Earth Day Community Translation Challenge

Thousand Languages partnered with L'Institut d'Études Politiques (Sciences-Po) and the Erasmus Student Network in Aix-en-Provence, France and to feature translations by both French and International students on the database. With a focus on fighting climate change through global cooperation in the spirit of Earth Day, participants from around the world studying in the south of France translated the feature poem into a chosen language. Translations were submitted collaboratively or individually. 

Read more about the project here

Submissions closed

Banner photo by Sergei Gussev

“Blue in Green” is titled after the song from Miles Davis’s album Kind of Blue. The song is claimed by some (including Evans himself) to be a Bill Evans composition, although Miles took sole credit. This is a loosely ekphrastic poem in that it was inspired by the recording and written while listening with a focus on Evans’ piano. I’ve always loved the title Blue in Green, its play on the way primary colors make combinations, the way a singular thing can be made from multiple parts. I hear this piece of music as a sort of color study, and so is my poem, in which the speaker laments a lost relationship. Although the original song is not a twelve-bar blues, the twelve-line form and subject matter make the poem “bluesy” and keep with the jazz tradition.

 - Jason Labbe (Author)

Jason Labbe is the author of two books of poems, Maps for Jackie (2020) and Spleen Elegy (2017). His work has appeared widely in journals such as Poetry, Conjunctions, The Brooklyn Rail, Denver Quarterly, A Public Space, and 32 Poems. He is the editor and publisher of Here, a small magazine dedicated to innovative poetry. He is also a drummer and recording engineer and has performed on recent albums by Zachary Cale, Slant of Light, and Snake Oil. He lives in Bethany, Connecticut—roughly equidistant between New York City and Western Massachusetts, where most of his music projects are based.