BABEL

THE POETRY AND TRANSLATION MAGAZINE

"A distinguished poetry magazine" (Literature Matters, the magazine of the British Council)

"Beautifully and thoughtfully produced" (Verse)

"High-quality poetry magazine ... characterised by carefulness in thought and form, showing a rare integrity" (Poetry London Newsletter)

Founded in 1983, BABEL is devoted to new poetry in English, German and, occasionally, French, and to new translations of poetry (always with the original poems). BABEL is not avant-garde or post-anything. Each issue of BABEL presents work by unknown poets, but BABEL prints their work alongside previously unpublished material by well known authors such as Samuel Beckett, Anne Beresford, George Mackay Brown, Jean Genet, Ted Hughes, Friederike Mayröcker, Sheenagh Pugh, R.S. Thomas, Claude Vigée and Richard Wilbur.

The poems are set in Bodoni, the titles in Helvetica Light; 72-80pp., offset lithography on laid paper; 25 x 18.5 cm, sewn; light grey Conqueror wrappers. (BABEL 1-5: 21 x 14.8 cm; 80pp.; "perfect" bound in printed wrappers.)

BABEL XIV - Scandinavian issue

Contemporary poetry from Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, but also from Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland.

BABEL XIV contains new poems by Bhikkhu Abhinando, Martin Bennett, Elisabeth Borchers, Richard Exner, Robin Fulton, Giles Goodland, Manfred Peter Hein, Christopher Jenkin-Jones, Lina Kahan, Henry Lutz, Friederike Mayröcker, Andreas Palm Meister, Staffan Söderblom and Franz Wurm, the first English-language publication of a poem by Eva Runefelt, and the first German-language publication of poems by Werner Aspenström, Robin Fulton, Olav H. Hauge, Pentti Holappa, Jouni Inkala, Andreas Palm Meister, Staffan Söderblom, Morten Søndergaard, Eva Ström, Ilpo Tiihonen, Arild Vange and R.S. Thomas.

Poems in six languages, unknown and well-known authors rubbing shoulders with each other; the first German publication of a poem by Nobel-prizewinner Harry Martinson, a photo by Stefan Moses which inspired a poem by Friederike Mayröcker, and much more...

BABEL XIV    ISBN 978-3-931798-52-9    £ 15

BABEL XIII

20th anniversary issue: no back-patting, pontificating or looking back over 20 years of BABEL, just the best new poems - by Anne Beresford, David Constantine, Robin Fulton, Roger Garfitt, Michael Hamburger, James Kirkup, Günter Kunert, Friederike Mayröcker, Christopher Middleton, Shenagh Pugh, William Radice, Deborah Randall, Claude Vigée, Franz Wurm - and many more. Also includes black-and-white portrait photographs of George Mackay Brown and R.S. Thomas.

BABEL XIII    ISBN 978-3-931798-51-2    £ 12

BABEL XII - FOCUS ON SCOTLAND

In the poem HOMAGE TO BURNS (in his last collection, Following a Lark) George Mackay Brown wrote: "The Scotsmen, / Their poems are the wild sweet berries that purple the tongue." BABEL XII includes poems by George Mackay Brown, Robin Fulton, W. S. Graham, Christopher Jenkin-Jones, Edwin Morgan, Seán Rafferty and Iain Crichton Smith; as well as R. S. Thomas from Wales and Michael Hamburger from England, and others from Germany, Belgium and Austria. New or previously unpublished work, new translations, and new poets - alongside 20th-century classics.

BABEL XII Focus on Scotland    ISBN 978-3-931798-50-5    £ 12

BABEL XI

presents a remarkable cross-section of contemporary poetry in English and German. The selection contains more from Berlin than London, and includes more poetry in English from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy and Germany than from England. Unpublished material by Patricia Connolly, David Constantine, Peter Green, Kenneth Hylton, W. D. Jackson, Christopher Jenkin-Jones, Marius Kociejowski, Sheenagh Pugh, Iain Crichton Smith; new translations into English of poems by Richard Exner, and, into German, of poems by R. S. Thomas, Seamus Heaney and Peter Russell; new poetry in German by Werner Dürrson, Jürgen Kross, Gila Prast, Wolfgang Schlenker, Ulf Stolterfoht and Franz Wurm.

BABEL XI    £ 12

BABEL X

includes previously unpublished poems in English by D. V. Cooke, Peter Green, David Mason Heminway, Christopher Jenkin-Jones, David Kuhrt, Christopher Middleton, Sheenagh Pugh and Peter Russell; and new translations into English of poems by Baudelaire and Mallarmé (by Michael Croshaw) and of poems by Richard Exner; new translations into German of work by George Mackay Brown, Basil Bunting and R. S. Thomas; and new poems in German.

