Translating the Untranslatable: Elfriede Jelinek in Translation

(Hearty congratulations to translator Aaron Sayne, whose translation of Elfriede Jelinek's "Ahörnchen und Behörnchen" appears as "Chip 'n Dale" in the most recent edition of the University of Iowa's journal of literary translation, Exchanges. In his translator's note, Aaron mentions my Emory lecture on translating Jelinek and cites this blog as his reference, but since … Continue reading Translating the Untranslatable: Elfriede Jelinek in Translation

Last Living Words: The Ingeborg Bachmann Reader

The catalyst for Last Living Words: The Ingeborg Bachmann Reader was Ingeborg Bachmann’s 1961 short story, “Undine geht,” which I translated into English under the title “Undine’s Valediction” in 1992/3. When I submitted the piece for publication to Trivia: A Journal of Ideas, the editors responded by saying: “We’ve never seen anything like this, but … Continue reading Last Living Words: The Ingeborg Bachmann Reader