people who labor to create something authentic and who push their own and others’ boundaries to create something new. To name a few: Pina Bausch, Nima, Astor Piazzolla, Forough Farrokhzad, Martha Graham, Beethoven, Julie Taymor…

PM: Tell us about Midnight Approaches.

NT: It’s a DVD of short videos based on contemporary Iranian poetry, a digital collection of input by many different artists who collaborated in their making. These artists were master musicians, performers, dancers, directors, designers etc. I wanted not only to translate contemporary poetry, but also to create an opportunity for others to engage in it directly, and by that I mean for artists to create work based on this literature as the inspirational foundation for other artwork. In doing so, this literature immediately enters into the psyches of the artists involved, as well as their audience’s. We have recently released Midnight Approaches, which contains 6 short films based on the poetry of contemporary Iranian poets who live outside Iran and who recite in Persian. The DVD also contains audio versions of poems, which will be made into films in the future once we secure funding for production. Each poem is presented with original music and performance. Midnight Approaches is available as a gift with a donation of $100 or more to our non-profit work, The Translation Project.

PM: Who is the audience you are hoping to capture?

 NT: Sally-Suburb, Everyman, Iranians, immigrant Iranians all over the world and their foreign-born children, and everyone in between.  Most importantly, we want to make Iranian literature available in other media in order to reach a broader audience. Studies have shown that foreign policy is better facilitated and yields better results when there is significant cultural exchange between nations and we believe there is no better time than now for this exchange.

PM: What do you hope to achieve with this project?