James Baldwin on Film Adaptations
[scene from "Decasia" ; image courtesy of University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections/Icarus Films] Now, obviously, the only way to translate the written word to the cinema involves doing considerable violence to the written word, to the extent, indeed, of
Benjamin's "The Task of the Translator" – Part I
Benjamin's essay most relevant to our work here at Archipelago has to be "The Task of the Translator." Originally written as an introduction to his translation of Baudelaire's Tableaux Parisiens, the essay stands on its own as a translator's manifesto. Over
Ezra Pound & Canto I
If you're going to engage with English poetry, a mentor once told me, sooner or later, you're going to have to deal with Pound. She was referring, of course, to his controversial--and often, downright bigoted--remarks both on the page and
Tim Parks on Why Translation Matters in The New York Review of Books
Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 1958 In 2010, renowned author and Archipelago translator Tim Parks offered an exceptional insight into the practice of translation, its thanklessness when done well, and why it matters for fiction writing all over the world, not just in
Translators Reflections: Barbara Bogoczek on Różewicz’s Mother Departs
Mother Departs is an extremely personal autobiographical work by one of the greatest writers of our time, set against the epic conflicts of the 20th century. It combines many genres – poetry, jokes, intimate diaries written through tears, ethnographic snapshots of peasant
How one translator proved Virginia Woolf wrong
“Humor is the first gift to perish in a foreign language.” -Virginia Woolf Anyone who has read David Frick’s translation of Jerzy Pilch’s My First Suicide (Open Letter) knows that with a good translator, translated texts don’t have to lose