Three cheers for translated fiction

Many moons ago, I was in a  Book Club with a member who proclaimed we should “never” read translated fiction. “After all,” she loved to stress, “we’ll never run out of fiction written in the English language.” Yes, technically I suppose this is true. But what a narrow world view… Not surprisingly, I didn’t stay…

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The art of translation

Every translation is an act of negotiation. -Umberto Eco I only recently saw this quote from the recently deceased Italian novelist, Umberto Eco. He would certainly have known about this first-hand, as his novels, especially his most famous, The Name of The Rose, were translated into numerous languages. But Eco was also a linguist and semiotician, so he…

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The stressful life of a simultaneous interpreter

I loved this London Review of Books article by former UN simultaneous interpreter, LynnVisson. I spend a lot of time working with simultaneous interpreters, and I have tremendous respect for the difficult, high-pressure work they perform. As writers, we can only marvel at the ability to create the perfect words under pressure. I loved this…

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