Margaret Atwood’s Poetry in Slovene Translation

Abstract

Margaret Atwood is undoubtedly the most popular Canadian author in Slovenia, with eight novels translated into Slovene. Although this prolific author also writes short fiction, poetry, children’s books, and non-fiction, these remain unknown to Slovene readers, at least in their own language. Atwood has published as many poetry collections as novels, but her poetry is inaccessible in Slovene, with the exception of some thirty poems that were translated and published in literary magazines between 1999 and 2009. The article provides an overview of Atwood’s poetry volumes and the main features of her poetry, as well as a detailed overview of Atwood’s poems that have appeared in Slovene translation, with the names of translators, titles of poetry collections, dates of publication, and names of literary magazines. This is the first such overview of Slovene translations of Atwood’s poetry. Additionally, the article offers an insight into some stylistic aspects of Atwood’s poetry that have proven to be particularly challenging for translation.