A special evening was held in the Senedd in Cardiff at the end of September to celebrate Catalan translation of Wales PEN Cymru president, Menna Elfyn’s Murmur.
Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones of Wales Literature Exchange, welcomed all to the evening and noted that WLE’s strapline ‘Translating Wales, Reading the World’ was indeed reflected in the relationship between Menna Elfyn and Silvia Aymerich. The word ‘pont’ carries the same meaning in both Welsh and Catalan, and is symbolic of the bridge between the two countries, their literatures and their languages.
To open the evening, Menna Elfyn and her translator, the poet Silvia Aymerich, read the poems in Welsh and in Catalan.
Eluned Morgan AM, Minister for International Relations and the Welsh Language discussed the importance for Wales to continue to build and develop our connections with other countries and with minority languages, now more than ever. She highlighted the significance of the continued role of Mercator in this field for over three decades and paid tribute to Menna Elfyn as one of Wales’s most successful cultural ambassadors.
Carles Torner, Executive Director of PEN International was invited to talk about PEN’s work fighting for the rights and freedom of writers across the world.
Elin Jones AM, shared her experienced of visiting Carme Forcadell, her counterpart as the former President of the Parliament in Catalonia, in prison.
Here is a news item that was filmed on the evening of the event:
