Yann Lovelock

Yann Lovelock BEM (born 11 February 1939) is an English writer and translator who later became a Buddhist interfaith worker.

Literary career

Yann Lovelock was born in Birmingham on 11 February 1939. His career as a poet, editor and reviewer began while he was studying at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. For the most part his writing appeared from small presses and in little magazines. He was associated in particular with Peter Mortimer's ''Iron'', Nick Toczek's ''The Little Word Machine'', and Ian Robinson's ''Oasis'', all of which he helped edit. In Europe he served as vice-chair of Freundkreis Poesie Europe (Frankfurt am Main, 1977–97) and was English editor of its literary annual. As a critic and translator, his main specialisation was in the poetry of the Low Countries and he was commissioned to write a study of modern Dutch poetry in translation, ''The Line Forward'' (1984). Among Dutch-language poets he helped edit and translate have been Guido Gezelle, Anton van Wilderode, Hugo Claus, Willem Roggeman, Stefaan van den Bremt and H.C. ten Berge. His allied interest was in modernist poetry in Belgian Romance dialects, of which he edited and translated two anthologies, ''The Colour of the Weather'' (1980) and ''In the Pupil's Mirror'' (1997). In 1995 he was elected a corresponding member of the Belgian "dialect academy", La Société de Langue et de Littérature Wallonnes. During the 1970s he was commissioned by UNESCO to co-translate several works from Eastern languages. Later translations have included selections from Marianne Larsen (Denmark), Gilles Cyr (Quebec) and Serge Pey (France).

Buddhist and interfaith involvement

The other side of Lovelock's life centred on his involvement with Buddhism. Between 1982 and 2005 he was responsible for the educational outreach and interfaith work of Birmingham Buddhist Vihara; afterwards he served as Secretary to Birmingham Maha Vihara. With Ajahn Khemadhammo; and as Buddhist vice-chair of the Council of Dharmic Faiths. At regional level he was vice-chair of the West Midlands Faiths Forum and served as alternate faith member on the West Midlands Regional Assembly. In 2012 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for his services to community cohesion and inter-faith relations in the West Midlands. Between 2012-2014, Lovelock was part of the editorial team of The ''Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts'' at the Fo Guang Shan main monastery in Taiwan. There he had special responsibility for the four volumes devoted to sculpture, and in April 2019 took part in the encyclopedia's academic presentation during the "Expressions of the Dharma" conference at Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles.Institute for the Study of Humanistic Buddhism
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Bibliography

General

*''The Vegetable Book, an Unnatural History'', Allen & Unwin, London, 1972.
*''Folk Tales of Ancient Persia'' (with Forough Hekmat), Caravan Books, New York City, 1974.
*''The Line Forward: a Survey of Modern Dutch Poetry in English Translation'', Bridges Books, Amsterdam, NL, 1984.
*''Dhammatalaka Peace Pagoda – a Guide'', Birmingham Buddhist Vihara, 2006.

Poetry

*''Short Circuit'', Aquila, Isle of Skye, Scotland, 1975.
*''City & Beyond'', Rivelin Press, Sheffield, 1976.
*''Strangers in Amber'', Tangent Books, London, 1976.
*''The Grid'' (prose poems), Sow’s Ear 2, Stafford, 1983
*''Building Jerusalem'', Rivelin Press, Bradford, 1984.
*''A Scattering Folder'', Platform Poets 25, Middleton St George, 1985.
*''Blue Cubes for a Catarrh'', Oasis, London, 1990.
*''The Haiku Pavement'', Tern Press, Market Drayton, 1990.
*''Landscape with Voices, Poems 1980–95'', University of Salzburg, Austria, 1995.
*''Aquarelles'', Raunchland Publications, Dunfermline, Scotland, 1995.
*''Inheriting Hawkstone'', Tern Press, Market Drayton, 1999.

