Just got a marvellous birthday present yesterday – thanks to Shearsman Books The Society of Authors and Suhrkamp Verlag The Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translation from German, an annual award of £3,000 for translations into English of full-length German works – WINNER: Martyn Crucefix for a translation of These Numbered Days by Peter Huchel (Shearsman Books)
On behalf of the judges, Steffan Davies said: ‘‘This is an absolutely superb translation of Huchel’s poems: a clear, outstanding winner even among such strong competition. It reads as poetry throughout, never ‘feeling translated’ and yet always also an accurate capturing of Huchel’s German. The poems are beautiful, economical poetry in themselves. This is translation at its very best: deep, sympathetic comprehension, inspired creativity, confident composition, fine judgement. Congratulations to a very deserving winner.’