archive

Found in translation

Why translators deserve some credit: It's time to acknowledge translators, the underpaid and unsung heroes behind the global success of many writers. A New Great Wall: Why the crisis in translation matters. From Quarterly Conversation, field guides to elsewhere: Hilary Plum on how we read languages we don’t read; and for those of us who can only read him in English translation, it has become impossible to speak of Robert Walser without also speaking of his main translator, Susan Bernofsky. If you're a fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or have purchased the latest edition of Don Quixote, you might know the name Edith Grossman (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more on Why Translation Matters). Trying to translate a 400-year old masterpiece like Don Quixote into modern English would be folly, even Quixotic — but that’s what Edith Grossman does. Edith Grossman has reimagined the Latin American canon for readers of English, who perhaps, like she, have ventured to Latin America only via the page. From LARB, a review of Poetry and Loss: The Work of Eugenio Montejo by Nicholas Roberts; and a review of Resistance and Survival: Children’s Narrative from Central America and the Caribbean by Ann Gonzalez. From Qantara, an interview with Mustafa al-Slaiman on the translation drought in the Arab world. From Al-Masry Al-Youm, Ahdaf Soueif on translation strategies in use when writing about Arab and Egyptian lives in English. Found in translation: Bringing classical Arabic literature to an English-speaking audience. An interview with Isabella Camera D'Afflitto, winner of the Cairo Literary Award for Translation. Having moved beyond postcolonialism and a welter of sari-and-mango novels, Indian literature has struck out into darker, messier terrain.

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