CWCF is pleased to announce that the group which received the 2022 Young Adult Arts and Culture Grant has completed its work: translating the co-operative anthem “Bi Hanka” (originally written in the Basque language) into English. As group member Amie Monroe commented: “What a joy to translate such a meaningful piece!”
As Monroe further commented:
“Our choices took inspiration from the two Spanish translations available online, a fairly literal translation created for the “Humanity at Music” project and the more floral and vividly imagined “Dos Pies” by Luis García Montero, as well as the French translation created by our colleague, Amelia Orellana. We chose to express the themes of sowing/tending/growth, paths through the darkness, uniting to liberate one another and dreams/idealism with simple yet powerful language befitting a children’s choir, culminating in a refrain that sums up both the rootedness and risk of a cooperative adventure: Hand in hand, here we stand/And our dreams soar above. This strength in unity is further underlined by the piece’s final crescendo, in which the choir thunders out the solution for confronting society’s seemingly endless problems: we do it together.”
Congratulations to the recipients! May this translation serve as an inspiration both to the co-op community and to others interested in applying for future iterations of the arts and culture grant.