Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on February 26, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute and the Department of Slavic Languages for a master class with Eugene Ostashevsky.
Most poetry translation in the US aims to convey the meanings of words. Poems, however, are not made up of the meanings of words. They are made up of the words themselves and of the dynamic relations between them, and they take place with respect to the discursive practices of their own cultural context and sometimes also to those of other contexts of their choosing. It is said that few words in any language have full equivalents in any other language. It is also said that in order to translate a word in a context, one needs to translate (or at least indicate) the entirety of the context. Finally, it is said that cultural and therefore semantic categories don’t translate. Many things are said. The workshop will experiment with translating poems in such a way that they retain something of their supralexical levels—something of their gesturing. The instructor will bring in a few poems in a few languages and the choice of poems will depend on the participants. No knowledge of Russian is required.
Eugene Ostashevsky is a poet and translator whose writing is described as “translingual” because of its focus on linguistic multiplicity and interference. His recent poetry collections, “The Feeling Sonnets” and “The Pirate Who Does Not Know the Value of Pi,” examine the effects of speaking a non-native language on emotions and identity. His translations of Russian and also Ukrainian experimental poetry and prose from Futurism to today are known for their engagement with wordplay and sound effects. He has won the National Translation Award, the Best Translated Book Award, the City of Münster International Poetry Prize, etc., and has published the New York Review of Books, Paris Review, and Best American Poetry.
Headshot by Una Ostashevsky.
Please email disability@columbia.edu to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
