Across Languages, Across Cultures

How do you carry a voice across languages?

When poetry is shaped by censorship, exile, and lived experience, translation becomes more than language. It becomes interpretation, negotiation, and, at times, resistance.

This event brings together poet Mehdi Mousavi and translators Fatemeh Ekhtesari, Gunstein Bakke, and Samuel Tongue for an afternoon exploring what it means to translate not just words, but meaning, tone, and experience.

Part 1: Reading and conversation

Mehdi Mousavi shares poems shaped by life as a writer under pressure, and introduces The Last Kiss — a bilingual Persian–English collection emerging from years of exile, collaboration, and translation.

Following the reading, the translators join in conversation to explore what is lost, what can be carried across, and what must remain unchanged. How do you give a Norwegian audience the same emotional experience felt by Iranian readers? And why can poetry itself become something to fear?

Time: 14:00–16:00

Part 2: Translation workshop

The second part of the event invites the audience to take part.

Working together, participants will help shape a new Norwegian or English version of one of Mehdi’s poems. No prior experience is needed — only an interest in language, culture, and the challenge of finding the right words.

This is translation as it really happens: collaborative, uncertain, and creative.

Time: 16:00–18:00

Who it’s for

This event is open to anyone interested in:

• Language and translation
• Poetry and literature
• Human rights and freedom of expression
• Iran and the wider region
• Cross-cultural communication

Or simply those curious to try something new.

Practical information

Date: Saturday, 3rd May
Location: Lillehammer Library
Entry: Free and open to all

You can attend one or both parts of the event.

An opportunity to hear, discuss, and take part — and to experience what it really means to carry a voice across languages and cultures.