Danish translator Michael Favala Goldman(b. 1966) is also a poet, jazz clarinetist, gardener, and educator. Over 140 of Goldman’s translations and poems have appeared in dozens of journals such as the Harvard Review and the Columbia Journal. His translation of Dependency, by Tove Ditlevsen, is the third book in The Copenhagen Trilogy (Penguin Classics / FSG). His fifteen books include his own original poetry and works by Knud Sørensen, Cecil Bødker, Suzanne Brøgger, Benny Andersen, and others. He lives in western Massachusetts.
Browsing a Copenhagen airport bookstore, a translator picks up a book. The journey between that impulse and his eventual translation of the memoir into English was both emotional and serendipitou…