The beginning is so far back in time, it’s hard to know what’s real. It’s like a fairytale. I’d have liked to spend more time in this part of the story, but it moves forward. We race from the fourteenth…
Blog Archives
River of Fire
Tagged with: books, India, Quarratulain Hyder, River of Fire, Translation, Urdu
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Artemisia
Artemisia Gentileschi was that rare thing, a woman painter of the Baroque. She painted queens and noblewomen, and, splendidly, Judith killing Holofernes. She travelled round Italy and all the way to England, where her father, whom she idolised, was also…
Tagged with: Anna Banti, Artemisia Gentileschi, books, Italian, National Gallery, painting, Shirley D'Ardia Caracciolo, Translation
Posted in translation
Posted in translation
Honey, I Killed the Cats
After translations into dozens of languages, this has taken seven years to appear in English, but the wait is worth it. A twentysomething woman in the States, still hopelessly single when…
Tagged with: Benjamin Paloff, books, Deep Vellum, Dorota Masłowska, Honey I killed the Cats, Marcin Nowak, Polish, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Tokyo Ueno Station
Tokyo Ueno Station is the Japan the tourists never see, because it’s literally swept off the streets. We hear about it from the inside. This is Kazu’s story, told by Yu Miri and translated by Morgan Giles. A middle-aged man…
Tagged with: books, Buddhism, homelessness, Japan, Japanese, Morgan Giles, Tilted Axis Press, Tokyo Ueno Station, Translation, Yu Miri
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
The Polyglot Lovers
Is this a Marmite book? Or maybe a sour-plum book, given the colour of the cover. My mum spent a large chunk of her childhood in Hong Kong, so she loves them, but they’re too strong for me. My mum…
Tagged with: And Other Stories, Lina Wolff, Saskia Vogel, Sweden, Swedish, The Polyglot Lovers, Translation, writing
Posted in books, gender, international, translation
Posted in books, gender, international, translation
Sergius Seeks Bacchus
A fellow queer Christian, from an utterly different context. Indonesian literature has been in the literary news since the country guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2015. But now it gets personal: Sergius Seeks Bacchus. This slim…
Tagged with: books, Indonesian, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Poetry, Sergius Seeks Bacchus, Tiffany Tsao, Tilted Axis Press, Translation
Posted in books, faith, gender, poetry, translation
Posted in books, faith, gender, poetry, translation
The Governesses
Something is happening in French-language literature right now that makes me dearly regret stopping at GCSE. In the last few months I’ve devoured three short and piercingly acute new translations from French that have made me think hard about animal…
Tagged with: Anne Serre, books, French, Mark Hutchinson, The Governesses, Translation
Posted in books, gender, literature, translation
Posted in books, gender, literature, translation
Accomodations
Wiola is growing up. We are still growing up in parallel. She is a student in Poland exactly when I am a student in Poland, the academic session of 1995/1996. Except I’m in Warsaw for a year of my degree,…
Tagged with: Accommodations, books, Jennifer Croft, Polish, Translation, Wioletta Greg
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Empty Words
“This book might change your life, or at least your handwriting.” Alejandro Zambra is not wrong about Mario Levrero’s Empty Words. Annie McDermott’s translation, out last Thursday, might just do the same for you. There are plenty of “how to…
Tagged with: And Other Stories, Annie McDermott, books, Mario Levrero, Spanish, Translation, Uruguay, writing
Posted in books, translation, words
Posted in books, translation, words
The Condition of Secrecy
Words grow out of her like leaves from a tree. They just emerge that way, it’s an organic process. There are so many endless possibilities, starting from somewhere, one could end up anywhere at all. Words fight each other and…
Tagged with: books, Danish, essays, Inger Christensen, Susanna Nied, The Condition of Secrecy, Translation, writing
Posted in books, translation, words
Posted in books, translation, words
found in translation 