Two Words: The Blog of the Center for the Art of Translation


Azorno on the Green Integer Blog

Posted on September 29, 2009 by

The Green Integer Blog has a nice review of Azorno by Inger Christensen (excerpted in our anthology), a very elaborate, playfully metafictional, but short novel. It starts with structure:

As in most of her writings, Inger Christensen's 1967 fiction Azorno, is a highly structured work. In this case, seven characters?Randi, Katarina, Louise, Xenia, Bathsheba (Bet), Sampel and Azorno?each of the women pregnant, are in the process of writing fictions. Each of their narratives?although one who be hard placed to describe any of them as having a plot?contains similar actions, phrases, and events.

Later on, the reviewer observes:
Christensen asks as many have before her--but in a highly original manner--what is reality, who of us is real? Several of her figures often have the feeling that somewhere there is a person who exactly at the same moment makes the same notes to be woven into a novel about him or herself.
It is only in the final section of this lyrical work that we sense we may have broken through to a seeming reality.



Like a knife through water

Posted on September 28, 2009 by

Here, translator Rika Lesser describes her first experience hearing Swedish poet Göran Sonnevi perform his work. Lesser's translation of Mozart's Third Brain by Sonnevi has just been published by Yale University Press. Sonnevi's work is also available in Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed, from the Center for the Art of Translation.)
It is now twenty-seven years since I first heard Göran Sonnevi read from his work at an event called Scandinavia Today, a program organized by the Academy of American Poets and the American-Scandinavian Foundation at the Guggenheim Museum, in which a panel of Nordic poets and American poet/translators spoke, and then the foreign poets read. I had been wedged between Finnish and Norwegian guests on the panel. Sonnevi, coming alphabetically last (by country), read last, from Robert Bly's just published The Economy Spinning Faster and Faster (1982), perhaps the final bilingual chapbook in Bill Zavatsky's SUN series, containing just ten poems. Back then, there was a glass booth above the Guggenheim auditorium, in which I was pacing, with the little book in hand, prepped for vetting.

Like many actors and opera singers, Sonnevi stammers when he speaks but not when he performs his poems before an audience. I did not know this. When I had spent a year in Sweden in 1974-75, I could not understand why his poems were all the rage. I have written that I considered them texts that trickled down page after page, hugging the left margin. . . . texts I regarded chiefly as tracts on linguistics, mathematics, politics—subjects about which I preferred to read in other forms.

What can I say? Hearing him read was a turning point in my life as a poet and translator. Sonnevi was born in 1939, I in 1953; we both still call these performances readings. He requires a freestanding microphone but no DJ. But somehow read is not the right word for what he does; neither is incant or intone. His voice is fluent and singing; there is intensity without drama or melodrama in it. For me the sensation of hearing him read that first time was sensual, nearly erotic. Like a knife . . . through water?

Göran Sonnevi and I spent the two days following the event taking long walks all around New York City, discussing Swedish and American poetry, poetics, talking chiefly about rhythm, its overriding importance in translation. We also talked quite a bit about our earlier training in the natural sciences, and our interest in music, especially piano (my training was classical, he played jazz). I did not really start translating his work until some time near the spring equinox of 1984; it would be nine years before A Child Is Not a Knife (1993), the first book-length edition of his poems in English came out in my translation from Princeton University Press. Part of the Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation, it is still available.




Recent Blog Posts


Inger Christensen in the Harvard Crimson

Posted on September 24, 2009 by

The Harvard Crimson, which hands it to most other papers in terms of covering literature-in-translation, offers a review of the intriguing novel Azorno by Inger Christensen, a perennial Nobel candidate until her death earlier this year:Whether Azorno is a novelesque prose poem, or a poetic novel wri... [more]

Günter Grass Gets Into Politics

Posted on September 22, 2009 by

As a writer, Günter Grass has never been averse to political matters, and The Times (London) is now reporting that he's upping his involvement in politics as a citizen, campaigning for the Social Democrats:Now, with the Social Democrats at risk of imploding in eastern Germany, Mr Grass is back on th... [more]

Natasha Wimmer on Forthcoming Bolano Books

Posted on September 21, 2009 by

We'll be doing two events with Natasha Wimmer on October 6 and 7. (Wimmer will also be editing an anthology of translated literature for the Center, due out next year.)In addition to reading from and discussing 2666, at these events Wimmer will be talking about some new Bolaño projects she cu... [more]

What Can Translation Do For Students?

