This one jumped out at me from the blue sky (dzięki Paweł!). I’ve read less Lem than le Guin, but the idea of them writing to each other was startling, pleasing. I ordered their 1972–1984 letters from Wydawnictwo Literackie straight…
Blog Archives
Lem and le Guin’s letters
Tagged with: Bill Johnston, books, German, Irmtraud Zimmermann-Göllheim, Polish, Stanisław Barańczak, Stanisław Lem, Tomasz Lem, Translation, Ursula le Guin
Posted in books, literature, translation
Posted in books, 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
Cursed Bunny
I read this at Easter, but the Easter bunny this is not. If you want to read something nice, don’t read this book. It is often an unpleasantly visceral experience. But if you want to read something incisive, do read…
Tagged with: Anton Hur, books, Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny, Korean, Polish, Short Stories, Translation
Posted in books, International Booker, translation
Posted in books, International Booker, translation
White Nights
Rather than heralding midsummer, White Nights/Białe noce feels looming and Novemberish. Immersed in darkness and silence (ciemno wszędzie, głucho wszędzie), there’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen next. Very likely, another death… If you love Tokarczuk and want…
Tagged with: Białe noce, books, International Booker Prize, Kate Webster, MTO Press, Polish, Translation, Ursula Honek, White Nights
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
The train that didn’t go to Katyń
In April 1940, over twenty thousand Polish officers were killed by the Soviets in the forest of Katyń. A bare few hundred of those soldiers survived. The way I remember my grandfather telling the story of his capture on Poland’s…
Tagged with: Alissa Valles, art, books, history, Józef Czapski, Memories of Starobielsk: Essays on Art and History, NYRB Classics, Polish, Translation
Posted in books, history, translation
Posted in books, history, translation
Russia: knife, fork, and ladle
The Romanovs, Lenin, Gagarin – they all had their cooks. Holodomor, Leningrad, Chernobyl, Afghanistan – sometimes there is nothing (safe) to cook at all. For some people, like the Tatars, cooking is all you have left of home. Others, like…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, books, How to Feed a Dictator, Polish, Rosja od Kuchni, Russia, Translation, Witold Szabłowski
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Foucault in Warsaw
In Warsaw in 1958, Foucault was writing his History of Madness. Then, it was his PhD, and he was the first director of the university’s French Cultural Centre. Within a year, he’d left Poland. Was Jurek, his mystery lover, to…
Tagged with: Dowody na istnienie, Foucault, Open Letter, Polish, Queer, Remigiusz Ryziński, Sean Bye, Translation, Warsaw
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Waiting for translation: Wolf River
It is two years and more since this pandemic began. In March 2020, it hadn’t knocked Europe out yet, but it was going to very soon. The signs were there. In March 2020, this book began. It hadn’t knocked me…
Women in Translation Month: The Map
Is this an adventure novel, war memoir, seven short stories, or one of those new approaches to history through objects? It’s all that and more. The real protagonist is not a person, but a map. Do you know Rembrandt van…
Tagged with: books, Kate Webster, Mapa, Poland, Polish, Rembrandt, Terra Librorum, The Map, Translation, Women in Translation Month, Wydawnictwo Nisza
Posted in books, translation, Women in Translation Month
Posted in books, translation, Women in Translation Month
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
found in translation 