In Translation
Translators on Their Work and What It Means
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- $33.99
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- $33.99
Publisher Description
The most comprehensive collection of perspectives on translation to date, this anthology features essays by some of the world's most skillful writers and translators, including Haruki Murakami, Alice Kaplan, Peter Cole, Eliot Weinberger, Forrest Gander, Clare Cavanagh, David Bellos, and José Manuel Prieto. Discussing the process and possibilities of their art, they cast translation as a fine balance between scholarly and creative expression. The volume provides students and professionals with much-needed guidance on technique and style, while affirming for all readers the cultural, political, and aesthetic relevance of translation.
These essays focus on a diverse group of languages, including Japanese, Turkish, Arabic, and Hindi, as well as frequently encountered European languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, and Russian. Contributors speak on craft, aesthetic choices, theoretical approaches, and the politics of global cultural exchange, touching on the concerns and challenges that currently affect translators working in an era of globalization. Responding to the growing popularity of translation programs, literature in translation, and the increasing need to cultivate versatile practitioners, this anthology serves as a definitive resource for those seeking a modern understanding of the craft.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The last decade has seen significant growth in the study of literary translation, including the MLA's increased readiness to set standards for evaluating translations. With this anthology, editors Bernofsky (Foreign Words: Translator-Authors in the Age of Goethe) and Allen (translator and editor of The Selected Writings of Jos Mart ) hope to educate current and prospective translators to see their work as "a particularly complex ethical position" rather than a " problematic necessity.'" The book is divided between theory and practice, though all essays focus on the experience of translators. The 18 translators included among them Eliot Weinberger (translator of Bei Dao, Jorge Luis Borges, and Octavio Paz), David Bellos (Georges Perec), and Haruki Murakami (whose afterword to his Japanese translation of The Great Gatsby is itself translated into English reprinted here) offer memorable anecdotes. Maureen Freely describes the "intense and volatile exchanges" with Orhan Pamuk that followed her first translation of the author's work; Jos Manuel Prieto explains the historical context, phrase by phrase, that made Osip Mandelstam's "Epigram Against Stalin" into "the sixteen lines of a death sentence." Literary translation is specialized enough that many authors reference the same canonical texts, and the chapters occasionally blur together. Overall, the book makes for a strong introduction to the field.
