Romanian poet Nina Cassian died one month ago today. (Here she is reading her work, and here’s a great poem she wrote in New York exile). She also translated Brecht, Molière and Shakespeare, but was especially proud of her translation of…
Blog Archives
European literature night 2014: words, pictures, and wheels
With a mission to bring new books from around the continent to the people, tonight is the sixth European literature night. In co-operation with 28 European National Institutes for Culture, the Czech organisers have brought the event to 24 cities this…
Tagged with: Belgian, bike, British Library, Czech, Europe, European Literature Night, Finnish, German, graphic novels, Iceland, Illustration, Judith Vanistendael, Kaisa Leka, Line Hoven, Literature, Lucie Lomova, Max, Polish, Spanish, Translation, Witold Szabłowski
Posted in European Literature Night, Illustration, international, literature, translation
Posted in European Literature Night, Illustration, international, literature, translation
on your bike
It’s spring: time to get out on your bike, if you’re a fair weather cyclist, or, take the winter tyres off and carry on riding, if you’re a Finnish cyclist like me. But what has that got to do with…
Tagged with: Baltic, Kiswahili, Polish, Training, Translation, Translators Without Borders, Volunteers
Posted in international, language, translation
Posted in international, language, translation
flying stones: the European poet of freedom 2014
The European Poet of Freedom Festival starts in Gdańsk today. The poet’s award is 100,000 złoty (about 24,000 euros), and their translator into Polish wins a tenth of that. Seven nominees, from Kazakhstan to Estonia, face some very sharp judges…
Tagged with: Contemporary, Croatian, Dorta Jagić, English, Europe, freedom, Gdańsk, German, Iren Baumann, Literature, Małgorzata Wierzbicka, Miloš Đurđević, Poetry, Polish, Ryszard Wojnakowski, Switzerland, Translation, translator
Posted in European Poet of Freedom, gender, international, literature, poetry, translation
Posted in European Poet of Freedom, gender, international, literature, poetry, translation
¡habla conmigo! – talk with me!
If you want someone’s mind to grow, you have to start a conversation with them as soon as they’re born. It’s not enough for them to hear language around them, adults talking to each other, people talking on TV or…
Tagged with: bilingualism, conversation, English, language learning, Languages, linguistics, Polish, Spanish, Welsh, words
Posted in Illustration, language, words
Posted in Illustration, language, words
more gender pronouns: they
Facebook has finally broadened its pronoun options from 2 to 50. This should theoretically stop those odd posts with the “wrong” gender assignment, and make a lot of transgendered and queer people very happy. The only problem is that you have to…
new year, new translation: the assassin from apricot city
What does the rest of the world look like in the eyes of the rest of the world? That’s something we can never know. But good journalism in good translation can help. It’s not a good idea to have a…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Journalism, New Year, Polish, Ryszard Kapuściński, Turkey, Witold Szabłowski
Posted in international, language, translation
Posted in international, language, translation
silent night
The first time I noticed translation was probably while singing Christmas carols. We learnt to sing Silent Night in something resembling German and Welsh at primary school, and in learning Polish I realised that the fuzzy warm sound of carols I’d heard…
Tagged with: Christmas, Christmas Carols, English, Finnish, Franz Xaver Gruber, German, Joseph Mohr, Polish, Silent Night, Welsh
Posted in Christmas, language, translation
Posted in Christmas, language, translation
twist your tongue around the world
Sometimes your tongue gets in a knot and the words just don’t come out. But if you can untangle it, you will sound fluent as never before. I tell first time visitors to Finland that they can find the lift…
Tagged with: English, Finnish, Hebrew, Language, Latin, Maori, Polish, pronunciation, Tongue-twister, Welsh
Posted in international, language, translation, words
Posted in international, language, translation, words
found in translation 