About Masks

roles, personae, gender roles, stereotypes, playing, surfaces, acting, parts, illusions, appearances, theater, make-believe, make-up, pretending, poses, postures, costumes, costume parties, carnivals, masquerades, rituals, rites

Masks are so fundamental to our experience that, as the poet Heather McHugh has pointed out, "Person comes from mask." The English word person actually derives from the Latin word persona, which means an actor's mask or a character in a play.

Since the earliest days of human culture, masks have been used both to reveal and to conceal. Masks can have playful or serious faces, and they are used for the carnival and for the executioner.

A mask can obscure a person who is forced to remain faceless. This is the side of masks elaborated in Betsy Wing's moving translation from the French Caribbean novel The Overseer's Cabin by Edouard Glissant.

A mask can allow a person to step into a forbidden gender or sexual identity, as in Murathan Mungan's short story, "Veronika Voss of Desire," here in a lively translation from the Turkish by Aron Aji.

Masks can also take on the spooky form of a departed friend, as in Gerald Nicosia and Stefano Craven's translation of a poem by Luigi Pirandello.

Masks can permit an author to carry out outrageous shenanigans, as in the hilarious parade of identities in Felipe Benítez Reyes's made-up anthology, Probable Lives, translated by Aaron Zaritzky.

The nineteen different interpretations of masks in this issue take in many continents, languages, and time periods. They include an excerpt of a recent Mexican novel by Jorge Volpi spoofing fads in French philosophy, and a traditional Alaskan native tale retold by John E. Smelcer.

This issue presents some of the strongest translators working into English today, and some of the most electric literature from the corners of the globe.

A new feature in this issue is the section called Previews. It allows translators who are working furiously on a project that does not necessarily fit the issue's theme to showcase their freshest work. We plan to continue Previews in future years to make sure that TWO LINES presents the best translators and the best literature.

—Zack Rogow, Editor