(Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, 1872, with John Tenniel’s illustration) To be master or mistress of meanings, you need to be up to date with good sources. You might remember that the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) will deliver a new…
Monthly Archives: November 2014
The Newest New Words
Tagged with: Alice in Wonderland, English, German, John Tenniel, Language, Lewis Carroll, neologisms, Through the Looking Glass, Translation, words
Posted in language
Posted in language
Dead poets translation society: “I was not there I don’t know”
How do you translate a dead poet? The November issue of Poetry magazine is dedicated to translation, with translator’s notes on each poem. I made a beeline for languages I know – and found they shared a problem. The poet…
Tagged with: Dafydd ap Gwilym, Dafydd Johnston, Gwyneth Lewis, Jennifer Grotz, Jerzy Ficowski, Piotr Sommer, Poetry, Polish, Translation, Welsh
Posted in history, poetry, translation
Posted in history, poetry, translation
Women on the top of the world?: Rauni Magga Lukkari
It is extremely hard to find Sámi literature in English. This could be a deliberate strategy: Sámi author Ellen Marie Vars refused to allow translations of her work into majority languages, because she wanted people to read in Sámi. The…
Tagged with: Finnish, KEnneth Steven, Nordic, Poetry, Rauni Magga Lukkari, Rowan, Sami, Translation, Women
Posted in literature, poetry, translation
Posted in literature, poetry, translation
The space between: After the Berlin Wall fell
25 years ago, the Berlin Wall came down. 9 November might seem like a good date to celebrate German reunification, but because the same day in 1938 saw the burning of synagogues and destruction of Jewish property across Germany, they…
Tagged with: 9 November 1989, Berlin Wall, books, German, history, Jewish, Literature, Michael Hulse, Russian, Russian Disco, Translation, Wladimir Kaminer
Posted in books, history, international, literature
Posted in books, history, international, literature
found in translation 