Once upon a time, a hundred years and more ago, there was an ordinary man in an ordinary village, who led a really rather ordinary life. He worked hard, but nothing really excited him; he wasn’t very happy, but he…
Blog Archives
The Emperor of Portugallia
Tagged with: books, Norvik Press, Peter Graves, Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish, The Emperor of Portugallia, Translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
They know not what they do
When Jussi Valtonen’s book won the Finlandia Prize for the best novel of 2014, my friend recommended it to me. Her husband had loved it, I would find it really interesting. But it looked so weighty, and back then, my…
Tagged with: books, Finland, Finlandia Prize, Finnish, Jussi Valtonen, Kristian London, Oneworld, They Know Not What They Do, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Thomas Bernhard’s poems
Once he’d written them, he didn’t look back. He moved on to plays and novels, for which he’s much better known. He didn’t write any more poems for decades. Once he’d written them, he kept looking back. He returned and…
Tagged with: books, Collected Poems, German, James Reidel, Poetry, Seagull Books, Thomas Bernhard, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
VE Day #73: All that still matters at all
You might have heard of writing for the desk drawer, but what about writing for your jacket pocket when you expect to die, be buried in a mass grave if at all, and the odds of anyone finding what you’ve…
Tagged with: All that Still Matters at all, Hungarian, John M. Ridland, Miklós Radnóti, Peter V. Czipott, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, history, poetry, translation
Posted in books, history, poetry, translation
Secret passages under my hometown
When someone writes about the streets where you live, you feel immediately predisposed towards them. You want to like everything they say, and even if you don’t like it, you will certainly have an opinion. The woman who translates many…
Tagged with: books, Finnish, Jyväskylä, Lola Rogers, Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, Pushkin Press, Secret Passages from a Hillside Town, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Brother in Ice
On the ice, time and space are almost impossible to measure. Yes, there might be the sun, but in winter it might not rise for long, if at all, and in summer it might not set for long, if at…
Tagged with: Alicia Kopf, And Other Stories, Arctic, books, Brother in Ice, Catalan, Mara Faye Lethem, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Baba Dunja
Baba Dunja is an indomitable woman. She won’t let anything as trifling as a major nuclear disaster move her from her home. So back she moved, in to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and carried on growing her vegetables as if…
Tagged with: Alina Bronsky, Baba Dunja's Last Love, books, Chernobyl, Dublin Literary Award, Europa Editions, German, Tim Mohr, Translation
Posted in books, Dublin Literary Award, translation
Posted in books, Dublin Literary Award, translation
Stormwarning
The storm is coming. The meteorologist knew it was coming. The title poem opens with a quote from weather-woman Birta Líf Kristinsdóttir, saying that tomorrow will be worse, which is not to say that today’s weather isn’t bad. Will winter…
Tagged with: books, Icelandic, K. B. Thors, Kristín Svava Tómasdóttir, Phoneme Media, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
The Apartment in Bab El-Louk
This book will take you minutes to whip through, but you won’t forget it in a hurry. The doors of the cover open onto a very simple story about a city-centre apartment and the person who lives in it, the…
Tagged with: Ahmad Nady, Arabic, books, Darf Publishers, Donia Maher, Egypt, Ganzeer, Kahlil Award, The Apartment in Bab El-Louk, Translation
Posted in books, Illustration, translation
Posted in books, Illustration, translation
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
An odd choice for Valentine’s Day, perhaps? Bear with me, you’ll see. In Blake’s image, a woman powered with sunlight faces down a dragon. This ultimate battle between good and evil from the Book of Revelation is the cover image…
Tagged with: Ana Luisa Amaral, books, Margaret Jull Costa, Poetry, Portuguese, The Art of Being a Tiger, Translation
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation, Valentine's Day
Posted in books, gender, poetry, translation, Valentine's Day
found in translation 