The Facebook comments for this article were hilarious.
>Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb stole the show at Joe Biden's presidential inauguration but when a renowned Dutch author was asked to translate her work there was an outcry because the translator is not black.>Critics said it was not just about skin colour but identity too. This was not simply about translation but whether Gorman's poetry could be accurately reflected, interpreted by someone of a different ethnicity, genre, and mother tongue.>One day after accepting the task, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld decided not to go ahead after all.>>Who is Rijneveld?>Dutch publisher Meulenhoff described poet Marieke Lucas Rijneveld as a "dream candidate", who at 29 became the youngest author to win the International Booker prize in 2020 with debut novel The Discomfort of Evening. Amanda Gorman had selected Rijneveld herself, as a fellow young writer who had also come to fame early, said the publisher.>Outspoken on issues including gender equality and mental health, Rijneveld identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them.>Marieke Lucas Rijneveld initially revealed the news of being chosen to translate Amanda Gorman's works on Twitter, accompanied by two sparkling heart emojis. There was praise too for a poet who had highlighted their own respective struggles, and congratulations on a first translation job.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56334369 