Category: translation

Looking for Lucy

I just finished an essay that feels freestanding and that could fit in three places in my Sea of Intimacy. I can’t tell whether its potential multifarious placement is a good thing or not. “Looking for Lucy” begins in Split, Croatia, where a sign that says “Lucy” hangs outside the cathedral (once the mausoleum of… Continue reading Looking for Lucy

Adespota on Valentine’s Day

There is no Saint Russell. So I am, as my Italian friend Vanessa once told me, adespota. Vanessa, who is from Le Marche, knew because she is too. With all the names in the world, and a limited number of saints to go around, many of us are. I love the word. It means both… Continue reading Adespota on Valentine’s Day

Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College

I’ve been thinking through the stimulating couple of days I got to spend at the invitation of Kristin Dykstra at St. Michael’s College (SMC) last week. The subject of my talk, and the reason for my visit, was AI and translation. The presentation, entitled “Is It Good? AI Tools, The Practice of Translating, and Inter-cultural… Continue reading Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College

The Sea’s Direction

My book lacked a direction. It was all facts and curiosities and vignettes. A lot was interesting, but coherence kept escaping me. When writing about a river, you can start at the source and make your way to its outlet, a bit like Claudio Magris does with his Danube. But a sea? Where do you… Continue reading The Sea’s Direction

AI and Literary Translation: A Global Consideration

I’m just back from the 48th annual ALTA conference, in Tucson, AZ. At the panel I participated in (thank you to co-panelists Lisa Bradford and Steve Bradbury!), Amy Stolls, formerly of the NEA, suggested that a short guide to the use of AI in literary translation might be helpful to, as she put it, “people… Continue reading AI and Literary Translation: A Global Consideration

Propp at last

This only took us a little more than a decade. The image is linked to the publisher website (click on it to see more). And here’s the publisher’s description: Nearly seven decades after the English translation of Morphology of the Folktale, one of the most influential scholarly books on folklore, its sequel is finally available in… Continue reading Propp at last

Translating Atrocity

When I told my friend Mira Rosenthal that I’d taken on a translation job for a book on Jasenovac, she didn’t miss a beat. “And how are you protecting yourself?” she asked. Naive me hadn’t even considered this, even though I know the words and the scenes always seep inside you when you’re translating them,… Continue reading Translating Atrocity

A Bit of Rudy Panko

While teaching this semester’s graduate seminar on Nikolai Gogol/Mykola Hohol, I noticed how inadequate all the existing translations of the earlier works are. The author’s distinctive style barely peeks through what often feels like basically explanatory prose in all the English versions. I also came to the conclusion that Gogol’s very first book is his… Continue reading A Bit of Rudy Panko

Translating “meanwhile”

I put that in quotes because it’s a silly idea really, for translators at least. Translating is always its own thing, you concentrate on it, do it almost for its own sake. Or rather, strike the almost. This is my experience anyway, even when one is just trying something out, it turns out to be… Continue reading Translating “meanwhile”

A Cover for Propp

It’s been a whole summer (a glorious one) and a bit of a fall (also pretty glorious) since I last posted, and there are too many things to write now, so I’ll need to pace myself. First, Propp is coming! At last the book is finished and entering the production process at Indiana University Press.… Continue reading A Cover for Propp