Nepenthe

Working Together The 2009 theme for International Translation Day invites translators around the world to take a fresh look at why and how it pays to join forces. The days of the fiercely solitary translator working in splendid isolation are numbered, say many industry observers. Not that massive collectivization is in sight: in this language sensitive profession—or, more accurately, set of professions—a large share of added value remains intensely personal. But technology and changing markets have broken down barriers. Today translators from around the globe can plug into a truly worldwide conversation that casts new light on traditional ways of working—and creates new opportunities. Even as the arrival of more demanding clients, more complex projects and tighter deadlines underscores the  advantages of exchanging ideas, information and best practices. Consider: • Personal interaction between translation providers and buyers leads to better understanding of a text’s purpo...

So amazing that even the details are perfect: on his website , the pages of the lyrics book actually rustle when we move them :) Sigh*

Ishmael: Whaling’s cool. Queequeg: Tattoos are cool. Starbuck: Coffee’s cool. Ahab: Fools! Stop yer philosophizin' and help me fight this fish. Moby-Dick (rising from waves): Screw you, Pegleg! All: At last! Some action! Moby-Dick: [Crash! Chomp! Blow!] All: Aaargh! Ishmael (later, alone, clinging to wreckage): Whaling’s cool . . . TimesOnline This because that Kazakh filmmaker wants to remake Moby Dick, 'cause of special effects and all... Fine by me :)

An Introduction, by John Krasinski When I declared that I would “find myself” 1 in college, I had absolutely no idea what that would entail. I was a normal-ish kid from the suburbs of Boston: pretty straitlaced, optimistically unfocused, and feeling like I had won the lottery in going to a school that surely had made some mistake in admitting me. Nonetheless, I was determined to take this gift of an opportunity head-on, expanding my brain and my horizons—and all without the assistance of hallucinogenic drugs! This enthusiasm led to my first theater audition and, I’m happy to say, my first part—not exactly the one I tried out for but rather the role no one wanted. And so after being asked by the director if I was “sure,” 2 I entered the stage—as I did this new life’s journey—as a six-foot-three transvestite in Tennessee Williams’s Camino Real . My college experience maintained that special 3 trajectory throughout my four years.      High school, for ...

Short-stories published in The New Yorker: Clara (Aug, 4, 2008) Meeting with Enrique Lihn (Dec 22, 2008) Álvaro Rousselot's Journey (Nov 26, 2007) The Insufferable Gaúcho (Oct 1, 2007) None of these would be possible without Chris Andrews, translator, interviewed here: (summer 2007) As the translator of the first four books by Roberto Bolaño to appear in English, Australian Chris Andrews has played a key role in bringing one of the Spanish language’s major 20th-century voices to American readers. A member of the language department of the University of Melbourne, Andrews’s translation of Bolaño’s Distant Star won the Vallé-Inclan Prize in 2005. In addition to Bolaño, Andrews has translated novels by other Spanish-language writers, including César Aira. Andrews’s translation of Nazi Literature in the Americas , Bolaño’s first major novel in Spanish, will be published by New Directions in 2008. Scott Bryan Wilson: When I read Roberto Bolaño I never feel like or ...

 

The Visceral Realist By JAMES WOOD Over the last few years, Roberto Bolaño's reputation, in English at least, has been spreading in a quiet contagion; the loud arrival of a long novel, "The Savage Detectives," will ensure that few are now untouched. Until recently there was even something a little Masonic about the way Bolaño's name was passed along between readers in this country; I owe my awareness of him to a friend who excitedly lent me a now never-to-be-returned copy of Bolaño's extraordinary novella "By Night in Chile." This wonderfully strange Chilean imaginer, at once a grounded realist and a lyricist of the speculative, who died in 2003 at the age of 50, has been acknowledged for a few years now in the Spanish-speaking world as one of the greatest and most influential modern writers. Those without Spanish have had to rely on the loyal intermittence of translation, beginning with "By Night in Chile" (2003), two more short novels — ...

Following the Path of the Great Sage By JEN LIN-LIU QUFU, CHINA — Ever since my father began traveling to China several years ago, he had wanted to visit Qufu, a small, dusty town in the north of the country where Confucius was born. So when his most recent trip to China came just before the Great Sage’s 2560th birthday on Sept. 28, I assumed the role of a good Confucian daughter and accompanied him on a pilgrimage to honor the philosopher. Within easy reach of Beijing or Shanghai via new high-speed trains, Qufu has a laid-back vibe and its well-preserved culture stands in contrast to the frenetic pace and Western commercialism of China’s modern cities. During the Cultural Revolution, a period of political upheaval carried out by Chairman Mao Zedong between 1966 and 1976, the Great Sage’s ideas were denounced and his temples were destroyed. But those years are quickly fading from China’s collective memory. The sage’s descendents recently completed a new family tree — it hadn’t...

In December world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to try to reach a global deal to tackle climate change. To support the launch of the 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions, the [Guardian] Review asked some of our greatest artists, authors and poets to produce new work in response to the crisis. 1. In the first age, we created gods. We carved them out of wood; there was still such a thing as wood, then. We forged them from shining metals and painted them on temple walls. They were gods of many kinds, and goddesses as well. Sometimes they were cruel and drank our blood, but also they gave us rain and sunshine, favourable winds, good harvests, fertile animals, many children. A million birds flew over us then, a million fish swam in our seas. Our gods had horns on their heads, or moons, or sealy fins, or the beaks of eagles. We called them All-Knowing, we called them Shining One. We knew we were not orphans. We smelled the earth and rolled in it; its juices ran down our ...

Then again it's a review by Jonathan Lethem , and now I just have to read his work ;) (click this book cover to go to the Portuguese blog dedicated to it) The Departed In Philip K. Dick ’s 1953 short story “The Preserving Machine,” an impassioned inventor creates a device for “preserving” the canon of classical music — the sacred and, he fears, impermanent beauties of Schubert, Chopin, Beethoven and so forth — by feeding it into a device that transforms the compositions into living creatures: birds, beetles and animals resembling armadillos and porcupines. Outfitting the classic pieces in this manner, then setting them free, the inventor means to guarantee their persistence beyond the frailties of human commemoration, to give them a set of defenses adequate to their value. Alas, the musical-animals become disagreeable and violent, turn on one another and, when the inventor attempts to reverse-engineer his creations in order to prove that the music has survived, reveal themse...

Portugal is set to return the Socialist Government to power despite the country suffering one of the worst economic downturns in 20 years. As polls closed last night, José Sócrates, the Portuguese Prime Minister, looked likely to win the parliamentary elections but with the loss of the Socialists' absolute majority. With more than 98 per cent of the votes counted, the Socialists were on 38 per cent, against the 29 per cent for the opposition centre-right Socialist Democratic Party (PSD). Mr Sócrates's Government would be only the second socialist administration in Europe, after Norway, to be returned in the midst of the global economic recession. A minority Socialist government will have to form alliances with smaller parties such as the Left Bloc, a left-wing party, or the Communists to maintain power. With unemployment standing at 9.1 per cent — a 22-year high — many Portuguese appear to have to turned to left-wing parties, splitting the vote on the Left. ...