Günter Eich (1907 – 1972):The Spanner in the Works

A review of Michael Hofmann's translations of Günter Eich's poems, Angina Days, by Axel Vieregg in the Berlin Review of Books

'Translating in the Dark'

“We must believe in poetry translation, if we want to believe in World Literature.” Thus Thomas Tranströmer, the Swedish poet and winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, quoted in a recent essay by Robert Robertson, one of his translators. Robertson goes on to describe the difficulties of capturing Tranströmer’s spare voice and masterful evocation of Swedish landscape in English, particularly if you don’t know Swedish well.

Tim Parks, in Translating in the Dark, in The New York Review of Books, addresses some of the issues around the translation of poetry.

2011: Year of the Translator

'The 400th anniversary celebrations for the King James Bible and the constant presence of Stieg Larsson in English bestseller lists have contributed to a new appreciation of the art of the good translation'

Robert McCrum, in the Guardian, reckons that 2011 might be the year of the translator