Known as the “pope of literature” to Germans, and self-styled as “Germany’s literary hangman”, Marcel Reich-Ranicki was not an easy critic. He unapologetically followed Fontane’s maxim that “Schlecht ist schlecht und muß gesagt warden” (Erst leben, dann spielen. Über polnische Literatur. Wallstein 2002, p.183). His life was not easy,…
Yearly Archives: 2013
translate for your life: Marcel Reich-Ranicki
Tagged with: German, Ghetto, history, Holocaust Memorial Day, Jewish, Language, Literature, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish, Translation, Warszawa
Posted in history, language, literature, translation
Posted in history, language, literature, translation
advice to sign writers
Dear sign writers: If you’ve got a tourist menu, translate ‘dodatki’ with care. If you’re programming a cash machine, don’t give your card holders existential angst. But if you have a park, or a café bookshop like Massolit Books, put up lots and…
Terms and conditions
Have you ever noticed that lawyers like to say the same thing twice? A marriage is to have and to hold; the partners who make and enter into it may covenant and agree that their goods and chattels are shared…
language has different eyes: die Sprache hat andere Augen
The Romanian-German writer Herta Müller is 60 today. Four years since the Times introduced her Nobel literature win with “Herta Müller – who she?” a new book about her is finally out in English. Here’s her Nobel Prize acceptance interview in…
Tagged with: German, Herta Müller, Language, Nobel Prize, Poetry, Romanian, West Berlin
Posted in language, translation
Posted in language, translation
more than moomins: illustration and translation
Tove Jansson would be 99 today. I began learning Finnish by reading the Moomin comic strip, which made Tove Jansson’s name around the world. Started in the London Evening News in 1954, the complete collection is still being published in Finnish. Tove’s 1960s…
Tagged with: Alice in Wonderland, Fantasy, Finnish, Hobbit, Illustration, Moomins, Tenniel, Tolkien, Tove Jansson, Translation
Posted in Illustration, translation
Posted in Illustration, translation
mihi placet
mihi placet. That’s how to “like” something in Latin. Facebook will ask you “quid in animo tuo est?” instead of “what’s on your mind?” Hopefully not everyone will respond with MC (short for magno cachinno = LOL). For describing those…
how far would you go for a good translation?
Once upon a time there was a young woman called Mary Jones. She was Welsh. She wanted to read the bible in her own language. So she saved for 6 years and walked 26 miles to get a copy. The End?…
found in translation 