Thistle stars, quince suns, and a buzzing alphabet of midges: Jan Wagner sees nature upside down and inside out. He will make you see the world in a whole new way. I found the young Hamburg poet on a trip…
Blog Archives
reflected in the rainwater butt: Regentonnenvariationen
Tagged with: German, Jan Wagner, Matthew Sweeney, Poetry, Regentonnenvariationen, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Sing your heart out at the football: Calon lân
Wales will be singing tonight as they play Portugal in the Euro 2016 football semi-final. And they will be singing this song: According to the BBC, it only takes half an hour to learn the words to calon lân, which means a…
Tagged with: Calon lân, Euro 2016, football, Gwyrosydd, John Hughes, Rees Harris, Translation, Wales, Welsh
Posted in international, language, music, translation
Posted in international, language, music, translation
A Polish contribution to statistics
Almost 52 per cent of voters in a small group of islands off the west coast of Europe have decided to leave. The immediate result has been panic, fear – and a racist backlash, hitting the biggest minority of non-UK citizens,…
Tagged with: Clare Cavanagh, EU Referendum, Polish, Stanisław Barańczak, Translation, Wisława Szymborska
Posted in international, poetry, translation
Posted in international, poetry, translation
The Transmigration of Bodies
Having a book subscription can be a bit hit and miss. The new book can be fascinating, and just right for you, but does it land on your doormat when you’re ready to read it? This week, the right thing…
Tagged with: And Other Stories, Best Translated Book Award, Spanish, The Transmigration of Bodies, Translation, Yuri Herrera
Posted in Best Translated Book Award, books, translation
Posted in Best Translated Book Award, books, 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
Lady Midday
It started with an eight-year-old boy left at the train station by his mother, as the Germans flee the Red Army approaching Szczecin/Stettin in 1945. We need to go back more than twenty years to find out how it came…
Tagged with: Anthea Bell, Die Mittagsfrau, German, German Book Prize, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Julia Franck, Lady Midday, The Blind Side of the Heart, Translation
Posted in books, history, translation
Posted in books, history, 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
Oneiron
When you’ve got a Man Booker International winner (Marlon James) on your books, you could sit back and relax. Or you could find the next big thing before it happens. That’s what Oneworld has done, buying the world English rights…
Tagged with: Finlandia Prize, Finnish, Laura Lindstedt, Literature, Oneiron, Oneworld, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Jamala: Crimean Tatar in translation
Eurovision 2016, almost everyone is singing in English (even the French!!!) and a Crimean Tatar wins, singing the chorus in a language that isn’t even available on Google Translate. Because she sings with passion about her people, who were forcibly…
Tagged with: 1944, Crimean Tatar, Eurovision 2016, Jamala, Meni gamdan azat eyle, The Colour of Pomegranates, Translation, Ukraine
Posted in history, international, language, music
Posted in history, international, language, music
Gathering to scatter the dark
Last weekend I went to a big birthday party. It was a chance to catch up with over a hundred family and friends, and family of family and friends of friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen for some years,…
Tagged with: Bill Johnston, Ewa Elżbieta Nowakowska, Ewa Lipska, Julia Fiedorczuk, Julia Hartwig, Karen Kovacik, Mira Kuś, Poetry, Polish, Robin Davidson, Scattering the Dark, Translation, White Pine Press
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
found in translation 