Welcome to my website!

My name is Timothy Adès. I was born in 1941 and have degrees in classics and international business. I translate mainly French, German and Spanish poems into English, tending to work with rhyme and metre.

I have written 11 books to date translating, from French, Robert Desnos, Victor Hugo, Jean Cassou, and Louise Labé; from Spanish, Alfonso Reyes and Alberto Arvelo Torrealba; from German, Joachim Ringelnatz, Christian Morgenstern, Ricarda Huch, and (with seven other translators) Hans Sahl.

Other favourites are Brecht, Sikelianós, Nerval, Hesse, Heine, Rilke, Carême, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Ramón López Velarde, Hans/Jean Arp.

I was a King’s Scholar at Eton College, won the Newcastle Scholarship in 1959 and then attended Balliol College, Oxford and INSEAD, Fontainebleau. I am a member of the Royal Society of Literature, and a Trustee of Agenda poetry magazine.

My awards include the John Dryden Prize for Victor Hugo and the TLS Premio Valle–Inclán Prize for Alfonso Reyes.

My Poems – mostly translations

This site has a ‘Poems’ section which is being expanded.

My books

Read more on my books page and the critical appreciation page.