A decade ago, on a visit to Berlin, I bought a small Steiff bear to remind me of the city I used to live in, and of Knut. Knut, if you don’t know already, was a baby polar bear in Berlin Zoo.…
Blog Archives
Memoirs of a polar bear
Tagged with: Berlin, books, German, Memoirs of a Polar Bear, Susan Bernofsky, Translation, Yoko Tawada
Posted in books, gender, translation
Posted in books, gender, translation
all Russians love birch trees
In Berlin last week, I walked with friends out of the city, along where the wall used to be – where the birch trees have been growing freely for a quarter of a century. “That should make you feel right at home,…
Tagged with: All Russians Love Birch Trees, books, Der Russe ist einer der Birken liebt, Eva Bacon, German, Olga Gjasnowa, Translation, Women's day
Posted in translation
Posted in translation
The White Islands
This is a book for anyone whose parents or grandparents came from somewhere else, especially if they did not move by choice. White Islands/Las Islas Blancas is a beautiful bilingual edition of Agosín’s poetry and Nanfito’s translations, brimming with memories handed down…
Tagged with: books, Jacqueline Nanfito, Ladino, Marjorie Agosín, Poetry, Sephardic Jews, Spanish, The White Islands, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Night-Sky Checkerboard
Phoneme Media has done it again. Oh Saw-Young’s Night-Sky Checkerboard looks simple enough – an elegant slim volume of bilingual poetry from a language not many people would be able to read otherwise; Korean. The powerful juxtapositions of natural imagery reminded me of Regentonnenvariationen.…
Tagged with: books, Brother Anthony of Taizé, Korean, Night-Sky Checker Board, Oh Sae-Young, Phoneme Media, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Now and at the Hour of our Death
This beautiful book is published by And Other Stories this week. It isn’t easy to write about the dying and their loved ones without falling into clichés and platitudes, especially in such a beautiful setting as rural northern Portugal: “Grass…
Tagged with: And Other Stories, books, Edinburgh Festival, Julia Sanches, Now and at the Hour of our Death, Portuguese, Susana Moreira Marques, Translation
Posted in books, Edinburgh Festival
Posted in books, Edinburgh Festival
The End of Days: The Translator
Jenny Erpenbeck’s The End of Days, translated by Susan Bernofsky, has variously been described as brutal, haunting, and dreamlike, unvarnished and the work of a miniaturist. It’s all that and more. And it’s a very fitting first German winner of…
Tagged with: books, German, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Jenny Erpenbeck, Literature, Susan Bernofsky, The End of Days, Translation
Posted in books, literature
Posted in books, literature
books and roses
St George is England’s patron saint – and Catalonia’s. April 23, his day is traditionally when Catalans celebrate all kinds of love, by giving red roses, as St George is supposed to have given one to the princess he saved from the…
Tagged with: books, Catalonia, Cervantes, Edith Grossmann, England, Matias de Velasco y Rojas, roses, Shakespeare, Spanish, Thomas Shelton, Translation, Vicete Clavel
Posted in international, literature
Posted in international, literature
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
Suspended Sentences: New translation of Modiano
A new translation of 2014 Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano’s stories, Suspended Sentences, comes out next month. The translator, Mark Polizotti, also happens to be publisher in chief of MoMa. These novellas are needed: Modiano in English and in print is very hard to…
Tagged with: books, cinema, Flemish, French, history, Literature, Louise Colpijn, Mark Polizotti, Nobel Prize for Literature, Patrick Modiano, Second World War, Suspended Sentences, Translation
Posted in books, cinema, history, literature, translation
Posted in books, cinema, history, literature, translation
Williams translating Williams
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has a new book of poems out this month, first presented at the Edinburgh Book Festival, where I got my hands on a copy. The Other Mountain, published by Carcanet, includes a couple of…
Tagged with: books, Edinburgh Book Festival, Literature, Poetry, Rowan Williams, The Other Mountain, Translation, Waldo Williams, Wales, Welsh
Posted in books, Edinburgh Festival, faith, literature, poetry, translation, Uncategorized
Posted in books, Edinburgh Festival, faith, literature, poetry, translation, Uncategorized
found in translation 