Alex Braslavsky and Catherine Fisher's lecture

 I would first like to say that as an aspiring translator, listening to Alex Braslavsky and Catherine Fisher's talk I felt hopeful that one can actually publish even if you are young and unknown, and I really appreciated that. In both their talks there were some shared ideals that I found very interesting. First of all, as other speakers have mentioned, I could see the relationship that was established between these translators and their authors. As Dennis Wuerthner mentioned in his talk, it looks like both Mansour and Ginczanka became part of Braslavsky and Fisher's families. There was a clear "translationship" established between them which changed the way both Braslavsky and Fisher produce their work now. I really like to see how translation can affect someone's life and work in such a profound manner.

I also really appreciated the non-competitive view between them and the other translators working on Mansour and Ginczanka. This contrasts with the relationship between translators we have seen in the past. Historically, translators undermine previous translations in order to make space for their own,  Braslavsky and Fisher, on the other hand, are appreciative of being part of the cohort of women translating their same authors. There has been collaboration between them, and most importantly, the other translations didn't hinder them from publishing their own. Moreover, it was evident that both of them were very knowledgeable about their author's life and work, and both felt a degree of identification towards them that allowed them to have clear readings of their poems and to stand by their interpretations. Finally, I really liked what Fisher said about translation being a way of writing with the added feature of having a big constraint – like a poet producing a sonnet. In this way, she established translation as writing :)

– Lia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yasmine Seale

 Armaan Arif 04/07/2024 Professor Vincent Yasmine Seale presented the work not as a mere book, but as a living tradition of storytelling. She highlighted that the number "1001" is not just literal but symbolic, inviting endless contributions to this story. Seale discussed the challenges and innovations of translating such a classic. She plans to employ long, flowing sentences that span the course of a night, mimicking the storytelling technique of Shahrazad, who uses tales to stave off her fate until dawn. This choice aims to capture the original's poetic flair and emotional depth. Moreover, Seale intends to incorporate various manuscripts in her translation to reflect the historical depth and varied interpretations of The Nights . This method contrasts with traditional translations that typically cite a single source, aiming to portray the text as an evolving entity rather than a fixed work. Yasmine Seale’s lecture was a great portrayal of her translating style and ...
Read more

Yasmine Seale's lecture

 As part of the MFA in literary translation, this semester we are taking a class titled: "A Thousand and One Nights: A Translator's Playground" where we have learned the rich and complicated history surrounding the translation of The Nights . In this context, to have had the opportunity to listen to Yasmine Seale, the newest translator of this work,  was absolutely wonderful. One of the things she mentioned which I really liked was that The Nights  resists being called "a book" as it's more a tradition of storytelling.  This is very fitting since, as we have learned in this class, The Nights  is a compendium of stories that grew throughout time until eventually reaching 1001. Seale mentioned that she might be interested in adding her own stories to this ever-growing tradition since the number 1001 is less of a concrete number and more of an invitation to infinity. I also found it very interesting how the lack of a clear original or an author has provided dif...
Read more

Report on Megan McDowell

  Megan McDowell’s “FAQs: Highly Subjective Answers to All Your Questions about Latin American Contemporary Translation” Lia Galván Megan McDowell – a translator from Latin American literature into English – gave a lecture on Friday, February 2nd, 2024 as part of Boston University’s Literary Translation Series. She was introduced by the series curator Professor Keith Vincent who mentioned her impressive resume. McDowell’s translations have been featured in magazines such as The New Yorker and have won several prizes such as t he National Book Award for Translated Literature, the English PEN award, and the Premio Valle-Inclán. In her lecture, “FAQs: Highly Subjective Answers to All Your Questions about Latin American Contemporary Translation” McDowell discussed the questions she has been asked the most during her translation journey and shared her ongoing reflections about the most appropriate way to answer them.  The first question that McDowell addressed was “How long does it...
Read more