I finished this book of Persian poetry just in time for Nowruz, which is the Persian New Year. Starting the year at the spring equinox makes a lot of sense. And starting it with 700-year-old-poems like this was a pleasure.…
After tomorrow the days disappear
Tagged with: After Tomorrow the Days Disappear, Farsi, ghazal, Hasan Sijzi, Northwestern University Press, Persian, Poetry, Rebecca Gould, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Finnish – the fantasy language to rule them all
What if you want to create a whole new fantasy world, and you people it with beings who speak an utterly fantastic language that no mere earthling could understand? Where do you start? You start with Finnish, of course. And…
Women’s day: translations to last all year
It’s women’s day, and time to look for the women in translation once again, at the Free Word Centre and elsewhere. The statistics are shocking as ever. But there is plenty to read if you look. Rather than lamenting, just go out…
Tagged with: Agnete Friis, Alina Bronsky, Alison Anderson, Annie Holmes, Austrian, Bela Shayevich, Belarusian, Bruce Benderson, Calais, Danish, Elisabeth dyssegaard, Emmanuelle Pagano, Finnish, French, German, Herta Müller, Jamie Bulloch, Jennifer Higgins, Johanna Sinisalo, Jovanka Kalaba, Jovanka Zivanovic, Karen Kovacik, Lene Kaaberbol, Linda Stift, Lola Rogers, Michele Halberstadt, Muriel Barbery, Olumide Popoola, Philip Boehm, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sophie Lewis, Svetlana Alexievich, Tim Mohr, Translation, Women's day
Posted in books, gender, translation
Posted in books, gender, translation
Blodeuwedd – the flower woman
Once upon a time, there was a woman made for a man. She was created entirely from flowers, just for him. But then she fell in love with someone else, and decided to kill the man, to be with her…
Tagged with: Alan Garner, Blodeuwedd, Charlotte Guest, Gwyneth Lewis, Mabinogion, Sioned Davies, The Meat Tree, Translation, Welsh, Whistles in the Wind
Posted in books, Folklore, literature, translation
Posted in books, Folklore, literature, translation
One book is never enough
Last week, it seemed that a new subspecies of lumbersexuals was emerging in the most unlikely of places: among Budapest intellectuals and activists. It turned out that all these checked shirts were popping up in my feed for a reason.…
Tagged with: Checked Shirts, Clouded Sky, Corvina Books, Dick Slackman, education, Foamy Sky, Frederick Turner, Hungarian, Hungary, Kazinczy Ferenc, Orvath Zsuzsanna, Princeton University Press, Radnoti Miklos, S. J. Marks, Sheep Meadow Press, Stephen Berg, Steven Polgar, Translation
Posted in books, education, history, language, poetry, translation
Posted in books, education, history, language, poetry, translation
Black flower
A book that can be turned upside down and read from back to front in another language can be a wonderful thing. Formats like that came through our door in my childhood home, but they were mostly bilingual Welsh-English leaflets…
Tagged with: Black Flower, Clare Sullivan, Irma Pineda, Natalia Toledo, native languages of the Americas, Ploughshares, Poetry, Spanish, Translation, Welsh, Zapotec
Posted in books, language, poetry, translation
Posted in books, language, poetry, translation
it’s friendship day: don’t miss the train…
In Finland, today is Friends’ Day (ystävänpäivä), and a much more inclusive feast than Valentine’s as it is often celebrated elsewhere. Today can simply be a chance to do something nice with or for a friend, and we need that: There’s…
Tagged with: Adam Zagajewski, Clare Cavanagh, Finnish, friends, Monet, Polish, Translation, Valentine's Day
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation, Valentine's Day
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation, Valentine's Day
Losar Tashi Delek! Happy New Year!
In his Tibetan new year greeting, the fourteenth Dalai Lama explains: “If you create the causes of happiness, if you lead your life in benefiting others and not harming them, that’s a meaningful life, a life that has ‘tashi’. On that basis…
Tagged with: Buddhism, Chinese, Dalai Lama, fire monkey, Gangkye Somdung, High Peaks Pure Earth, New Year, Poetry, Tara Stotra, Tibetan, Tibetan and Himalayan Library, Translation
Posted in faith, poetry, translation
Posted in faith, poetry, translation
Words to bridge the gap
From a capella to zeitgeist, English has always filched other people’s words and run with them. There are so many more waiting to be used. And Ella Frances Sanders has brought them to life. As she says in Lost in Translation:…
Tagged with: Ella Frances Sanders, Inuit, Japanese, The Bridge Called Langauge, Translation, Untranslatable Words, Welsh
Posted in books, Illustration, language, translation, words
Posted in books, Illustration, language, translation, words
A voice from Nowhereland
Mascha Kaléko died 40 years ago this week. Her poems are full of longing, memory and regret, even for things that haven’t happened yet, by someone who always had to move on. She has a gloriously Central European knot of…
found in translation 