10/29/25
Wed,
19:30

In allem, allem ist ein Riss
An evening with Margarida Vale de Gato

Reading
Talk
← / →

© Dirk Skiba

Please note that the event is designed for a Portuguese- or German-speaking audience and will not be interpreted into English.

“Can a translator be a poet?” asks Margarida Vale de Gato in her poem “Bauchrednerei” (Ventriloquism), which answers itself: „Übersetzer, wenn Dichter, sind ein anderes / Gewächs, ein eher kriechendes, das in fremder / Sprache gedeiht, im Ausdruck des Anderen“.

Margarida Vale de Gato (born 1973 in Vendas Novas, Portugal) masters both disciplines: she writes poetry and translates from French and English, including authors such as Alice Munro, Marianne Moore, and Henri Michaux. She published her debut collection Mulher ao Mar (Woman Overboard) for the first time in 2010 and has since released regular adaptations: Mulher ao Mar Retorna (2013), Mulher ao Mar e Grinalda (2018), Mulher ao Mar Brasil (2021), Mulher ao Mar e Corsárias (2023).

In the poetry collection Os Restos Não Reclamados: Manual Lírico de Tradução (Tinta da China 2021), whose German translation by Odile Kennel (Die nicht reklamierten Reste. Lyrisches Handbuch des Übersetzens) was published by hochroth Berlin even before the Portuguese original, Vale de Gato poetically and essayistically explores the complex activity of literary translation. Drawing on translation theorists such as Mikhail Bakhtin and George Steiner, she reflects on the creative freedom, responsibility, and challenges inherent in translating: “Translation is a form of slow reading, a kind of eager writing on carbon paper, an overwriting of a foreign text in an imagined communication with the dead.”

In the section of the book titled ÜBUNGEN (Exercises), she experiments with the influence that translation has on her own writing, drawing inspiration from poets like Emily Dickinson and E.E. Cummings and performing self-translations.

This event marks the conclusion of Margarida Vale de Gato’s residency fellowship with Camões Berlim / Embassy of Portugal in Berlin. Her project, titled Tocar a Quatro Mãos (Playing Four Hands), focuses again on writing and translation, this time in relation to the German language and her translator Odile Kennel.

The event will be interpreted in Portuguese and German.
In collaboration with Camões Berlim / Embassy of Portugal

Reading & Conversation Margarida Vale de Gato
Moderation Odile Kennel