Catholics should be used to the new English translation of the Latin liturgy after four years. But at times like Easter, which particularly cut through and beyond time, it’s familiar words we want. The premise for the new translation was…
Catholics should be used to the new English translation of the Latin liturgy after four years. But at times like Easter, which particularly cut through and beyond time, it’s familiar words we want. The premise for the new translation was…
“My work is very chic, like a luggage set: the large suitcase, my novels; two medium-sized cases, my Diary and my plays; the small case, my short stories.” (Witold Gombrowicz) Danuta Borchardt’s translation of Gombrowicz’s Transatlantyk is on the PEN Translation Prize Longlist. Yet again she…
Yesterday was St David’s Day, in self-imposed Finnish exile I’ll have to buy, not pick daffodils and sing the national anthem alone. It includes the immortal line: “O bydded i’r hen iaith barhau” (may the language endure for ever). Welsh…
Poland’s first Oscar for a ‘foreign language film’ went to Pawlikowski’s Ida this morning. Turning it from ‘foreign’ into English was not an easy process even for a film that the director, Paweł Pawlikowski, himself said in his acceptance speech…
The Chinese year of the yang starts today. You can see its horns in the character (taken from the Epoch Times, a committedly independent source of Chinese news) – but is it a sheep or a goat? The distinction is not…
St Valentine was martyred in Rome about 1740 years ago today. What better way to honour him than with loving words in many languages? It’s been shown yet again, very entertainingly and by many translators, that idioms don’t translate easily,…
If, like me, you still regret getting rid of your lovingly created mix cassette tapes, complete with breath of radio 1 DJ at the end of each song, even though you haven’t had anything to play them on for years,…
If Paris calls London “alarmingly elegant”, it’s worth taking another look. Especially if it’s in translation from all around the globe. This month’s online issue of The White Review is a box of delights. I like to claim my favourites first,…
What was last year’s best translation? You have a few days left to cast your vote here. This poll is more democratic than most, as the short list is extended by other people’s suggestions. If you were choosing by the author name alone, the…
A thing of beauty was released into the world today. It was already there, but now more people can read it. The first five volumes of the Murty Classical Library of Indian literature are now published: 2 millennia of culture…