Vrijheid-Libertad-Freiheit-Freedom-Kabebasan-Liberté-Frihet-स्वतंत्रता-Ajádi <br /><br />Freedom is one of the most often used/abused concepts of our time. It is used to wage wars to free people, to mark differences between cultures and religions to defend policies, to herald the free market and the related idea of freedom to consume. <br /><br />In addition, the conflict between guarding of the ground rules to be able to live in a free society for all and the interest of the individual to be free of any rules embodies the discussions about democracy and the role of the state. The paradox that on the one hand freedom has to be defended, while at the other hand has to be contested continuously, has been at the very heart of art. It implies the freedom to express one's innermost needs. <br /><br />Through translation of her poem "Vrijheid" Marion Bloem tries to understand the meaning of the concept in different countries, cultures, languages. Words do not mean the same in different languages. Translation confronts us with this continuously and translating poetry even more. A poem can help us to enlighten. <br /><br />The poem "Vrijheid" was made by Marion Bloem more than ten years ago. The poem was selected by “Het Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei” and a video clip was made and broadcasted several times a day on Dutch television. <br />In 2005 Tjeerd Oosterhuis and Marion Bloem made an audio clip for “Een Royaal Gebaar”, the first most successful internet campaign ever, to claim asylum for refugees who had stayed longer than five years in the Netherlands. <br /><br />On the 30th of March 2011 Marion Bloem invited poets, translators, writers and artists from all over the world to volunteer translating her poem. One month later 30 translations were available. There are still new people, translators, poets, professional authors, filmmakers and artists from all over the world joining the Freedom Project every day.