Poetrans
Welcome to poetrans - the index of poetry translations into Hebrew. Here you can check if a specific poem has been translated to Hebrew, and if so - where you can find the translation. The index aspires to be a digital database of all tables of content of all poetry books ever translated into Hebrew.
Who needs a poetry translations index? Translators of prose and subtitles often come across poetry snippets. The proper procedure in such cases is to look for an existing translation and quote it. To find the poems, translators search the internet and go to libraries. If they translate into Hebrew, they can also consult this index.
Why quote an existing translation? A quote from a well-known poem has a certain effect on the audience. A well-known translation can replicate it in the target language. In addition, when we use an existing translation we also honor our fellow translators, recognize poetry translation as a specialty, and sometimes benefit from the years of research the translator has invested in studying a poet or an era.
Aren't library indices and search engines enough? Think about anthologies. This index, unlike a library index, lists the entire table of content, including all poets and all translators.
Isn't everything on the Internet already? Well, no.
Is any payment required? No, poetrans is free of charge. Anyone can use it for any purpose, even for commercial purposes. You are, however, expected to give poetrans a proper credit in case you use it as a source, to help us spread the word. You are also invited to Like the project Facebook page, that shares "treasures" from the project (mostly in Hebrew) and some more info.
Aren't you violating copyright laws? The index only holds data about the poets, the poems and the translators. The poems are protected by copyright, but listing their names and locations can be considered "fair use".
Who's behind the project? Ofra Hod, Victor Flickstein and other volunteers.
How to navigate poetrans? The basic blocks of the project are book pages. Each page represents one book and contains the cover and table of content in image format and in searchable digital format.
There are pages also for journals, newspapers and websites that publish translated poems.
- to the full list of books in the project (1,036)
- to the books by source language (list incomplete: by publishers, by publishing year)
Poets and Translators are also represented by pages. These pages link to the books that feature the poet or the translator, to the English Wikipedia, for users who wish to learn more about the poet, and to the Hebrew Wikipedia - to learn more about the translator.