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Featured Audio and Articles
TWO VOICES: Jay Rubin and J. Philip Gabriel on Translating MurakamiScott Esposito, April 5, 2012 12:41:00 PM
On April 3, 2012, translators Jay Rubin and J. Philip Gabriel—best-known as the main English translators of Haruki Murakmai's novels and short stories—discussed their work with the Japanese master of the surreal's latest book, 1Q84. The event got off to a proper start with a discussion of one of the primary questions surrounding 1Q84: how do you pronounce its title? Jay Rubin canvassed the audience for answers, which ranged from "nineteen-eighty-four" to "eye-que-eight-four" (which Rubin ruled out, since the first character is a number one). He then went on to a discussion of the role that the title plays in the novel . . .
TWO VOICES: Joshua Beckman Presents Micrograms by Jorge Carrera AndradeScott Esposito, October 13, 2011 11:40:00 AM
"The purpose of this book is to send readers off to new places--new places of the mind." So began Joshua Beckman's Two voices presentation of Micrograms by Jorge Carrera Andrade, described, in part, as the Japanese concept of haiku translated into the Latin America of the 20th century.
TWO VOICES: Carmen Boullosa and Pura Lopez ColomeScott Esposito, October 17, 2011 01:28:00 PM
Mexico is traditionally thought of as a country in love with machismo, and that fact can be seen in the Mexican writers who succeed in English—among them Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, and Octavio Paz. Yet there are many women in Mexico writing landmark literature, and this audio presents two of them. As part of the annual Litquake literature festival in San Francisco, the Center for the Art of Translation partnered with the Mexican Consulate to present two of Mexico's most vital female writers: Carmen Boullosa and Pura López Colomé.
Upcoming Events
Lit&Lunch: How to Translate Fairy Tales, with Kate Bernheimer, Ilya Kaminsky, and Maria Tatar
June 12, 2012
Contributors and the editor of My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, an anthology of fairy tales, discuss the unique craft of translating myth and the history of fairy tales.
A Night of Fairy Tales
June 12, 2012
To close out the 2011-12 Two Voices season, join the staff and friends of the Center for the Art of Translation for a special evening on translating fairy tales!
Audio Entries
What Gets Translated in Iran?
Posted on February 17, 2011 by Scott EspositoWe talk a lot about translation into English around here because, well, because that's our mission as an organization. But it can also be very interesting to have a look at what other nations are translating into their native tongues.
For instance, Iran. The Literary Saloon picks up a very interesting tidbit showing not only what foreign books go on to be sold in Iran but also which books that market honors. I speak of the 4th Parvin Etesami Biennial Award.
Finalists for the award include Vernon God Little, which was probably the most criticlly denigrated Booker Prize winner ever. (See for instance, Ron Charles of The Washington Post, who writes of the author's second novel, "Ludmila's Broken English is the worst novel I've read since DBC Pierre's debut novel, Vernon God Little.") Perhaps the book's decidedly unflattering portrait of the U.S. was what got it the nod in Iran.
The Literary Saloon goes on to write:
Just a week ago I mentioned how befuddled I was (yet again) by what does and doesn't get published in Iran (as Martin McDonagh's play, The Pillowman -- a play famously set in: "a totalitarian fucking dictatorship" -- has just come out there), and this week brings news that an almost current work -- Kazuo Ishiguro's Nocturnes -- is also being published.
This shortlist is odd and a bit embarrassing (any list with Vernon God Little on it is embarrassing, and Zorro just compounds that), but this isn't a bad mix, and at least gives some insight into what is getting translated and published in Iran (and note how almost all the works are from Western languages, Siddiqi's Urdu novel being the exception).
I'm not sure what to think. On the one hand, it's fantastic that these titles are getting published, and presumably read, in Iran. But on the other hand . . . some censorial consistency, please!