Posted on September 17, 2009 by

(In addition to publishing the Two Lines series of literary anthologies and conducting events, the Center for the Art of Translation promotes literature and translation through an in-school program called Poetry Inside Out. Anita Sagástegui, Poetry Inside Out Instructor & Curriculum Specialis... [more]

On Discovering and Translating Christian Bobin

Posted on September 15, 2009 by

(Christian Bobin is a literary phenomenon in France, where his numerous short works can sell as many as 100,000 copies. His books are hard to categorize—Alison Anderson, his English language translator characterizes them as neither fact nor fiction, neither prose nor poetry, but a combination ... [more]

Events from the Center for the Art of Translation

Posted on September 14, 2009 by


Download the entire 2009-10 LIT&LUNCH schedule (PDF)June 9Basque's Leading Author, Bernardo Atxaga, in the East Bay — RSVP on Facebook!Presented by the Center for the Art of Translation at Mrs. Dalloway's2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705-2204 (College at Russell)Wednesday, June 9, 5:... [more]

Fady Joudah on Mahmoud Darwish

Posted on September 14, 2009 by

... [more]

Walking Around Pretending to Be Another Person: Susan Bernofsky on Yoko Tawada

Posted on September 10, 2009 by

(Translator Susan Bernofsky's newest translation is The Tanners by Robert Walser, published by New Directions. Here we discuss The Naked Eye by Yoko Tawada, published earlier this year, also by New Directions. An excerpt from The Naked Eye appears in Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed.)Scott Esposito: Yoko ... [more]

The Translator's Toolkit: One Dozen Tools for Organizing a Translation-in-Progress

Posted on September 9, 2009 by

(We're kicking off a new feature at Two Words that'll collect together a list of resources for translators: The Translator's Toolkit. Our first offering comes from Two Lines translator C.M. Mayo. In addition to translating for Two Lines, C.M. has done work for numerous journals and presses, as well ... [more]

The Huge 2666 Paperback

Posted on September 8, 2009 by

Those who have been holding out for a 1-volume, paperback edition of Roberto Bolaño's 2666 can now purchase just that from Picador. The book has just been released, totaling 912 pages and costing $18.00.Bay Area residents who have waited till now to give Bolaño's enormous opus a shot w... [more]

Tarek Eltayeb and Immigration from Egypt to Vienna

Posted on September 3, 2009 by

Yesterday, translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid discussed his work on Cities Without Palms by Sudanese writer Tarek Eltayeb. We're publishing an excerpt from Cities in our forthcoming anthology.Although Eltayeb is little-known in the U.S., he is a major author in other parts of the world. He has lived i... [more]

That Very Same Simplicity Would Lead to the Greatest Difficulties

Posted on September 2, 2009 by

(Here, Kareem James Abu-Zeid discusses his translation of Cities without Palms by Sudanese author Tarek Eltayeb. An excerpt from this book is available in Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed, where Abu-Zeid writes that Tarek's early experiences in Europe greatly inform his writing, much of which deals with ... [more]

TWO LINES World Writing in Translation Announces Guest Editors Natasha Wimmer and Jeffrey Yang

Posted on September 2, 2009 by

Return to our press roomDownload as PDFContact: Scott Esposito, Marketing CoordinatorEmail: sesposito@catranslation.orgTel: (415) 512-8812The seventeenth volume of the TWO LINES World Writing in Translation series—the premiere anthology of literature-in-translation from San Francisco's Center ... [more]

Press Room

Posted on September 2, 2009 by

If you are a member of the media, contact us for press passes to our events, information on our programs and Lit&Lunch reading series, to arrange interviews, and to be added to our press list.ContactMarketing CoordinatorScott EspositoCenter for the Art of Translation35 Stillman, Suite 201San Francis... [more]

TWO LINES World Writing in Translation Presents Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed

Posted on September 2, 2009 by

Return to our press roomDownload as PDFContact: Scott Esposito, Marketing CoordinatorEmail: sesposito@catranslation.orgTel: (415) 512-8812The stories and poems within TWO LINES open the reader up to a world that would otherwise be closed entirely, and to connect with that world is truly fortunate.&#... [more]

On (Not) Translating Catalan Literature

Posted on September 1, 2009 by

Lawrence Venuti's introduction to the special Catalan lit section in World Literature Today should be required reading for anyone concerned they're missing out on good literature that's not being translated.Unfortunately, WLT has put it online in a format that makes it impossible to quote from, so I... [more]