Dutch writer Marika Lucas Reinfeld has pulled out of a translation project by African-American poet Amanda Gorman that she recited during the inauguration of new President Joe Biden.
The decision of Reinfeld, 29, who is the youngest of the Booker Prize winners, came after criticism on social media and the media in the Netherlands for a project in which she undertook to translate the poem “The Hill We Climb”, which won the American poet Amanda Gorman the brown Fame in the United States.
The publishing house “Molenhof” was supposed to publish the poem translated into Dutch, and Gorman herself confirmed that she did not object to the translation of her poem that she delivered from the podium during Biden’s inauguration, in which she spoke about the challenges facing American society and the danger of people “ready to destroy the country so as not They share it with others. ”
Among the critics of the project was the media and cultural activist Janice Doyle, who wrote in an opinion piece published in a Dutch newspaper: “There is no room for doubts about Reinfeld’s qualities … But why not choose a writer who is – just like Gorman – an artist of a young black word?”
Rennefeld eventually withdrew from the project, while the publishing house announced that it wished to “learn lessons from this experience” and would search for a new translator.
— Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (@MLRijneveld) February 26, 2021
Reinfeld bitterly commented on the decision of the Dutch publishing house, writing on its page in “Twitter”, a few days ago: “I was shocked by the uproar about my participation in publishing Amanda Gorman’s message, and I understand the people who feel hurt by this choice.”
Source: Insider