The journey from Korea to the northern fringes of Europe is a long one. To get there, you have to go on a TV show, or stir up a storm in a translators’ teacup. Or you could miss the bus,…
Blog Archives
Han Kang: finding the translations
Tagged with: books, Deborah Smith, English, Finnish, Han Kang, Korean, Man Booker International Prize, Nobel Prize, Taru Salminen, Translation
Posted in literature, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in literature, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Empusium
Empuzjon is Olga Tokarczuk’s made-up word in Polish from two Greek words. Symposium – drinkfuelled philosophical debate – and empusa – a female shape-shifter. Here, you can go down a delightful rabbithole to find empusas: Wikipedia took me to Kipling’s…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, books, Empusium, Empuzjon, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Olga Tokarczuk, Polish, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Aliss at the Fire
When a Nordic neighbour wins a Nobel, it’s nice to take notice. So last autumn at a book fair, nestling among the Rosebuds, I spotted Jon Fosse, in a deep Fitzcarraldo (Norwegian flag cross?) blue cover, with a gold sticker…
Tagged with: Aliss at the Fire, Damion Searls, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Jon Fosse, Nobel Prize in Literature, Norwegian, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Annie Ernaux: finding the translations
When Annie Ernaux received the Nobel Prize in Literature last autumn, I am ashamed to say I had never heard of her. Some French-speaking friends had loved her work for years. Two had learned French outside France, whereas friends who…
Tagged with: Alison Strayer, Annie Ernaux, books, Finnish, Fitzcarraldo Editions, French, Gummerus, Lotta Toivanen, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
The lost soul – zgubiona dusza
The man was moving so fast he had completely forgotten why he was moving at all. So he went to see a wise woman. And the wise woman said, “Slow down. You have to wait for your soul to catch…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, books, Joanna Concejo, Olga Tokarczuk, Poland, Polish, Seven Stories Press, The Lost Soul, Translation, Wydawnictwo Format, Zgubiona dusza
Posted in books, Illustration, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Illustration, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Lockdown literature: Doctor Zhivago
We have all the time in the world. Time to tackle the classics. I haven’t read a fat Russian novel like this since I was a teenager – I remember devouring Anna Karenina when I was just about to be…
Tagged with: Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear, Russian, Translation
Posted in Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
The Last Witnesses
Translation often comes with a delay, sometimes of decades. Many of these people’s stories are only being told in English after their death. Before that, it took decades for their voices to be heard in their native language. Last Witnesses:…
Tagged with: Belarus, books, history, Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear, Russian, Second World War, Soviet Union, Svetlana Alexievich, The Last Witnesses, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Mårbacka
As Finland’s centenary drew ever closer, I realised I had been neglecting her western neighbour in favour of the eastern one, which also has a big anniversary year. Selma Lagerlöf’s Mårbacka, published in the 1920s, seemed a good place to…
Tagged with: books, Mårbacka, Nobel Prize for Literature, Sarah Death, Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
This woman can tell a story or two. Or a hundred. Svetlana Alexievich writes so well because she knows who to ask and how to listen. She received last year’s literature Nobel for her ‘polyphonic writings’ – but she’s not a…
Tagged with: Bela Shayevich, Belarus, history, Nobel Prize, Russian, Second Hand Time, Soviet Union, Svetlana Alexievich, Translation
Posted in books, history, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, history, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Hunted by the fox
Herta Müller is a Nobelist writing in German. Philip Boehm was awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize for translating her The Hunger Angel and has also translated Brecht and Hanna Krall. I’d been meaning to read both their work for a while, and…
Tagged with: German, Herta Müller, Nobel Prize, Philip Boehm, Portobello Books, Romania, The Fox Was Ever the Hunter, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
found in translation 