Translation

Pinsky on Translation

By Anastasia ⋅ February 16, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Robert Pinsky in his introduction to The Literary Review’s Fall 2006 translation issue writes:

Translation is the only art that is like writing. All of writing’s difficulties, obsessions, challenges, thrills, impulses and second thoughts apply—everything but what to say next. That free sample of content can make working on translation seem like heaven: an appealing illusion of supercharged ability that must be modified by the idea that all writing is translation, converting experience or emotion into language. At a certain point, when the goal is a work of art, the work of the translator and the work of composition are identical. All writing is translation; and conversely translation, after all, is writing.

The magazine is filled to the brims with great contemporary literature from around the world translated into English. I haven’t made it through the entire magazine yet, but it looks like a great volume to have around. Go read the whole thing.

*Besides being a former Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky has published a translation of Dante’s Inferno. In interests of full disclosure, I should also mention that he also teaches poetry at the Boston University creative writing program, where I am a student in fiction.