Posted on February 4, 2010 by Scott Esposito

In this review of the new translation of The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, Hans Kundnani gets in-depth with some of the issues of translation Breon Mitchell encountered:

Equally significantly, Mitchell aims to convey the way the language of the original text mimics Oskar’s drum. In one case, Manheim simply left out an apparently incoherent series of words at the beginning of a chapter in which Oskar describes his ability to “zurücktrommeln”, or “drum up the past”. Mitchell restores these words, translated as “Built up, chopped down, wiped out, hauled back, dismembered, remembered”, which suggest the manipulation of memory and convey the percussive effect of the original text.

At our Breon Mitchell Lit&Lunch event, the translator himself discussed just this issue. You can hear the percussive effect itself in action by checking out our audio from the event, where Mitchell reads from the book.

Don’t miss your chance to hear even more translation goodies when Susan Bernofsky comes to town next week. RSVP now on our Facebook page.