Richard Berengarten (born 4 June 1943) is an English poet. Having lived in Italy, Greece, the US and the former Yugoslavia, his perspectives as a poet combine English, French, Mediterranean, Jewish, Slavic, American and Oriental influences. His poems explore historical and political material, inner worlds and their archetypal resonances, and relationships and everyday life. His work is marked by its multicultural frames of reference, depth of themes, and variety of forms. In the 1970s, he founded and ran the international Cambridge Poetry Festival. He has been an important presence in contemporary poetry for the past 40 years, and his work has been translated into more than 90 languages.

Life and work

Richard Berengarten (also known as Richard Burns and Li Dao, 李道) was born in London in 1943 of Jewish parents. He was educated at Normansal School (1949-51), Hereward House School (1952-54), Hendon County School (1954-56) and

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private, Day school, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' ...

. He studied English at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

(1961–64) and Linguistics at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(1977–78). He has lived in Italy, Greece, the UK, the US and the former Yugoslavia, and worked extensively in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Macedonia, Poland, Russia and Slovakia. He has travelled widely throughout West Europe, the Balkans and the USA, and in Japan, India and China. Richard Berengarten published his first story (under the name of Richard Burns) at the age of 16 in ''Transatlantic Review''. As a student, he wrote for ''Granta'' and co-founded the Oxbridge magazine ''Carcanet''. He worked in Padua and Venice, briefly as apprentice to the English poet Peter Russell. In Greece, he witnessed the military coup d'état and in response wrote ''The Easter Rising 1967''. Returning to Cambridge, he met Octavio Paz and, with Anthony Rudolf, co-edited ''An Octave for Octavio Paz (1972)''. In the same year, his first poetry collection, ''Double Flute'' won an Eric Gregory Award. His posts include: the British Council, Athens (1967); East London College (1968–69); Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (1969–79); Arts Council resident writer, Victoria Centre for Adult Education (1979–81); Visiting Professor, Notre Dame University (1982); and British Council Lector, Belgrade (1987–91). He is an authority on creative writing for children and adults, and on writing skills for university students. He was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge (2003–2005), Project Fellow (2005–2006), and is currently a Preceptor at Corpus Christi College, a Bye-Fellow at Downing College and an Academic Associate at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He also teaches at Peterhouse and Wolfson College, Cambridge, a Fellow of the English Association, and poetry editor of the Jewish Quarterly. Berengarten has translated poetry, fiction and criticism from Croatian, French, Greek, Italian, Macedonian and Serbian. His poems and poetry books have been translated into over 85 languages (the poem ''Volta'', presented in issue 9/2009 of ''The International Literary Quarterly'' (London) – ''Richard Burns, Volta: A Multilingual Anthology'' – into 75. ''Crna Svetlost'' (''Black Light'') was published in Yugoslavia in 1984, ''Arbol'' (''Tree'') in Spain in 1986, and bilingual editions of ''Tree/Baum'' (1989) and ''Black Light/Schwarzes Licht'' (1996), both translated by Theo Breuer, were published in Germany. In 2004, Berengarten's first book of selected writings ''For the Living'' includes the award-winning poems 'The Rose of Sharon' (Keats Memorial Prize) and 'In Memory of George Seferis I' (Duncan Lawrie Prize). Berengarten's 'Balkan Trilogy': ''The Blue Butterfly'' (2006), ''In A Time of Drought'' (2006); and ''Under Balkan Light'' (2008) has won international recognition, the first receiving the Wingate Prize, and the second receiving the Morava International Poetry Prize. The Blue Butterfly takes as its starting point, a Nazi massacre on 21 October 1941 in Kragujevac in the former Yugoslavia. Richard Berengarten visited the site and the memorial museum in 1985, when a blue butterfly landed on the forefinger of his writing hand. The resulting work is powerful, examining themes of revenge and forgiveness from the historical context to the present time. He was made an honorary citizen of Kragujevac in 2012, and the title poem is well known in the former Yugoslavia through the translation by Danilo Kiš and Ivan V. Lalic. Richard Berengarten's perspectives as a poet combine British, French, Mediterranean, Jewish, Slavic, American and Oriental influences. A dedicated internationalist, Richard Berengarten has suggested the term “imaginationalist” as the keys to a poetics for our time. His poetry has been said to create “cross-cultural dialogue “and to belong to “world literature.”

Works

Poetry

Some of the earlier poems are collected in larger volumes such as ''For the Living''. * 1968: ''The Easter Rising 1967'', Restif Press * 1971: ''The Return of Lazarus: Poems for Friends in Greece'', Bragora Press * 1972: ''Avebury'', Anvil Press * 1972: ''Double Flute'', Enitharmon Press * 1974: ''

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...

Memorial Poem- Realizing/Real I Sing'', with John Furnival, Satie's Faction * 1975: ''Mandelstam'', Los Poetry Press * 1976: ''Inhabitable Space'', John Morann * 1977: ''Angels'', Los Poetry Press * 1977: ''Some Poems'', Enitharmon Press * 1978: ''Earthquake'', Sceptre Press * 1980: ''Learning to Talk'', Enitharmon Press * 1980: ''Tree'', Menard Press * 1982: ''Roots/Routes'', Cleveland State University Poetry Center * 1983: ''The Rose of Sharon'', Los Poetry Press * 1983: ''Black Light'', Los Poetry Press * 1998: ''Half of Nowhere'', Cambridge University Press * 1999: ''Croft Woods'', Los Poetry Press * 1999: ''Against Perfection'', King of Hearts Publications * 2001: ''The Manager'', Elliott & Thompson * 2003: ''Book With No Back Cover'', David Paul Press * 2004: ''For the Living'', (a collection of poems written between 1965 and 2000)

Salt Publishing Salt Publishing is an independent publisher whose origins date back to 1990 when poet John Kinsella launched ''Salt Magazine'' in Western Australia. The journal rapidly developed an international reputation as a leading publisher of new poetry ...