BABEL X    £ 12

BABEL IX

includes previously unpublished work by Anne Beresford, Robert Creeley, Werner Dürrson, Sheenagh Pugh, Peter Russell and Claude Vigée; new translations into English of poems by Baudelaire, Heine, Celan, Wolfgang Bächler and Mascha Kaléko; and into German of poems by George Mackay Brown, Seán Rafferty and R. S. Thomas.

BABEL IX    £ 12

BABEL IX special

Contents and paper identical to the above, but a special edition of 26 copies (numbered A-Z) signed by Wolfgang Bächler, Martin Bennett, Anne Beresford, D. V. Cooke, Robert Creeley, Michael Croshaw, Werner Dürrson, Richard Exner, W. D. Jackson, David Kuhrt, Sheenagh Pugh, Peter Russell, Jonathan Steffen, R. S. Thomas and Claude Vigée, bound by hand in full unbleached, untreated, natural linen, with a hand-set, hand-printed label sunk into the front cover.

BABEL IX special: signed, numbered (A-Z), full buckram    £ 190

BABEL VIII

includes previously unpublished work by W. S. Graham (two poems), Sheenagh Pugh, Stephen Spender, Claude Vigée and Richard Wilbur; new translations of poems by Celan, Nietzsche and Rilke into English, of poems by Geoffrey Hill, Seán Rafferty and R. S. Thomas into German; and an essay (in German) on translating poetry by Bruno Weinhals.

BABEL VIII    £ 12

BABEL VIII special

cf. BABEL IX special; signed by Martin Bennett, Walter Helmut Fritz, Geoffrey Hill, Philippe Jaccottet, Sheenagh Pugh, Jonathan Steffen, R. S. Thomas, Claude Vigée, Bruno Weinhals and Richard Wilbur.

BABEL VIII special: signed, numbered (A-Z), full buckram    £ 191

BABEL VII

includes previously unpublished work by Ted Hughes, John Latham, Karl Krolow, Günter Kunert, Sheenagh Pugh, Seán Rafferty, William Stafford, and translations of poems by Paul Celan.

BABEL VII     — out of print —

BABEL VI

includes the first appearance in English of several of Samuel Beckett's Mirlitonnades, and previously unpublished work by André du Bouchet, George Mackay Brown, Max Frisch, Marius Kociejowski, Laurence Lerner and William Radice; new translations into English of poems by Heine, Rilke, Baudelaire and Verlaine, into German of poems by R. S. Thomas, Richard Wilbur and Geoffrey Hill.

BABEL VI    £ 12

BABEL 5

is devoted to the work of Karl Krolow on the occasion of his 70th birthday: a selection of 30 poems in the original German and in new English translations, as well as previously unpublished poems by Heinrich Böll, George Mackay Brown, Walter Helmut Fritz, Günter Grass and Günter Kunert.

Set in Times; printed by offset lithography; 21 x 14.8 cm; 80pp.; "perfect" bound in printed wrappers. TWO BABEL 5 specials: Two binding variants, signed by the contributors; details on request.

BABEL 5 (Karl Krolow issue)    £ 9

BABEL 4

includes previously unpublished work by W. H. Auden, Jean Genet, Karl Krolow, John Latham, Tessa Lund, Sheenagh Pugh and William Radice; also new translations of poems from German into English (Celan, Eichendorff, Goethe), from English into French (Robert Creeley), and from English into German (George Mackay Brown, R. S. Thomas, Shakespeare). (Format as BABEL 5)

BABEL 4    £ 9

BABEL 3

includes previously unpublished material by Samuel Beckett (his correspondence with Erich Franzen about the translation of Molloy into German - Beckett's letters provide explanations, sources and 20 translation suggestions), Martin Booth, Richard Exner (an essay on the limits of translatability), Marius Kociejowski, and Ewald Osers (on translating poetry); as well as new translations of poems from German into English (Hölderlin, Huchel, Rilke), from French into English (Mallarmé, Rimbaud), and from English into German (Hilaire Belloc, Frances Horovitz). (Format as BABEL 5)

BABEL 3    £ 9

BABEL 2

includes previously unpublished work by James Kirkup and Martine Broda (and the first translations into English of her work, by Kenneth Hylton); also Poe's The Raven, with Baudelaire's and Mallarmé's translations printed stanza by stanza; other opportunities to compare translations include five English versions of a Hölderlin poem, four English translations of a Mallarmé poem, and six German versions of a Shakespeare sonnet. (Format as BABEL 5, but 72pp.)

BABEL 2    £ 9