Translations

*'' Gipsy Wharf'', by Jasim Uddin (with Barbara Painter), Allen & Unwin, London, 1969.
*'' Padma River Boatman'', by Manik Bandopadhyaya (with Barbara Painter), University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Australia, 1973.
*''Radha's Lotus: Love-poems from the Bengali'' (with Barbara Painter), Issue 9 of Platform/Green Horse booklet, Winchester, 1975.
*''Bhai Vir Singh, Poet of the Sikhs'' (with Gurbachan Singh Talib and Harbans Singh), Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, India, 1976.
*''Melanthika: an Anthology of Pan-Caribbean Writing'' (edited with Philip Nanton and Nick Toczek; translations from Spanish and French by Yann Lovelock), Little Word Machine, Birmingham, UK, 1977.
*''The Colour of the Weather'' An anthology of Walloon poetry edited and translated by Yann Lovelock. The Menard Press, London, 1980.
*''The Sign of the Hamster'', by Hugo Claus (with Theo Hermans and others), Leuvense Schrijversaktie, Louvain, Belgium, 1986.
*''A Vanishing Emptiness'', selected poems of Willem Roggeman (edited by Yann Lovelock, translations by Yann Lovelock, Theo Hermans and others), Forest Books, London, 1989.
*''A Townscape of Flanders'', by Anton van Wilderode (with photographs by Jan Decreton), Lanoo, Tilt, Belgium, 1990.
*''The White Shaman'', Poems by H.C. ten Berge (edited by Theo Hermans; Yann Lovelock co-translator), Forest Books, London, 1991.
*''In The Pupil's Mirror'', Modern Walloon Poetry from Belgium, Iron Press, Northumberland, 1997.
*''A Common Language: Selected Poems by Marianne Larsen'' (edited with Anne Born, various other translators), Oversteps, Devon, 2006.
*''The Graph of Roads: Selected Poems of Gilles Cyr 1968–1999'' (edited by Patrick Williamson, some translations and an afterword by Yann Lovelock) Guernica Editions, Ontario, Canada, 2008
*''Every Poem is a Decapitated Head Held up by a Single Hair'', poems by Serge Pey (translated with Patrick Williamson), online publication from The Red Ceilings Press, UK, 2011

Others

*''Not Comforts//But Vision'' – essays on the poetry of George Oppen, Interim Press, Budleigh Salterton, UK, 1985.
:"In the Interstices of Indra's Net: a setting for the poetry of George Oppen", pp. 71–83.
*''Cross Roads'' (by Bert Schierbeek), Katydid Books, Rochester, US. 1988.
:"Introduction", pp. 13–20
*''Formentera & the Gardens of Suzhou'' (by Bert Schierbeek), Guernica, Toronto, Canada, 1989.
:"Afterword – The Tao of Bert Schierbeek", pp. 81–86
*''Translation In Performance'' – papers on the theory and practice of translation, Department of Modern Languages, University of Bradford, UK, 1990. ISSN 0261-0353
:"Translating the Untranslatable", pp. 188–213.
*''Emotional Geology'' – the writings of Brian Louis Pearce, Stride, Exeter, UK, 1993.
:"Pearce Thru His Places", pp. 42–50
*''Physic Meet & Metaphysic: a celebration on Edward Lowbury’s 80th birthday'', University of Salzburg, Austria, 1993.
:"Furor Apollonis: an occupational disease", pp. 130–52
*''The Edges of Light'' (selected poems of Hélène Dorion), Guernica, Toronto, Canada, 1995.
:"Postface – Fixing the Fractions", pp. 97–105
*''The Road to Parnassus, Homage to Peter Russell on his 75th Birthday'', University of Salzburg, Austria, 1996.
:"Bluejeans & Gown": The Beat scene in Oxford, 1959–62, pp. 477–492.
*''Summoning the Sea'': a literary festschrift for James Hogg, University of Salzburg, Austria, 1996.
:"Do vête, do nwâr: Movements of renewal in Belgian dialect poetry in the 19th and 20th centuries", pp. 266–279.
*''The Mystical Tradition and the Carthusians'', Vol. 5, University of Salzburg, Austria, 1996.
:”The Wheel of Generation: some notes on the spread of the doctrine of reincarnation”, pp. 153–167
*Various articles in ''The Babel Guide to Dutch & Flemish Fiction in English Translation'', Oxford, UK, 2001.
*''Les Dialectes de Wallonie'' 29–30 (''Mélanges en hommage à Jean Lechanteur''), Liège, Belgium, 2003. ISSN 0773-7688
:"''A l’autre côté du tunnel le TGV ralentit : de la traduction des dialectes belges''", pp. 307–316
*''Meeting Buddhists'', Christians Aware, Leicester, 2004,
:"The Origin and Symbolism of a Buddhist Pagoda", pp. 150–154

References

External links

Poems online:
Snapshots from Morecambe Bay

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovelock, Yann
20th-century English poets
Translators to English
1939 births
People in interfaith dialogue
Recipients of the British Empire Medal
Living people
English male poets
English translators
20th-century British translators
21st-century English writers
21st-century British translators
Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands
Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
20th-century English male writers
English male non-fiction writers