In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means

Translations are a fixture in America's literary landscape, responsible for introducing writers whose work may have otherwise been unknown in this country. Editors Allen (languages and literature, Baruch Coll.; To Be Translated or Not To Be) and Susan Bernofsky (writing program, Columbia Univ.; Foreign Words) have assembled an anthology of essays written by translators on the task of translating. There are both well-known names (e.g., Haruki Murakami) and the lesser known (e.g., Jacopone da Todi, anyone?) representing the two sides of the translating equation—from this language into that language and vice versa. The two parts of the book, "The Translator in the World" and "The Translator at Work," address the necessity of literary translation as both a subject for theory studies and as practice in the craft of writing. Much as Edith Grossman's Why Translation Matters maintained the importance of translation as an expression of humanity, Allen and Bernofsky's compilation advocates for a "culture of translation" to strengthen the world's cultural pluralism.