translation

Translation felt like a way to be my full self again, to make my Brazilian self and my American self be in dialogue with each other.

I recently spoke with writer and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato about her acclaimed translation of Caio Fernando Abreu’s story collection, Moldy Strawberries, untranslatable moments in texts, joy and curiosity as an act of genuine artful engagement, Brazilian writers you should know about, and more.You can read the full interview here at Tiny Molecules.

I’m drawn to books that are formally innovative and show a side of Brazil we don’t see often in English, especially if there’s room for me to play with the style and be surprised and challenged by it.

Find out more about Bruna Dantas Lobato on https://www.brunadantaslobato.com/. Bruna’s translation of Moldy Strawberries (June 2022) is available from Archipelago Books.

Hello friends, and a very happy International Translation Day to you!

On this day (but really every day), we pause and celebrate what it means to be able to read a book or other text in translation or watch a film/show with subtitles or listen to a speaker with the assistance of an interpreter; how narrow our perspectives and understanding of the world would be without the gift of translators to somehow both expand and condense our world at once. I fear that translators don’t get nearly the amount of credit they deserve; yet their dedicated magicking brings brilliance originating from languages spoken near and far right there, into our homes, our book stacks, our ears, our brains. It is a gift. It is a gift!!

I believe translated texts and films are the closest thing we have to transportation portals, hurling us across time and space to discover linguistic, social, and cultural patterns from around the globe. The more I think about the wonder of this, the more awe I feel towards the act of translation itself.

So, thank you to all of the translators out there! Your work and passion and dedication to your craft, and the breadth of global human thought and innovation that you have made available to us, has made a great deal of difference in our lives and our world!

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Resources:

– Sign up for a free weekly newsletter, “We Are All Translators”, brought to you by author and translator Jenny Bhatt

-Check out the latest translation news on World Literature Today and Words Without Borders

-Visit the American Literary Translators Association website

Where to Find Published Books of Translations (a few of my favorite presses) :