, reprinted by Shearsman Books * 2006: ''The Blue Butterfly'' (Balkan Trilogy I) Shearsman Books * 2006: ''Manual: The First 20'', Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop * 2006: ''In a Time of Drought'' (Balkan Trilogy II), Shearsman Books * 2007: ''Manual: The Second 20: Holding the Darkness, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop'' * 2008: ''Under Balkan Light'' (Balkan Trilogy III), Shearsman Books * 2008: ''Manual: The Third 20'', Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop * 2009: ''Manual: The Fourth 20'', Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop * 2012: ''Like Dew Upon the Morning'', six poems, Spokes Magazine 9 * 2014: ''Poems From 'Changing, Fortnightly Review * 2014: ''Manual'' (selected writings VI, 2009, 2014), Shearsman Books * 2015: ''Changing'', Shearsman Books * 2015: ''Notness: Metaphysical Sonnets'', Shearsman Books * 2022: ''The Wine Cup: Twenty-four Villanelles for Tao Yuanming'', Shearsman Books * 2022: ''Dyad (with Will Hill), knives forks and spoons press''

Prose

* 1981: ''Ceri Richards and Dylan Thomas – Keys To Transformation'', Enitharmon Press * 1985: ''Anthony Rudolf & The Menard Press'', Los Poetry Press * 1989: ''Anthony Dorrell: A Memoir'' * 1996: With Peter Russell ''In Venice'' * 2009: ''Border/Lines: an Introduction'' * 2010: ''The dialectics of oxygen: Twelve Propositions'' * 2011: ''A Nimble Footing on the Coals: Tin Ujevic, Lyricist:Some English Perspectives'' * 2015: ''Octavio Paz in Cambridge'', 1970 * 2015: ''On Poetry and Sound: The Ontogenesis of Poetry'' * 2015: ''On Writing and Inner Speech''

Editor

* 1972: An Octave for

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...

, Sceptre Press * 1980:

Ceri Richards Ceri Giraldus Richards (6 June 1903 – 9 November 1971) was a Welsh painter, print-maker and maker of reliefs. Biography Richards was born in 1903 in the village of Dunvant, near Swansea, the son of Thomas Coslett Richards and Sarah Ri ...

: Drawings to Poems by

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

* 1980: Rivers of Life * 1981: Homage to Mandelstam, Los Poetry Press * 1983: Roberto Sanesi, In Visible Ink: Selected Poems * 1983: Roberto Sanesi, In Visible Ink: Selected Poems * 2008: For Angus – Poems, Prose, Sketches and Music with Gideon Calder * 2009: Volta: A Multilingual Anthology * 2010: Nasos Vayenas – The Perfect Order: Selected Poems 1974–2010 . Edited by Paschalis Nikolaou, Richard Berengarten

Translations

* 1968: Aldo Vianello, ''Time of a Flower'', Anvil Press * 1969: A. Samarakis, ''The Flaw'' (tr. with Peter Mansfield), Hutchinson * 1973: Roberto Sanesi, ''The Graphic Works of

'', Cerastico Editore * 1977: Roberto Sanesi, ''On the Art of

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

'', Altrouno/La Nuova Foglio * 1978: Nasos Vayenas, ''Biography'', Cambridge Lobby Press * 1996: ''I Wear My Shadow Inside Me: Poems'' by Duska Vrhovac, Forest Books * 1996: ''Lady in An Empty Dress: poems by Aleksandar Petrov'', Forest Books * 2010: Edited by

George Szirtes George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...

– ''New Order: Hungarian Poets of the Post 1989 Generation'', Arc Publications * 2013:

Tin Ujević Augustin Josip "Tin" Ujević (; 5 July 1891 – 12 November 1955) was a Croatian poet, considered by many to be the greatest poet in 20th century Croatian literature. From 1921, he ceased to sign his name as Augustin, thereafter using the sig ...

– ''Twelve Poems'', Shearsman Books * 2015: Paschalis Nikalaou – ''12 Greek Poems After

Cavafy Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( ; 29 April ( OS 17 April), 1863 – 29 April 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Greek poet, journalist, and civil servant from Alexandria. A ...

'', Shearsman Books

Critical writing

* War, Shadows, Mirrors: Castings from ''The Culture of Lies'' by Dubravka Ugrešić, an essay by Richard Berengarten in Paideuma, vol. 47, 2022, p. 53–99

Works about Richard Berengarten

* Simon Jenner on Richard Berengarten (2013) * Norman Jope, Paul Scott Derrick & Catherine E. Byfield: The Companion to Richard Berengarten (2016)

Awards

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by United Kingdom poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. Past winne ...

(1972) * Keats Memorial Prize for Poetry (1972) * Art Council Writer' Award (1973) * Keats Memorial Poetry Prize (1974) * Duncan Lawrie Prize, Arvon International Poetry Competition (1982) * Yeats Club Prize for poem and translation (1989) * Yeats Club Prize for translation (1990) * International Morava Poetry Prize (2005) * Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize for Poetry (1992) * International Morava Poetry Prize (2005) * Veliki školski čas award (Serbia) (2007) * Manada Prize (Macedonia) (2011)

Notes

References

External links

*
Richard Burns at Salt Publishing

The International Literary Quarterly: Bio of Richard Berengarten

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 16 March 2015 (video)

Ричард Беренгартен (Бернс) (Великобритания)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berengarten, Richard Jewish poets British poets Living people 1943 births Jewish English writers People educated at Mill Hill School Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge English male poets Fellows of the English Association