Maresi, Chronicles of the Red Monastery, was the book I read by the Christmas tree this year; next year you could be doing the same. The splendid Pushkin Press has just bought the English rights. The author, the Swedish Finn…
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Maresi, Chronicles of the Red Monastery
Tagged with: Athos, Cornelia Funke, Fantasy, Fiction, Finlandia Junior 2014, Finnish, German, Goddess, Inkheart, J. R. R. Tolkien, Maresi, Maria Turtschaninoff, Marja Kyrö, Millenium trilogy, Pushkin Press, Stieg Larsson, Swedish, Translation, YA
Posted in books
Posted in books
happy new year, happy birthday asymptote
Happy New Year! Happy birthday Asymptote! If you feel you didn’t get enough presents (and there’s still four days of Christmas left) or you didn’t make ambitious enough new year’s resolutions about reading more in as many languages as possible…
Tagged with: Agnar Artúvertin, Asymptote, faroese, Free Word Centre, Literature, Matthew Landrum, Poetry, Translation
Posted in international, literature, translation
Posted in international, literature, translation
Between the Ox and the Grey Ass
This Christmas carol, Entre le boeuf et l ‘âne gris, is well loved in France, where was written in the 13th century, but not known well at all in the English-speaking world, so I couldn’t find it sung in English anywhere online. I…
Tagged with: carol, Christmas, Entre le boeuf, Finnish, French, Heinillä harkien kaukalon, Martti Korpilahti, Paul Ayres, Translation
Posted in Christmas, faith
Posted in Christmas, faith
Polish children’s books take on the world: find today’s lokomotywa
We always need more children’s books to delight the eye and the ear, in as many languages as possible. The Polish Dwie Siostry (two sisters) Publishing is awarding 2,500 euro to the best new one to add to their catalogue:…
Tagged with: Children's Books, Dwie Siostry Publishing, Illustration, Julian Tuwim, Lokomotywa, Michael Dembinski, Polish, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Rilke’s Advent
No-one does Advent better than the Germans. The Leo German dictionary usually has an excellent online advent calendar (in German, with poems and pictures for every day). So who better, I thought, to start Advent, than the German poet Rainer…
Tagged with: advent, English, German, Leo.org, Poetry, Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell, Translation
Posted in translation
Posted in translation
The Newest New Words
(Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, 1872, with John Tenniel’s illustration) To be master or mistress of meanings, you need to be up to date with good sources. You might remember that the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) will deliver a new…
Tagged with: Alice in Wonderland, English, German, John Tenniel, Language, Lewis Carroll, neologisms, Through the Looking Glass, Translation, words
Posted in language
Posted in language
Dead poets translation society: “I was not there I don’t know”
How do you translate a dead poet? The November issue of Poetry magazine is dedicated to translation, with translator’s notes on each poem. I made a beeline for languages I know – and found they shared a problem. The poet…
Tagged with: Dafydd ap Gwilym, Dafydd Johnston, Gwyneth Lewis, Jennifer Grotz, Jerzy Ficowski, Piotr Sommer, Poetry, Polish, Translation, Welsh
Posted in history, poetry, translation
Posted in history, poetry, translation
Women on the top of the world?: Rauni Magga Lukkari
It is extremely hard to find Sámi literature in English. This could be a deliberate strategy: Sámi author Ellen Marie Vars refused to allow translations of her work into majority languages, because she wanted people to read in Sámi. The…
Tagged with: Finnish, KEnneth Steven, Nordic, Poetry, Rauni Magga Lukkari, Rowan, Sami, Translation, Women
Posted in literature, poetry, translation
Posted in literature, poetry, translation
The space between: After the Berlin Wall fell
25 years ago, the Berlin Wall came down. 9 November might seem like a good date to celebrate German reunification, but because the same day in 1938 saw the burning of synagogues and destruction of Jewish property across Germany, they…
Tagged with: 9 November 1989, Berlin Wall, books, German, history, Jewish, Literature, Michael Hulse, Russian, Russian Disco, Translation, Wladimir Kaminer
Posted in books, history, international, literature
Posted in books, history, international, literature
found in translation 